"Most Expensive Free School You'll Ever Attend"

"Most Expensive Free School You'll Ever Attend" is a phrase you'll hear repeated often while you are here.  I brought $2000 of my own money and over half was gone in the first week.  You have to buy your National Academy uniforms.  They cost me about $330.  They are 5.11's and you know they really like their stuff!  I went ahead and paid for my New York trip which was $629.00.  I haven't even began to buy my souvenirs yet!  So you can see how your money can go quick here.  I would recommend, if you're coming to the National Academy, to bring at least $2500 or more of your can. 

Anyway, today is Wednesday, week 2, and I had a little downtime before our first challenge run of the session; The Tin Man Trot.  All challenges have a Wizard of Oz theme.  The challenges culminate with the Yellow Brick Road the last week or so of the academy.  The Yellow Brick Road is a 6.2 mile, cross, country, obstacle course designed many years ago by the United States Marines.  Its name is due to the various rocks that were painted yellow to mark the path of the course.  Completion of the Yellow Brick Road earns you a yellow brick. Most people here are very excited to get that brick, myself included.

There are other bricks you could potentially earn.  The only other "official" brick is the blue brick earned by swimming 34 miles while here at the academy.  The pool is currently shutdown due to construction so no blue bricks for us.  There are numerous "unofficial" bricks going around which were created by the students.  Here one for example:

The "Laundry" brick for all the laundry we do.

 Anyway, enough about that.  I will tell you, that as a law enforcement officer, this will be the best experience of your career.  You will be very, very, very, busy from about 7:30AM to 5:00PM, Monday through Friday.  Some days you will stay later than 7:30PM.  For us, today is one of those days.  Tonight is our Patch and Coin night.  I finally get to show off the awesome coins we have from the Oxford Police Department!  I'm also excited to see what everyone else brings.

Tomorrow night we get to hear from our first enrichment speaker.  Lieutenant General (Ret) George Flynn, United States Marine Corps.  I cannot wait to listen to what he has to say.

 

The facilities here are beautiful!  The FBI has been renovating the facilities for several years now.  It is hard to explain and pictures do not do it justice.

 

911 Memorial at the FBI Academy

Until next time......