Stuck on Campus for Spring Break…? Here is What You Need to Know.

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Cherie

If you are one of those unlucky students who doesn’t get to go somewhere awesome for spring break (which is almost all freshman) don’t fear I’ve got you covered with everything you need to cure the Spring Break Blues.

It may seem pretty sucky that you have nowhere to go, most likely because you have no cash to do so but, I urge you to please take advantage of your situation. Spring Break is a great time to relax and catch up on those z’s or any homework that needs doing.

I am writing this because, well, I’m currently stuck on campus…so below you can find some great tips and tricks for surviving your Spring Break, the Engineers way!!!

Buy Top Ramen its 20 cents at Walmart.
Stuff to make coffee, it’s cheaper and healthier than energy drinks, although those can be more fun.
Find someone with Netflix and split a month’s cost with them so you can watch whatever you want to pass the time.
Car pool around town and see the sites, bicycling is also great, Prescott is a beautiful place to cruise around in the sun.
Study outside and enjoy the quiet, it’s very relaxing.
Do some homework and review topics that you have trouble with. This is extremely helpful as finals are coming up!!!
Sleep in, but not too much!!
Fill a box of salad items from the dining hall, if you cook these up in a creative fashion and add some rice or pasta (which you can also get from the dining hall) you have a healthy meal to eat comfortably in your room rather than in an awkwardly empty dining hall.
Hang out with new people, there are all kinds of people on campus so meet some more cool ones!!!!
Be like the guys next door and build a massive birthday paddle……weird I know…..
Do your laundry ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!!
Clean your dorm, everyone needs a thorough Spring cleaning.
Ask family to come visit.
Get to know your campus more by exploring new areas.
Apply for summer jobs and research ones that you want after college.
Have a good time!!!!!

Air Force ROTC at Embry Riddle Prescott

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Cherie

Tadah! I’m here again and my new topic is Air Force ROTC at Riddle. As I’ve mentioned before I am a freshman cadet on the Prescott campus and I am loving my experience in the Air Force and in college so far. I just thought it would be nice to give you an insiders look at what a week as a GMC (General Military Cadet) is like.

The first thing you need to know is how the Cadet Wing works, there are POC (Professional Officer Candidates) and GMC. The GMC are the lower class and are typically freshman and sophomores in college while the POC are juniors and seniors who have already gone through field training and are simply waiting for life as an officer in the Air Force to begin.The POC must be saluted by the GMC as they are the people running the cadet wing and training us to be officers. Even more important above the POC is the cadre, these guys are awesome!! They teach everyone to be an officer and they make sure we get all our things done on time.

POC Cadets selected to be future pilots in the Air Force

The average week for a GMC cadet is as follows: Tuesday: get up and go to PT. Wednesday: go to Leadership Laboratory where you learn to be a leader and get amazing opportunities to meet people and get involved in the community. Thursday: get up and go to PT. And at some point during the week you might have a flight drill and ceremonies practice, extra PT or a meeting about a flight goal that you want to accomplish. Additionally, you must attend an Air Force class to learn about the Air Force and explore what a career in the military means to you. Its pretty simple and exceedingly fun/rewarding.

There are also AFROTC groups you can be apart of if you wish to get more involved or to become a better cadet. Some of these are Honor Corps, with the 3 teams which are described in my blog entitled “SCIDM- Honor Corps”, Arnold Air Society (these guys are cool), and Silver Wings (an affiliate of Arnold Air Society). All of these groups teach discipline and perfection; so if you are looking to succeed in AFROTC then joining one of these groups would be great for you!

One final note that I must point out is that I urge you if you are even moderately interested in the Air Force, please try out AFROTC if you get the chance. Dive in and give it your all, you may discover yourself living a dream that you had never imagined you would hold.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!!

SCIDM- Honor Corps

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Cherie

Hey there I just got back from a cool competition that Air Force ROTC Honor Corps does every year and I just thought I’d tell you a little about it. First off though I’ve got to tell you about the teams in Honor Corps, there are three: Honor Guard, Rifle Drill, and Sabre drill.

I am a member of the Honor Guard and we basically post and retrieve flags as well as doing other events for football games and flag retiring. Honor Guard has the most variety of all the teams and it is also the one that pay most attention to detail, if you plan on being in Air Force ROTC and you want your uniform to be perfect then please join Honor Guard!! Guard is a lot of work between uniforms and performances but it is very rewarding as all we do honors those who came before us in all branches of the military. For example, each year Guard performs a 24 hour vigil for veteran’s day along with the two other teams. Vigil takes a lot of training, time, and dedication but, it is an entirely rewarding experience as it allows you to experience a fraction of the sacrifice that our veteran’s experienced while serving our country.

The Rifle drill team spins (and occasionally breaks) rifles in variations of four to ten man performances. Rifle team is definitely the more rambunctious of the groups in Honor Corps, but they put on an incredible performance which personally I could never do. They of course, also help with vigil and perform at SCIDM every year. If you get the chance to come by Riddle one of these days you can see rifle and the other teams practicing in the lower fields. Practices are exceedingly interesting to watch and we invite you to stop by and check out the teams. You might be lucky enough and get to learn a few moves with the rifle (it’s a fake one by the way so no worries). If you enjoy it then we definitely encourage you to join one of the teams.

Sabre team is the last team, they are the smallest of all the teams in Honor Corps but, they are pretty epic too. I honestly don’t think I could toss a sharpened sabre around all day and hope that my partner catches it properly. It takes a lot of courage and skill to do something like that in my opinion. Despite how dangerous it sounds almost no one ever gets injured so don’t fear grab a sabre and try it out, they are a lot lighter than the rifles that Rifle and Guard have to carry so if you don’t want to be holding a lot of weight Sabre is perfect for you!! Their performances are also quite impressive, and they performed incredibly at SCIDM.

That’s all I’ve got for now but if you want to see some of our performances please feel free to look at the links below!!

Ten man Rifle Drill Team at SCIDM

Honor Guard Recruitment Video

Sabre Team