Air Force Academy; buildings and athletic fields

The Air Force Academy lies on 18, 500 acres, nestled in the Colorado Mountains near Colorado Springs. The average elevation is 7000 feet. This site was chosen out of 580 proposed ones. The construction began in 1955. At first, the Academy was temporary set in Denver. In 1958, 1145 cadets moved to the present site and the Academy was credited a year later. The first 207 cadets graduated in 1959.

Nowadays, there are 4000 students attending the Academy.  About 900 graduate each year. Women entered the Air Force Academy for the first time in 1976. The first class with women graduated in May 1980. They comprise about 21% of the students.

Cadets can major in 32 different subjects. They graduate as Second Lieutenants with a Bachelor of Science degree.

One of the most distinctive feature of the AFA is the cadet Chapel. Soaring 150 feet towards the sky, the Chapel is an all-faiths house of worship designed to meet the spiritual needs of cadets. It contains a separate chapel for four major religious faiths; Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist, plus an all-faiths room used by Muslims cadets and available for other faiths as well. Each chapel has its own entrance.

The Cadet Chapel

The structure is made of glass and aluminium and features 17 spires. There is no special significance to this number. Inside, the stained glass and amber windows cast a soft light.

Inside the Protestant Chapel

Sun setting behind the mountains, viewed through a stained glass window

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the other chapels.  All I can say is that the cadets attending the Academy are very fortunate.  The beauty of the site, the small classes and all the extra-curricular activities available  make this place very special indeed.

After many trials and tribulations, some of them quite costly, we finally made it to Dallas.  Our friends David, Lana, Duane, Dona, Ron and Sandy happened to be in Dallas also.

That’s where our travel mascot “Chubby Chicken” met David and Lana’s mascot “The Egg”

The chicken and the egg....

We saw Ron and Sandy the first night, but Ron had one of his wisdom tooth pulled and he was not feeling too good.  We went to dinner with David and Lana.

The next day, David and Lana took us downtown Dallas to visit the Sixth Floor Museum, about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The museum is in the building (which used to be a book warehouse) where supposedly Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shot that killed J.F.K.  Strangely, as soon as I walked in the museum, a man who says he used to work at the warehouse and was there the day it happened, started telling me about the events.  He seemed agitated and mentioned that he saw the actual killer getting out of his car, wearing overalls and carrying a rifle, but it was not Oswald.  He said no one ever asked him any questions about the event, in fact, no one ever asked any of his fellow employees any questions.  He was quite set on getting his point across.  When I told him there was no proof of what he was saying, he left,   upset.

The exhibit is well done and very informative, I had very little recollection of the event, apart from what I saw on TV once in a while, since it happened when I was only 6 years old.  While visiting the museum, I started to really understand the feelings of total shock, and extreme sadness this event brought the people of the time.

This is the 6th floor window from which Oswald shot JFK

It is pretty hard to believe that the fatal shot was fired from this 6th floor window, the angle seems all wrong.  Either Oswald was an excellent sniper, (according to his military record he was average)  or there was someone else shooting from somewhere else…  oh well… after visiting this museum,   I am starting to believe the conspiracy theories…. maybe, just maybe, that man was right.

After the  museum and a nice lunch, David and Lana took us to the Fort Worth Stockyards where we met with Duane and Dona.  We had a very good time there.  This was the end of the line for many cows back in the days or free range and cattle drives.  The whole area is very similar to what it was back then.

Forth worth Stockyards

We witnessed the daily cattle drive.  They don’t call these cows “Long Horn” for nothing!  How about a 6 feet horn span!

Long Horn Cattle Drive

We then went shopping for a little while and ended up in a bar for a drink.

Chubby Chicken didn’t have a beer but he met a very nice cowboy who graciously allowed him to  pose for a picture.

The chicken and the cowboy

David, Lana, Doug, me, Dona, Duane

How about some Buffalo Butt Beer huh? anyone?

We then had a nice steak dinner (you could cut the meat with a fork) and ended the day in the biggest Honky Tonk in Texas; Billy Bobs.  On top of having live country music performance, they also have their own bull riding ring.

Billy Bobs Honky Tonk

We sure had a great time!