Earlier this week, those still attending school may have heard an engine’s roar fill the Gables’s outer hallways. On May 28, 2014, the X1 Super Car Experience trailer with the Air Force was parked outside on the Gables basketball courts; its purpose was to come to let students know about opportunities offered by the Air Force and the career paths one could take in it. During the trailer’s stop at Gables, air force recruiting took place with local recruiters, and the Air Force sponsored Formula Drift’s driver was on site signing autographs. This event reached out to lots of our students, especially those in JROTC.

“Students, whether they’re a senior or a freshman, need to have an exit plan for after high school, and the Air Force is an avenue for that. These days it’s not as easy to get into the army like when I was in it, where they checked if you had four limbs and you were cleared to go; now with the ASVAB, students need to know  courses like Algebra and events like this one shows them,” Sergeant Sanchez said.

The Air Force’s showpiece was The  X1 Super Car, which attracted a great deal of students’ attention. Inside the old Mustang, whose body was completely redone, were tricked out features such as a F-16 ejection seats, center drive, and lots of display panels. Thanks to the car having ‘straight pipes exhaust,’ meaning it didn’t have a muffler as most do, the smooth sound of its engine could be heard in nearby classrooms. The car was said to represent the might of the Air Force.

On the side of the trailer, students were able to go through a series of questions and challenges on an iPad to see which of four Air Force squadrons they would best fit into. Toward the end of the event, students would receive a prize based on their predicted squadron. Inside the trailer, 3 monitors informed interested students about the Air Force in addition to describing how the X1 was built. In the back, five kiosks showcased a newly launched game called the Airman Challenge, which the Air Force has made publicly accessible online.

“I liked the quiz they had us do to test us on Air Force knowledge which would then tell us where we would best fit in. I’d heard they brought in a nice car, and since I like cars, I wanted to check that out too. I want to join the Air Force, and that’s what the event was about,” sophomore Luis Loli said.