On our way there, my 2 companions and I had an unscheduled layover in Dallas due to shearing winds and were the last plane allowed to land. All flights to or from the airport were delayed and eventually canceled. We ended up getting a hotel room (others weren't so lucky) and coming back at the crack of dawn the next day to chase stand by flights all day because a huge storm had socked in the entire Eastern 1/2 of the US. A very long story cut short... I made it there long after the 1st day of class ended wearing my "BITE ME" shirt that I picked up at the gift shop of "Joe's Crab Shack" where we had dinner the night before in Dallas so I would at least have a clean shirt(luckily, we did get our luggage the next day) What a trip!
The academy is also home to the National Fire Fighter's Memorial which is similar to the Veterans Wall. Whenever a firefighter is killed in the line of duty the flags are flown at 1/2 mast and their name is added to the the list of the fallen. It's very moving. Durring the 7 days I was there, the flag never made it to the top of the pole. In fact, in the 21 days I have spent there over the past 2 years, I have only seen the flags all the way up on one of those days.
