October 5, 2010

Tuesday 5~~~~~ Today we are off to the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There are three Olympic training centers in the United States, we have gone to the one near Chula Vista, California and now the one in Colorado, there is also one in New York. The training center in Colorado is the training center for winter sports, swimming, shooting, weight lifting and gymnastics. It is not as large as the California training center with less athletes living in the dorms.There were quite a few athletes working out in the pool, weight lifting and in the shooting galley. The shooters, practice 4 hours a day. The score card they shoot at are computerized and they can see instantly how much off a shot is, they don't have to read the pieces of paper. The tread mills the athletes exercise on special, made with some sort of compressed air bags that cover their legs to keep them from blowing out their knees and having knee injuries. We didn't quite understand how it worked.
After lunch we visited the "United States Air Force Academy," it is also in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Air Force Academy is one of the most selective colleges in America.We toured the Visitor Center where we viewed a patriotic movie about the young, promising, heroic cadet candidates and how they are transformed into the Air Force's bright future leaders. There is a large museum that has all the graduating pictures of the very first cadets to the current and pictures of them in training. There are 4000 students in the Air Force Academy, they are the best of the best!!! The scholarship that every cadet receives upon accepting a appointment is worth a little more than $403,000. This includes the costs required for monthly pay, tuition, books, room and board, food, summer programs, flying programs, dorm cleaning services and operation and management of all the cadet area facilities. I am writing interesting articles from the book Kent picked up ( the 2010 Academy catalog) with all the information for someone wanting to join the Academy. Another interesting thing I read was: To be eligible to enter the Academy you must be: a US citizen (international students authorized admission are exempt from the US citizenship requirement)---unmarried with no dependents---of good moral character and the last one: at least 17 , but less that 23 years of age by July 1st of the year you would enter. Applying students (and current cadets) who have a child (maternity or paternity) must provide a court order stating they have NO parental rights to the child whatsoever__ this is different than just giving family members a power of attorney or temporary custody. The court order must indicate total and complete relinquishment of parental rights for several reasons. All cadets are required to live in the dorms all four years: your stipend is not enough to provide for the needs of a child (it is plenty to provide for your needs) and the cadet lifestyle is a demanding one, and your attention will need to be focused on your tasks at hand___not your child. Cadets at the Air Force Academy are currently entitled to basic pay of $929.40 per month and yes they do pay income taxes. The Academy was very busy with the cadets all over the place going from class to class. They have a place of worship for all the religions of the cadets. We visited with a cute little female cadet who was in her second year as she was headed to a soccer game she was playing in. She told us her school schedule and the hours she is carrying each quarter and we were impress with all they have to do. To graduate they must excel in academics as well as athletics and be of outstanding moral character. There is no goofing off at this Academy!!