Innocence

Despite living and breathing all things pilot training for the last year, our lives have continued to progress in other arenas as well. We’ve all celebrated birthdays, gotten haircuts, had the flu…normal stuff. Today, however, was a big milestone in the life of our family: the first day of kindergarten.

These days, it seems that the beginning of school is routinely associated with a certain loss of innocence; parents are no longer the most influential people in a child’s life and friends take on a much greater significance. As a teacher (on hiatus), I’ve witnessed firsthand the “mature” experiences of today’s child and the rapid progression from baby to teenager – kids seem to be in such a hurry to grow up. I’ll never forget the day one of my sixth grade students asked me what brand of mascara I use.

This short-lived childhood and the inevitable loss of control (someone else is responsible for keeping my kid safe during the day) are the things that scare me the most as a mother. But, as I looked into the eager (and slightly scared) eyes of my little girl this morning, I knew she was ready, even if I was not. The rational side of me knows that this is the turning point not where I lose my little girl, but where the foundation that C and I have laid for her is put to the test.

The Tortoise and the Hare

Blood is pumping a little faster; nerves are jumpy; palms are getting sweaty. Yes folks, we are officially 72 days away from graduation. While this may seem like quite a few days, for those of us who have been at this for almost a year, it’s more like the blink of an eye.  At this point, C has remaining 2 checkrides (one next week), 17 flights, and 1 sim.

So, what happens next?

Coming up in less than 8 weeks is the night that most of our active duty pals await even more than graduation: Assignment Night. This is the event where each student finds out their first assignment – aircraft and location. Some people say that first assignment makes or breaks a career; others say it’s simply the first step in a long journey. Either way, it’s a pretty exciting deal. Personally, it’s a little anticlimactic for us (much like track select), since we already have our assignment, but we are thrilled to discover the fates of the rest of our UPT family.

Two weeks later, the real celebrating begins during the graduation festivities – concluding with the much-anticipated pinning of the wings.

But wait! The voyage doesn’t stop there. After graduation, our journey continues almost immediately. Before returning to our home base, C will attend three follow-on trainings. As we have just received our dates, we learned the C will leave for SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape – Combat Survival Training) and Water Survival five days after graduation. During these, he will learn survival techniques in a classroom setting and then actually survive in the wilderness.  Upon his return, he immediately leaves for Pilot Initial Qualification training. Another training? Basically, pilot training works like this: First, they teach you how to fly a plane (the Air Force way); then, they teach you how to fly a plane similar to your assignment; and finally, they teach you how to fly your actual designated plane. The upside is that C will only be about three hours away for the 4-6 months of PIQ.

It all seems like such a whirlwind. Here at UPT, we all seem to be trapped in a dichotomy of time: while some days/weeks/months seem to crawl by, it’s hard to fathom that a whole year has gone by since we began this process. It’s coming to an end, and yet, it’s not.