2009-2010: Seth Larimore

What a Year

Hello,

Wow, my freshman year at Norwich is over.  Its hard to believe, it seems like yesterday I was squaring the gutters and wearing my maroon rook cover.  Well its been a great year, I've learned a great deal, knowledge and a great deal about myself.  Norwich was definitely one of the best decisions I have every made.

I'm sorry that there was a bit of a gap between this post and my last, I have been working on my engineering project the last week, trying to make sure that we had everything done, and we presented yesterday.  I have 2 finals left, Calc 2 and intro to engineering.  Tomorrow I am going to start packing and study for my finals.  Sunday I have my Calc final at 1530 and then Monday I have engineering at 1130.  I'm looking forward to getting home, seeing my family and friends and start work.  I'm going to be a lifeguard for the City of Logansport, IN and I am going to Offutt AFB in Nebraska for two weeks in July.  I'm looking forward to visiting all my friends, going to Indy to see Kevin and Bloomington to see Malena, and of course take Hope along.

I would like to congratulate all of the seniors graduating this year, and wish you all good luck whether in the military or civilian world.  To the other freshmen, we made it through our first year.  To my rook buddies, its been a great year, and I'm going to miss you all this summer, but I look forward to seeing you in the fall.  Without the best cadre on the hill, we couldn't have made it.

To those of you coming next year, start preparing, run and do push ups and sit ups, especially those of you with scholarships, because most take a PT test when you get here.  Make sure you look at the packing list, and don't forget anything.  Its a great time, just remember why your here and put your all into it.  To those of you thinking of coming here, start looking into taking a visit, if you want a scholarship start applying as soon as you can and keep up your grades in high school.

I hope that this blog was useful to those of you thinking of attending Norwich, my goal was to have this be a tool to get an insight on what life is like here.  The facebook page will be up all summer, so if you have questions, you can post there.

This is my last post for this school year, but I will have a blog next year.

Well, I am going to go to my last two classes and start getting ready to leave for the summer, I hope everyone enjoys theirs.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

Junior Ring Ball

Hello,

Sorry about the delay of my post, its been a busy week.  Junior Ring Ball was this weekend, it was a great time.  On Friday the juniors in the Corps had their Junior Ring Ceremony dinner where they get their rings.  Before the dinner there was a retreat parade on the UP and the cadre members when the juniors this year were freshman come back and march the original companies down to the dinner.  It is a very special event and only people who have attended the event actually know what happens.  Then Saturday evening was the ball.  It's similar to Regimental Ball, except instead of the seniors walking through the arc of swords, it is the juniors.  Since it really is all about the juniors all of the seniors and anyone else attending who has already had their junior ring, take off their rings, so only the junior are wearing them.  I went with one of my rook buddy's friends from home, Taylor.  We had a great time, I put pictures at the bottom of the post.

Like I said, this week is crazy, I have a project, tests, and papers to work on.  Next week is the last week of classes before finals, so people are trying to get everything done.  I have 5 finals, two take home and 3 scheduled.  Everyone is talking about next year and the jobs in the corps and next year's class.  I applied for one, so we'll see.

Vermont is a crazy state as far as weather, so those of you coming should be prepared, when I woke up this morning, 28 April, 2 weeks from summer vacation, there was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground.  Last weekend it was also in the upper 70's, which is what it's supposed to be again this weekend, so it will be gone, but I had never seen snow this late in the year before.

Well, I'm going to get some ready for tomorrow and go to bed.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

 

(L-R) Myself and Taylor, and Jon and Caitlin (Myself and some Connecti-cats)

    

Back(L-R)Jordan Mizioch, Neil Crowley, Jonathan Bermudez, Kevin Bassney, Me, Josh Kernan, Justin Kubu, Don Arterburn, Ross Bolewski

Middle(L-R)Colton Martin, Garrick Lizotte, Tom Huntley, Peter Kingston, Jacob Barnett

Front(L-R)Joanie Emerson, Brittany Burns, Andrea Lishen

My rook brothers and sisters that went to Jr. Ring Ball

FTX Weekend

Hello,

This weekend and last weekend were the spring FTX weekends.  FTX stand for Field Training Exercise.  Each ROTC branch does something different, Navy went to the Maritime Academy in Massachusetts, Marine Corps went to Camp Edwards in Cape Cod, Army sophomores and juniors went to Fort Ethan Allen in Northern Vermont, Army Freshman and Seniors went to Payne Mountain just across State Road 12 here in Northfield, and Air Force went to Colchester, VT.  For our FTX we got to go do paintball for the day yesterday.  It was a lot of fun, I had never done it before.  It rained and was muddy, but that made it a little more challenging when running behind all the structures trying to avoid getting hit.  There were speed ball courses that we played elimination on, which is just until one side wins by eliminating all of the opponents.  We were broken into four teams by flights, until the end when we had two sides on a hill and you went until you were either out of paint-balls or were tired of being hit.

The juniors in AFROTC also found out what their jobs would be upon commissioning.  From what I've heard this is earlier than the other branches, some not finding out till their senior year, and others not until after they have commissioned.  This year there were about 4 or 5 pilots, a couple of nuclear engineers, a couple of space and missile officers, as well as other jobs.  In the Air Force, there are many career fields, medical, maintenance, public affairs, developmental engineering, communications, logistics, intelligence, pilots, security forces, as well as others.  For those of you considering the Air Force, but don't know what jobs there are besides pilots, check out afrotc.com or contact an AFROTC detachment.  Another great thing about AFROTC is that if there is not a detachment at a school you are considering, check to see if the university has a cross-town program, which is when you can go to another nearby university to take ROTC classes.

This week I think is going to be mostly tests over the most recent material covered and preparation for projects.  Well I have to go work on a paper, but I'll probably post after Junior Ring weekend this weekend.

Thanks for Reading,

Seth

Hello,

This weekend and last weekend were the spring FTX weekends.  FTX stand for Field Training Exercise.  Each ROTC branch does something different, Navy went to the Maritime Academy in Massachusetts, Marine Corps went to Camp Edwards in Cape Cod, Army sophomores and juniors went to Fort Ethan Allen in Northern Vermont, Army Freshman and Seniors went to Payne Mountain just across State Road 12 here in Northfield, and Air Force went to Colchester, VT.  For our FTX we got to go do paintball for the day yesterday.  It was a lot of fun, I had never done it before.  It rained and was muddy, but that made it a little more challenging when running behind all the structures trying to avoid getting hit.  There were speed ball courses that we played elimination on, which is just until one side wins by eliminating all of the opponents.  We were broken into four teams by flights, until the end when we had two sides on a hill and you went until you were either out of paint-balls or were tired of being hit.

The juniors in AFROTC also found out what their jobs would be upon commissioning.  From what I've heard this is earlier than the other branches, some not finding out till their senior year, and others not until after they have commissioned.  This year there were about 4 or 5 pilots, a couple of nuclear engineers, a couple of space and missile officers, as well as other jobs.  In the Air Force, there are many career fields, medical, maintenance, public affairs, developmental engineering, communications, logistics, intelligence, pilots, security forces, as well as others.  For those of you considering the Air Force, but don't know what jobs there are besides pilots, check out afrotc.com or contact an AFROTC detachment.  Another great thing about AFROTC is that if there is not a detachment at a school you are considering, check to see if the university has a cross-town program, which is when you can go to another nearby university to take ROTC classes.

This week I think is going to be mostly tests over the most recent material covered and preparation for projects.  Well I have to go work on a paper, but I'll probably post after Junior Ring weekend this weekend.

Thanks for Reading,

Seth

The Last Stretch

Hello,

Wow, I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  Right now I just started my last project for engineering and I am getting ready to finish my English final which is a research paper.  This weekend the school held the annual NU-101 open house for next year's incoming freshmen.  The had different activities and we had over 200 future students staying in the dorms over the weekend to get a bit of the experience of being a resident in either the civilian or corps lifestyle.  I helped on Saturday morning to recruit more bloggers for next year.  I am planning to be a blogger again next year, so you can read about my experience as a sophomore in the Corps of Cadets.

Having full privileges is nice.  Unlike before we now can go into town whenever, and we can also wear civilian clothes after 1700, which makes the evenings a little more relaxed, and one of my favorites, listen to music.  The weekends we also have to ourselves.  Most weekends there aren't corps obligations, but if there are we have to participate, but other than that we can hang out, go out to town, go out with friends to Burlington, whatever.  This past weekend was the Marine Corps, Navy, and Sophomore/Junior Army FTX's.  An FTX is a field training exercise.  The Army Freshmen/Senior and Air Force FTX.  I don't know much about what the other branches did, but Air Force is going to do paintball, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Last week and this week Norwich is trying online class registration.  This means that instead of the massive lines and paperwork, we use our online accounts to add classes for next semester.  For the most part the new system is working, but as with anything new, there are a few glitches, like none of next years sophomores can register for Air Force classes and some other classes are giving fits, but we are all learning to be patient with technology and the registrar's office is working to fix it.

Well I have to go to lunch and couple of classes.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

An Exciting Week

Hello,

This week was the week that the freshman in the Corps of Cadet got all of our privileges.  By this I mean that now we can use pockets, shoulder-straps on bags, listen to music, wear civilian clothes after 5 pm everyday and when we leave campus, which we can whenever now.  We can use the Mill at the Wise Campus Center, go visit friends in other dorms, and some other stuff too.  Wednesday afternoon we had what the corps called the "Culminating Event" which was a series of different challenges that we had to complete as a platoon.  We did group PT with the Semper Fi group, a knowledge relay, tire flips/buddy carries/buddy drags, and a race up Payne Mountain to see which platoon could make it the farthest in 12 minutes.  Then after that we formed up in front of Jackman Hall and Cadet Colonel Lanz addressed us, saying that we have come a long way since rook week and that we have a lot ahead of us in the next three years, and then she gave us our new privileges.  So far, everything has been going smoothly, my rook buddies and I took advantage of the Mill privilege the first night, and its been nice having a more relaxed atmosphere.  We still do all of our corps activities, but now we can more like regular college students when not doing corps stuff.

Thursday, the engineering department took the freshmen engineers on a trip to see the new Stowe Mountain Ski Resort.  It is coming along real nice, we got to tour the almost complete Phase II of the lodges and also we got to see the preforming arts center that they are also building.  Then we went up to Burlington and after having lunch at the waterfront, we went to Fletcher-Allen Medical Center and toured the new oncology center that they are building for the hospital.

This weekend is pretty quiet around campus, most of the students went home for Easter.  This weekend I am staying here and getting caught up on some homework and hanging out with friends and enjoying the 70 degree weather we are having.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

Wright-Patterson AFB Visit

Hello,

This week was awesome, the Air Force detachment took about 30 cadets to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.  WPAFB is home to the Air Force Materiel Command, the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the National Air Force Museum, as well as other active duty units.  We flew there on Wednesday evening and relaxed in the hotel next to the base, then on Thursday we got to go to the Air Force Museum.  The main area is made up of three connected buildings that house real planes from a replica of the first Wright Flier to WWI and WWII aircraft as well as Korean War, Vietnam War, and Cold War planes and missiles, and modern aircraft.  In the afternoon we got to go see a separate part of the museum that is farther into the base that houses former Presidential Aircraft and experimental aircraft.  That evening we got to hang out and go to the mall near the base.  Friday we got a briefing from an officer that works with determining the use of enemy tactics and weapons against US aircraft and then determines how to combat their use.  We also got to tour the new indoor range, and finally go to the hospital to see how they train the medical personnel for working in the field  using simulation dummies that can replicate bleeding, seizures, pulses, breathing, and many other things.  That evening we got to go bowling on base and go to a movie.  Saturday when we flew home, we were on a KC-10 refueling jet and we got to sit in the boom operator's position at the back of the plane and watch as our plane refueled another KC-10 and then we got to go into the cockpit and watch as that KC-10 refueled our plane.  It was a pretty cool trip, and I would like to go back to the museum because there is just so much that we didn't have time to stop and see it all.  If you haven't been there, I would recommend it.

Well, there are 6 weeks of regular classes left.  In 4 weeks, the juniors will get their class rings during the Junior Ring Ceremony.  The class rings at Norwich have a long tradition.  One side is the same for every class, and the other is the same for everyone in the class.  The side that is the same for every class has different symbols of the school showing our military and engineering heritage and the Vermont mountains.  The other side has different symbols that are unique to that class.  Norwich class rings are famous for being the largest class rings of any military school, and most people get two, one, usually gold or silver that is larger, called a garrison ring that they wear for nice events, and then the other is called a field ring that is made of another metal and is smaller and worn for everyday.  You can see the class ring site with this year's seniors' ring at http://www.norwich.edu/cadets/classring.html.

This week should be pretty normal, it is starting to warm up and show signs of spring(finally!), I'm ready for it to be warm again.  I have a couple more projects and papers left before the end of the semester.  Well, it's almost time to march down for dinner.

Here are some pictures from the visit:

Bockscar, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki, Japan.

Air Force Remote Piloted Global Hawk.

A modified C-54C with and elevator for President F.D. Roosevelt.

The KC-10 we flew back to Vermont from WPAFB.

The view from the boom-operators position as the boom is about to connect the another KC-10 over Northern-Maine.  The boom connects to the hole in the top of the aircraft the is above the cockpit windows, the black lines before the connection point help the boom-operator judge distance.

The connected planes.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

Spring Break

Well, after my Odyssey of a trip home for spring break, I had a great time home with my family and friends.  I call my trip home an Odyssey because I was supposed to leave Friday evening and get home later that evening and my flight was canceled, then I was supposed to leave Saturday morning and get home at noon, and that flight got canceled and then I finally got on a flight at noon and got home Saturday evening.  Thankfully I didn't have to spend all that time at Burlington International, I stayed with a rook buddy that lives in Vermont.  I did find out that I was not the only one however, that had been canceled, an odd weather pattern was moving through the central part of the the east coast, canceling flights from Burlington all the way down to Florida.

Over break, I got to go down to Butler University in Indy to stay with my friend Kevin.  I got hang out with him and and his girlfriend and friends and our friend Hope from high school was able to go too.  We ate at a cool restaurant called Buca di Beppo in Castleton, its Italian food, but served family style, so everyone shares a couple large bowls of food.  I also tried fried calamari, which I found to be similar to popcorn shrimp, but more chewy.  We also had cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory at Keystone, it was great.  The rest of break was spent hanging out, mainly with my friend Hope, but I also got to go golfing with my Dad on Friday, and see a lot of my family on Saturday.  This year I was just happy going home and spending time with my parents and dog.

This week will be fast, I will have regular classes Monday through Wednesday and then Wednesday afternoon I am going on a base visit with the Air Force detachment to Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio until Saturday.  Its hard to believe that there are only 7 weeks until finals.  I have a couple more papers and projects to do and then it will be summer.  Well, I'm going to go get a final Starbucks for the flight and then I'll be on my way to Vermont.  Until then, I get to watch the Chicago snow melt.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

Spring

So this weekend was great, the weather is getting a lot warmer, into the mid forties today.  I'm very excited about that, I like it when its warm out because its nice to go running and just be outside, and I don't like the winter very much.  I guess I came to the wrong school as far as weather, but I can live with it.

Anyway, this weekend, I was able to go up with a pilot from the Burlington Civil Air Patrol through my AFROTC unit.  It was a lot of fun, and I even got to fly the plane for a while.  It was a small Cessna, and we got to fly over the ski slopes of Smuggler's Notch, Stowe, and Sugarbush.  We also got to fly over Norwich, which looks very different from up above.

This week is the last week before Spring Break, so things are a little crazy.  I got 4 A's an 2 B's on my midterms, so I was happy with that.  All I really have left to do before leaving is to finish up a couple of projects for math, engineering, and programing.  The most interesting is the project for engineering, which is a program that can play a guitar tab that we put into code.  I am very excited to get home and see my friends and family, we have been talking last week and this week, making plans.  It will be nice to relax and recharge before the last 7 weeks of the semester, and it will be warmer at home than it will be here.

Well, I am going to get to work for a while.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

Summer PDT

Hello,

This past week I found out I am going to Offutt AFB in Nebraska for two weeks to job shadow different people to see what the operations of a base are like.  PDT stands for Professional Development Training.  Air Force ROTC offers many summer PDT options, they are all listed on www.afrotc.com and click on Summer Programs under College Life.

This week is mid-terms, I had one today in Aerospace Studies, and I will have one in my computer programming class, the others just use work we have done this semester to generate our mid-term grades.  Everyone is getting ready for spring break, people are going to Florida and other warm places.  I am going home, so I have been making plans with my friends.

The end of this week is the Colby Symposium, it is an event put on by the school where many important speakers and authors come in and speak on different topics affecting the world today.  I haven't been before, but I think I am going to try to go down.

For those of you that are interested in coming to Norwich, the admissions office set up a fan site on FaceBook and myself and other Norwich students will be on to answer questions you have.

Thanks for reading,

Seth

E-Week

Hello,

This past week was Engineers Week.  At Norwich, the engineering program puts on different activities to do for fun throughout the week.  There was Jeopardy, professors playing Wii, snow sculptures, and other fun activities.  At the end of the week, we had a dinner and met some alumni from the program who spoke about their different civilian jobs after graduation.  I also had the opportunity to go to a dinner in Burlington for the Vermont Professional Engineers.  It was their awards dinner, we got to hear about various projects around the state and some of the top engineers were recognized.  The keynote speaker was from JLP in California, he is working with NASA to explore the water on Jupiter's moon, Europa.

This weekend was also the Winter Carnival, they had different activities to do on Saturday, and a Queen Contest on Friday. Saturday night there was a dance that some of my rook buddies and I went to, it was a good time.  Nothing new is really happening with classes, we are just getting ready for mid-terms and spring break.  It is starting to get warmer here, most of the snow is gone, and it's been in the mid 30's which is a little warm for this time of they year in Vermont.

Thanks for reading,

Seth