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Chapter 14: Training and Terror

I wake up at 0430 and get dressed in my workout gear as everything else I'll need is already on base. I go to the kitchen and make us some smoothies to go. Candy is promptly here at 0455. I give him our pre-workout smoothie, and I hang on to the post-workout bananas knowing that he would probably just eat them now if I gave the bunch to him. We get to the gym and start our reps. Today, we have a mix of cardio and strength training. We warm up with two miles on the track. For cardio, we do push-ups, mountain climbers, bicycle crunches, jumping jacks, burpees, lunges, wall-sits, and planks. We then do our strength training which consists of bear crawl, leg bridge, spiderman, squats, deadlift, box jumps, pull-ups, bicep curls, overhead press, and running in place with dumbbells. We finish at 0615 and take a shower. We are in our gear in the hangar by 0645. Our recruits all walk in shortly after. Fox, Hill, Beauty, Cats, Jazz, Birdie, Sandals, Loo, Skeeter, and Rich—these are our ten trainees.

"Attention on deck!" Candy yells.

"Today, you will be timed on how quicky you can switch maneuvers. Each of you will fly a different pattern. My five pilots grab a folder. RIOs, you will grab the corresponding binder to your driver's file. You have ten minutes to look over it before you get in the air. Fox and Hill are going first. Their ten minutes starts now. Candy will stay here and monitor them. Everyone else, come with me." I lead them out to the track. "Ten minutes to do at least five laps. Go!"

Ten minutes later the four of us are in the sky as everyone else listens to the radio and looks over previous textbook maneuvers.

"Good morning, aviators. This is hop nine. Fox and Hill, your time—starts—now!"

When they finish, I radio who's next: "Birdie and Cats, you'll be up in fifteen minutes. Everyone, including Fox and Hill, meet me by the track. Candy will once again monitor."

We land and head to the track for ten minutes. I have Fox and Hill running laps, and the others have ten minutes to do two hundred pushups. After Birdie and Cats get back, the next group goes while we do lunges and pushups. The next hop, we do crunches and lunges. We end with squats and crunches, and squats. I send the lieutenants back to the room to go over maneuvers while Candy and I evaluate the hops we watched. Jay and I finally get to an agreement of what to do next. We go into the classroom where the pilots and RIOs are, inevitably, messing with each other.

"Gentlemen!" I yell. They all quickly get to their seats and stand at attention. "Lieutenant Commander Young and I evaluated your hops, and we will go over them with you. Please, follow me. We'll go to the command center. In here, we can view your hops in simulation form. Candy has notes for you and—"

"Seresin!"

"Yes, sir."

"I need you for a moment."

"Yes, sir. Candy, go ahead and start. Sorry, boys, duty calls."

I walk to Gun's office, and he has his door open. "What can I do for you, Jeff?" I ask calling him by a nickname as we are good friends by now.

"Rage, sit down."

"Sir?"

"Your sister is in the hospital."

"What? Why?!"

"She's fine, but she asked for you. She'd like to explain in person."

"Okay. Thank you, sir—Jeffrey?"

"Yes?"

"Could you finish us with Candy? They are supposed to go on more hops after the eval."

"Of course."