WEBVTT

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Hello and welcome to around the Air

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Force . The end of the school year is

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almost here and it's time for report

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cards and finals . Eric Schwab met with

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F 16 student pilots from lackland Air

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Force Base taking their own final exams

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just over seven months ago , the

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student pilots from the one 82nd

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fighter squadron out of san Antonio

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texas got their first real taste of

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what it's like to fly the F 16

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today . They're the focus of exercise

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coronate cactus . At Davis Mountain Air

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Force Base in Arizona , it's their

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final exam and for some it's a dream

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come true . Ever since I was a kid ,

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probably seventh or eighth grade , I've

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always wanted to be a fighter pilot and

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and I guess there was that desire that

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made me think I was able to do it in

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the long run . This is also the first

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time they dropped live munitions back

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in san Antonio we don't have the

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airspace or the range is uh , that

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we're able to drop live munitions here .

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The airspace is great , A lot of area ,

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a lot of different ranges and it just

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makes it great , good training . The

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one 82nd has the distinction of

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training pilots to fly the F 16

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fighting falcon and every year their

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students are put through their paces in

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the Arizona skies , restructured

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training and the predictable Arizona

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weather brought them here . We bring

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them out here for two weeks for

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ultimately , what is a graduation to

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exercise of sort and it began with

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using night vision goggles and

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targeting pod where we needed better

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weather to support the mission . They

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had the weather here that supported it

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better than south texas . When exercise

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Cornette cactuses over these , student

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pilots dropped their student status and

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head to their next duty stations as F-

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16 pilots . No more report cards , erIC

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Schwab Davis Mountain Air Force Base

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Arizona . For more . On today's top

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stories , log on Air Force link .