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Air Assault, August 2000 As seen by the eyes of the editor and his wife: The following is a brief montage of pictures which I hope provide you with a sense of the accomplishments during the last Air Assault training held at Camp Smith. At least two of the cadets graduating from the course were from our club. We arrived at Camp Smith about 1 pm on Thursday, August 10th. We wanted an opportunity to see the actual rappelling which was the culmination of a couple of weeks of tough training. With the large number in the class, the group was broken into three squads with two of the squads on the main parade area and the third was in one of the adjoining fields about a half mile away. Of course that was the field where our son was. We were lucky. One of the cadets knew us and ran over and told Lynn that Matt was at the other site. So our rappelling shots are from that location. (To see a larger image, just double click on the picture.)
Cadets boarding for rappel. See the cadets on the chopper?
After the completion of the rappelling, all squads returned to the main parade area for dinner and advice from the instructors about their last task before graduation. A 12 mile march with a full ruck and rifle. The ruck weighed about 30 pounds. The march began at 5 am on Friday morning and was to be completed in 3 hours. It was grueling. I heard several cadets comment that it was worse than Beast.
Matt Chase '02 and squad mates after the run.
Brett Farmer '01 (center of picture) son of Ken & Kathy Farmer from Ashburn, VA relaxes after the march. After the march, graduation ceremonies were held for the 181 who had successfully completed the course conducted by the 10th Mountain. Included in the graduating group were Army officers and enlisted men, ROTC cadets, seven soldiers from the French Army and a whole bunch of young men and women from WP. BG Olson, Commandant of West Point addressed the graduating class. A number of other proud parents joined us at graduation.
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