Draft:Spirit missions
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This article was started from a graduate's recollections and needs verification, expansion, and additional firsthand accounts. If you participated in or witnessed a spirit mission, please add what you remember. New to USAFAPedia? See how to contribute.
Spirit missions are unsanctioned cadet stunts at the United States Air Force Academy designed to express squadron pride, generate stories, and occasionally embarrass the institution in good fun. Although spirit missions are most associated with rivalry games against the Army and Navy, they happen any time of year. The cadet wing has a long tradition of treating spirit missions as an obligation passed primarily to fourth-class cadets (doolies).[citation needed]
Overview
Most spirit missions involve relocating, decorating, or otherwise modifying campus features without administrative permission. The targets are typically large, immobile, or otherwise difficult to move — which is the point. The greater the apparent impossibility, the better the mission. Successful missions become squadron lore; failed missions become cautionary tales told to future doolies.
Spirit missions are usually attempted by a single squadron's doolies under the loose direction of upper-class cadets, and the resulting story is recounted within that squadron for years afterward.
Common targets
Static display aircraft on the Terrazzo
The static display aircraft on and around the Terrazzo have been favorite spirit-mission targets for decades. The lighter and more wheeled the aircraft, the more often it has been moved.
The F-104 Starfighter has been rolled to various locations on campus more times than has been formally counted.[citation needed]
The Bell X-1 (or X-2; accounts differ) on display in the Air Gardens has been moved so frequently over the years that, according to cadet lore, Goodyear had to break out the original molds to manufacture replacement tires.[citation needed]
The Bell X-1 in the Arnold Hall courtyard
In one celebrated mission, cadets relocated the Bell X-1 from the Air Gardens into the Arnold Hall courtyard. To get the aircraft into the courtyard, they had to inch it through a short tunnel — a feat the cadets accomplished, but one that the Academy's own engineering staff (mechanical and civil engineers) subsequently declared impossible to reverse. After determining they could not back the aircraft out the way it had come, the Academy had to hire a crane to lift the Bell X-1 out of the courtyard.[citation needed]
The story is repeated as a small classic of cadet engineering bested by cadet ingenuity. The exact year and squadron responsible should be added by anyone who remembers.
Bronze busts of the Wright Brothers
Bronze busts of Orville and Wilbur Wright on campus have served as the focus of an enduring (and reportedly common) practice: cadets polish the noses of the busts, an act referred to as "brown-nosing" — a pun in keeping with the cadet tradition of finding humor in any opportunity.[citation needed]
Cultural role
Spirit missions occupy a particular place in cadet culture. They are technically against regulations and can be punished if cadets are caught, but they are also tacitly understood as a healthy outlet for the cadet wing's creative energy and an expected part of squadron identity. Stories of past missions become part of the squadron's oral history, retold to incoming doolies as evidence of what their squadron is capable of.
The Academy's response to discovered missions has historically varied with the seriousness of the stunt: minor relocations of furniture or unofficial decorations might be quietly reversed without consequence, while missions involving expensive equipment or genuine damage have resulted in administrative action.
Notable spirit missions
Add specific spirit missions you participated in or witnessed. Include the year, the squadron, what was done, and any consequences. Sign with your class year.
- Bell X-1 in the Arnold Hall courtyard — year? squadron? — see above
- (add more here)
Stories from cadets
If you were involved in a spirit mission — successful or not — share what happened. The Academy's official records won't capture this; the wiki can.
This section awaits contributions.
