If you’re in the wing, come on out on the 19th of April to have some fun. It’s AFJROTC free day! Cadets get to go outside all day and just have fun. At this event, there will be a tug of war, pull arms, push up challenge, and even a helicopter that comes out so we can take pictures with it or of it. Lunch is provided for cadets, as well the Kona Ice truck. Everyone gets 1 free cup of snow cone of ice, but after your first free cup you have to pay. These physical activities are also not mandatory for you to attend; you can come and just hangout and have fun with your friends in the program. Another exciting activity that’s happening that day is each flight has chosen their “kids” and someone to command the kids in that flight for our top flight drill off. This activity has many of the kids who are in drill excited. Going to this event includes so many things like memories. The only thing, though, is once your outside you cannot come back inside the building for anything. That rule is not only for safety, but also to keep all the kids in a specific area, and out of trouble.

At the beginning of second period on April 19th, 2024 all cadets in FDHS AFJROTC program who wanted to participate on Wing Down Day came out to the football field bleachers by the track. There were so many activities they had for us. The first half of the events were the relay between a boy picked from each flight and a girl picked from each flight. They ran around the track once, but also stopped for the exercise obstacles they had to do to continue the relay. Then, each flight had to pick boys and girls to play dodgeball as a group against another group which was really fun. Next, was the trolley race, where we all stood on a block that had ropes attached to it that you hold in your hands and lift up one foot and block to move. The final activity of the first half was the drill off. The drill off is  where all flights selected people to drill and the top best class who drilled wins the drill off.  These first half of the activity awards were given out to the people who won the races. Upperclassman and underclassman flights participated in the first half activities.

The next part of our field day includes the rest of the activities. The activities for the second half was more fun activities. You didn’t have to this with your flight, you could’ve done them with friends. Any of the activities could be performed with your friends as well. We had tug of war, and this stick fighting game which was very fun. In the stick fighting game, we wore helmets and body padding to protect us from the hits. Every hit to the body, or head hits if you did it, was a point and you had to get 3 points before the game ended. The next best activity was we had lunch. We had Pizza, Oreos, peanut butter cookies, chips, Honey Buns, water, and Gatorade. Kona Ice was also provided for us and we got one free small cone of ice for the whole program that came, which cooled us off. Because it’s so hot, we often throw water on each other for fun, to help cool us down. The last best activity was the water bucket challenge, where each flight in the certain squadron had to pass the water without spilling it, and at the end, you could dump the water on you flight commander or anyone in your flight. And at the very end, some people got covered with whipped cream. All of the flight commanders did, and it was fun to do and see. We even had a surprise where the U.S. Coast Guard came out with the helicopter! 

Cadet Cox’s favorite activity was, “dodgeball.” According to Sergeant Benet,  his favorite activity was, “Eating! And that’s because we had grilled chicken.” Cadet Scott Dixion said, “Drill was my favorite activity for the day.” Cadet Davis said, she felt, “hot but excited about the day,” and since the weather was hot, she threw water on friends hoping that cooled them off but also as a game. Cadet Bates said, “The best thing was lunch! My favorite type of pizza that was served for us was pepperoni.”  Cadet Berger said, “I loved commanding the 30 step for the drill off, but I was a little stressed and nervous as well.”

At the end of the day, this was the best activity out of AFJROTC. It was really hot from the sun, but the people and the environment made you forget all about the heat. Because of it being hot as well, cadets got to wear their activity shirt, and any type of pants, with sneakers but you could’ve brought slides to change into. After all the water, you also would’ve needed a change of clothes clothes, but if you didn’t have any, at least you were cooled off or already dried from the heat. I hope next year newcomers to the program come and enjoy that one day because it was really special and fun.