Day 5/6

Today was a big day. Eligibility in the Air Force officer corps requires, among many other things, a certain level of physical fitness. While I had already passed my test in March (see the first blog entry), COT requires one at the end of the program. However, they administer one at the beginning, called a PTB (physical test baseline), with the dual goals of a) seeing who needs a LOT more work over the next 5 weeks, and b) determining a baseline from which fitness goals can be set. Unfortunately, I pretty much stopped working out after Pesach, when I got a bad bout of gout (Hey, that rhymes!). I was dreading this test! 0430 I was up and by 0445 we were downstairs formed up with our mats and flashlights, ready to march out to the track.

It began with a short warm up (more on that later). We were each paired with a member of our neighboring flight, Oscar. My partner, 2nd Lt Tate, held my legs while I did my sit ups. Unfortunately, the lack of working out showed, and I only did 35 (I had been up to 55). Then we did push ups, and once again, I fell below my previous number, doing 35 instead of 45. Then it was time to run. Each pair was made up of a faster runner and slower. Guess which one I was? My job was to cheer on and shout out the lap times to my partner. That boy was FAST. He did the 1.5 miles (six laps) in 9:40 minutes. Then it was my turn. I had never run on a track in my life. I decided to take it easy for the first few laps, to see how things would develop. Amazingly, I was barely breathing hard by the fourth lap. By the time I rounded the final turn on the sixth lap, I decided to go all out and sprint as fast as I could. I ended up finishing at 13:25, 30 seconds faster than my last official test in March. Woohoo!

The rest of the day consisted of classes, and with me running back and forth to the chaplain’s office and the Sqaudron Commander’s office, trying to make final Shabbos arrangements. It turns out there is a Conservative kid here (a JAG) who was going into Montgomery on Saturday for services, and wanted to join me on Friday night, as well.

Friday afternoon, I was given permission to go eat dinner earlier than my flight. The flight had a DP (Dining Priority) of 1821 (6:21 pm for you civilians), which meant realistically getting into the Dining Hall by 1830 and out by 1850. Shabbos was starting at 1927, and I needed to shower, shave, get my stuff together, and pick up the other guy at his dorm. I was allowed to go eat at 1800 along with my roommate (did I mention that, unless you have a waiver, you are never allowed to walk anywhere without a wingman?) and got to my room in time to get ready.

I had a spectacular Shabbos. I had a waiver to go to the RAC (religious accommodation room) without a wingman – but my roommate, the LDS (Mormon fellow) said he wanted to go with me. I got my food stuff together (remember that I had already eaten dinner, and there is no place to really prepare food there. This was more of a symbolic dinner) and we detailed to the other dorm to get the other Jewish kid, and from there to the RAC. When we got there, my roommate (2nd Lt Coombs) realized he couldn’t go home alone – so he stayed.

I expected to do a quick davening, followed by Kiddush, Hamotzi, a little something to eat, and that would be it. Well, we walk into the devotional room, take our siddurs, and this Conservative kid says, “Yedid Nefesh?” Oh, well. I figured this is why I am chaplain. I am here to take care of the spiritual needs of the airmen, and he clearly wanted to have a “Shabbat Experience.” We did a beautiful Kabbalas Shabbos, singing everything, followed by a slightly quicker Maariv. We sand Shalom Eleichem, Eishes Chayil, I projected through the ether a Bracha to my boys, made Kiddush and Hamotzi on Matza, and we feasted on tuna and Matza and NutriGrain bars. We sang Zemiros, I explained all of this to my roommate – and we ended up being there for over two hours. Awesome.

For the rest of the day, my roommate was simply unbelievable. Throughout the day, knowing that I was unable to do things like turn on or off lights or pay for my meals, he didn’t hesitate to step up—often anticipatorily—to help me out. For example, I forgot my cell phone alarm was still set for 0600. When it went off on Saturday, he jumped out of bed to turn it off, knowing I could not, and did so graciously. When a fellow flight member entered our room to get my haircut clippers, he immediately stopped what he was doing to get them from my drawer, anticipating what could have been an uncomfortable pause/discussion about why I could not get the clippers out. For the three meals during the day, he unhesitatingly paid for my meals and signed me in. There are countless such examples that occurred throughout the day. Finally, at 2015, when he could have been doing anything he wanted, he volunteered to detail with me back to the RAC

I had a relaxing Shacharis in my room, and after lunch, Coombs and I ended up having a 4 ½ hour discussion about Judaism and Mormonism. It was just fabulous. I don’t remember the last Shabbos I enjoyed so much. Havdalah brought Shabbos to an end, but the long Memorial Day weekend had just begun!