Air Force Academy

Aug. 30, 2010

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As part of the unique experience of attending the Air Force Academy, cadets often spend their summers working in some of the most beautiful and interesting places in the world. During the summer of 2010, senior Candice Chase had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii, to complete Operation Air Force at Hickam AFB. Here, Chase shares some of the highlights of her experience:

This summer, I was lucky enough to be sent to Hickam AFB on the beautiful island of Oahu in Hawaii to learn what the operations of a real Air Force base entail. I was part of 10 randomly chosen cadets sent there. Because I was the only senior in the group, I was the Cadet in Charge, and responsible for the nine other cadets with me. We actually stayed on the Navy side of the base, Pearl Harbor, and would make a quick trip to the Hickam side every day. We would work from about eight in the morning until about two in the afternoon. During the whole trip, everything was paid for, and we had our own van to travel the island in. I know what you're thinking--it's a tough job working in paradise, but you know, someone has to do it!

Every day my group visited a different squadron. This allowed us to get a broad look at what happens at each of them. We visited the Medical squadron, Civil Engineering, the Bomb squadron, the C-17 squadron (the plane that the base is primarily used for), Aircraft Maintenance, Security Forces and the Communications squadron. Some were more interesting than others. We also participated in a Wing-wide run they do every month, morning physical training sessions and meetings with some of the top generals in the Air Force.

It wasn't all work, however, and every day when we were done with work, we went to various beaches on the island. Our goal was to go to a different beach every day. It was tough, but we made it happen. Our weekends were also free, so those awesome days felt like a paid vacation.

Highlights:
Hawaii!! - Like I said before, every day we went to a different beach. We also hiked to a water fall in the mountains, which many of our boys jumped off. We also went cliff jumping, surfing, wind surfing, and with many hours lying on the beach, many of us got some pretty good burns. We watched a sunset at the famous North Shore, which everyone should do once in their life. We also went to a luau, the Dole pineapple factory, a weekly flea market to pick up all of our souvenirs and walked around downtown, going into stores like Coach, Burberry and even a Ferrari store. We ate at many of the famous restaurants as well. Many of my friends ended up in Hawaii at the same time (I was there), and it was great to hang out with them in such an amazing place.

On the Job - On the first day, we had a private tour of Pearl Harbor, which was very moving. At the Civil Engineering squadron, we drove bulldozers, made things out of metal and saw the bomb squad's equipment, including the small robot that detonates bombs, and their huge bomb suit. Since the base holds C-17s, we got to fly a simulator of it and were given many tours of this huge aircraft. At the Security Forces squadron, we learned how to beat people up with a baton and saw how they train their dogs. All of us got to experience the power these dogs have by getting attacked by one of them (with protection, of course). We were also lucky enough to get a ride in a general's private jet to fly around to all of the islands.