One of our T37 FAIPs smashed his champagne bottle on the floor as he left the stage and stormed out of the O Club. Another one's wife threw her wedding ring at him and left. Another T37 FAIP was at the bar afterwards, head down on the bar, crying uncontrollably. I came up on his left side to try to console him (and to order another beer).

He tells me to go to hell, you get to leave here, you phucking Guard Guy!

As I'm about to leave with my beer, the BASE COMMANDER comes up on his right side, puts his arm around him and says, "Don't worry son, it'll be alright..." and before I can stop him, he lifts his head, turns towards the new voice (unknown to him, it's his new boss) and screams through his tears, "PHUCK YOU!"

I quickly left the scene!

 

Great book

 

I had two roommates, great guys, and we all got our first choice. We had an "after party" at our place after the O Club party. Eventually, one of my roommates drove his motorcycle up the stairs in our rental home. The other, punched out the window in our living room and we had to take him to the ER.

Thats a frikkin drop night!

 

Speaking for civilians, we aren't sure we get the significance of the drunken Air Force rituals, or swearing at superior officers; WGAF? We had frat brothers who were out of control, but that is because they weren't getting laid and had nothing better to do.

We installed bunks to prevent drunk driving. These bunks were on a hall to the women's restroom. One night I escorted a date and observed every bunk getting put to good use ... simultaneously ... which was impressive given that Tech had like three girls who attended when I did. We had to brown bag it.

I think the song went "I'm an anxious twat from Agnes Scott and I want to marry an engineer ...."

My other recall was she and I were going at it and a rather fat brother popped his head up and stated, "she's beautiful, the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." She ended up marrying a SWA pilot. Hope I turned her on to the whole aviation thing.

 

Guys have been busting their asses, under high stress, for a year plus. It all comes down to assignment drop. One night, a couple of seconds on stage, and your future career could be decided right then and there. That's why it's a big deal.

 

Pre drop - a couple of mugs of Bloody Mary's and a couple of beers. Double shot of Tequila on stage. About face and full knee lock trying not to fall over.

New Wing CC. Drop party in the o'club. He's a non drinker. He drops by in civvies and steps into the men's room. It's trashed (doesn't happen...). Asks a 2Lt friend, who's also in civvies - "how about cleaning up in here?"(Wing CC looks like a civilian contractor with his down vest). Friend - "and who are YOU?!?" Wing CC - I'm Colonel Ellis (Jeffery T.??). Buddy - "I'm cleaning it up"

Talking the next day with senior student. Said Col. Ellis say down with me and Xxx Xxxx to talk. Class leader says "hopefully you did the talking." Me? I was too drunk to talk. Class leader - "Oh no! Xxxx was in worse shape. He was putting his head through the drywall". They kept expecting him to hit a stud and knock himself out. He got the base and jet he wanted.

Col Ellis kept turning the keg off. He'd leave the room and guys would turn it back on. Supposedly happened a couple of times. It didn't go over well. IP's told me the following drops were a lot quieter.

 

Our celebration was actually a Toga Party (circa 1980 so Animal House was still an influence). Pre-party prior to going to the club. Toga parade while wheeling a keg into the O club and parked it right in the middle of the class. Assignments were taped to the bottom of a full "Class Mug" of beer. Chug the beer while everyone else could read the assignment until you got to the bottom of the mug and turned it over on your head. At the same time a large slide of your aircraft was projected on a large screen behind you. Then you read what you got. The expressions were priceless as were the comments from the peanut gallery while they saw the drop before you finished the mug. Post party/parties went well onto the next day. Commanders were all on board and right in the middle of the fray. Too drunk to drive...sky cops would give you a ride vice busting your balls. Good times before the PC police infested the ranks.

 

The quieter nights were in vogue for a while.......including mine

I wasn't at Ellis' wing, but I did know his son at Randolph back in the day........a good guy.

When I got my T-37 to Willie, I actually turned the card over to check the name and see if they had given me the wrong card. NO ONE had talked to me about it (the usual thing) After I got off the stage, still looking shell shocked I'm sure, all the tweet guys came running over saying "we didn't thing you'd mind since your from the local area". But, what was really bad is when I called my parents and told them what I got, and my mom said "praise the lord, we were praying for that" (parents were still in the PHX area). I said thanks mom, I guess this is your fault

Ferd

 

Guys can be in UPT, and gone, in about a week. There's no option of just paying more money, either you learn on their timeline, that has a couple of minor ways to get additional help, or you'rer gone.

Guys would go into the 'pass or be gone' flight '89' flight) with somewhere between 0-4 hrs of sleep. They knew EVERYTHING depended upon their performance that day. Hard to sleep with that pressure.

Watching them step to the jet was sometimes like a death march, no one knew if they'd be back. Often times they'd didn't.

Shoot, guys would barely sleep before checkrides sometimes. Failing one was also stepping on the treadmill that could wash you out of UPT in a matter of days.

 

Haha! This thread is making my week.