My AFJROTC corps went for a 3-day cruise. This is ...

My AFJROTC corps went for a 3-day cruise. This is a compiled review of our thoughts.

Chiefs/Supervisors (instructors provided by the NFA): they were moody at times being rude and sarcastic (banging on our doors to wake us up and generally yelling when we didn t do anything). Other times they were amazing and actually helped us learn. Disclaimer: they did tell us that the last 2 months had been only bratty children

Here s the good chiefs to get: Clue, Bethany, Tater, Houdini, princess, lurch (but strict)

Here s the bad chiefs: turtle, wavy, sassy

Staff: the food was good, sweet and helpful, food choices were considered, seconds were offered, the building was very clean, the bathrooms were good, just generally selfless people trying to make our time there better, you WILL have cheese every meal

Agenda/Itinerary: When we first got there they had us in the lounge room for 2 hours doing nothing, tried to enforce rules but didn t stick to them, changed the times often, we had too much free time and the only thing to do in the lounge room is sit or play ping pong, if we were running out of time the chiefs would just leave the activity incomplete and wouldn t help us, not enough structure so we were confused a lot, DO NOT TALK IN THE LADDER WELLS (you will get yelled at and they will make you walk down and back up)

Staterooms/What to bring: they don t have showers you have to walk down the hallway to a shower room with 4 showers, the towels are not big enough or soft enough (bring your own!!), around 3am it was super cold but otherwise it wasn t okay, bring a watch if you want to keep track of time, bring your own blanket or wear long johns when you sleep because they only give you a hospital blanket, bring chapstick for sure, bring a water bottle so you don t dehydrate like us and a bag of you if you don t want stuff in your pockets constantly, bring your own pencils/pens because they only give you jone, make sure that you bring like a book or cards so you can do something other than talk during free time, don t bring too much clothing because they provide a squadron t-shirt which we wore for 2/3 days, don t forget a bag for dirty Landry bc no one wants to smell dirty clothes, bring money (one guy spent $140 on memorabilia)

Classes/Activities: make sure you pay attention to every single class that s about the Triad- X12B, you really need to know everything about how to fly it so take notes in the back of your book, read your book as often, some chairs have a movable desk so don t slam it because you will get yelled at, pay attention and ask questions, always wear your lanyard (it gets you into your hallway and room)

Hygiene: learn to shower fast, bring small bottles of shampoo and all that, it is a race to the showers so when you get released from debrief run, bring lshower shoes for sure, bring your own towel, put on deodorant

The simulators: they each work a little different so when you change it will take adjusting, learn to hover early on when the missions are just practice, always let your copilot have a shot because sometimes they re surprisingly good at it, make sure the copilot is looking at the notes for the deployment, the copilot needs to tell the pilot where to head, how far they are, they need to put the gear and tail hook down, so don t get distracted

The JOC(communications): always think before you speak and don t repeat if you don t have to, make your communications short and sweet, don t yell at the pilot, always double check the hearing you give them before telling it to them, do not get distracted (stay on top of where they are at), make sure your headset is muted if you are not talking, do not talk over other people on comms

Museum: there isn t a lot of time so don t plan on everyone doing the museum s simulators (they do cost money), there is a gift shop but it s very expensive

Graduation: it s boring, there might be a guest speaker (ours was pretty cool),they say your callsign so everyone will remember your bad name, there s also a lot of pictures taken, you get your ambition wings