California trip # 1

Well, Here we go.  Last week we went to Southern California for the Southern California Invitation Drill Meet (SCIDM) with the Air force ROTC.  It was a blast.  Amanda came with us, which made it much better.  We drove one of those grey hound busses with the T.V.'s to Vegas the first day.  We stopped at Nellis Air Force Base in vegas and saw the thunder birds (Air force equivalent of the blue angels).  We got to meet their crew, but not the pilots themselves.  But they put on a little show for us.  They did all their pre-flight stuff which is a show in and of itself, then they took off in diamond formation and went straight into a loop over the runway.  It was awesome.  Then they did a fly over.  Unfortunately thats all we got to see because they went and practiced somewhere over the desert.

This picture is Amanda and I standing out on the flight line in from of the thunder bird jets.  

They fly F-16's.

This is a picture of them taking off.  There are about 9 planes in all, but only 6 planes fly and do all the stunts at one time.  The others do publicity stuff like going to air shows early and fly the mayor around, etc.  The man standing there is one of the enlisted crew members.

In the Thunder Bird hangar there is a huge American flag.  So being in the color guard, we decided it would make a cool picture to get the member of the BYU AFROTC color guard in front of it.  I have become pretty close to mainly the guys on the front row.  We spent a lot of time together practicing for this trip.

After we saw the Thunder Birds we went to what is affectionately known as "the petting zoo."  It is there on the Base.  It is a museum compiled of a bunch of confiscated russian military equipment they acquired during the cold war.  It was pretty cool.  They had Planes, helicopters, guns, tanks, missiles, etc.  Above is a pic of me sitting in the cockpit of a Mig-29.

Amanda got the itch to blow something up with a grenade launcher, and who wouldn't?  I mean, look at that thing.  It was pretty heavy, and she had a bit of trouble getting it up on her shoulder, but she managed.

This is Amanda and I sitting in the cockpit of one of the russian helicopters.  I can't remember the name of it, but it was one that could land on water or land.  It would float like a boat, and could shoot torpedos.  

This is us sitting on top of the helicopter we were just sitting in.

Part of the festivities of SCIDM is the inspection.  The drill team gets inspected by Marine drill sergeants.  It was pretty funny to watch.  These Marines would scream at the top of their lungs at the cadets to get them flustered, etc.  This is a picture of my friend Josh getting yelled at.

Here is the color guard at the Anaheim Angels stadium parking lot (that is where the competition took place).  Those of us in blue were the ones who competed.  That particular uniform is called Service Dress.  The camo is Called Battle Dress Uniform.  But we recently got new camo (you can see me wearing it in the pictures above) called Air Battle Uniforms (ABU's).

Here is a picture of me getting ready to go compete.  I thought we did a really good job.  Probably the best we have ever done.  Unfortunately we didn't win though.  BYU got 2nd place overall, right behind the Air Force Academy.  It was a really fun trip.