May 2 - 8 Issue 9 - Volume 1

Undefeated Flight 3-12 Tigers Dominate Flickerball

The Tigers of Flight 3-12 pose for a group photo on April 29, 2011, at the flickerball field on Maxwell Air Force Base, while wearing their spirit gear.
by OT Capt. David Murphy
Flight 3-12 came out to the Ramon Underwood. OT Underwood kept up the full court press and
flickerball fields on April 29, 2011, kept his team in check and made denied the Hoyas a single campaign
with one goal in mind, goal during the entire
defeat their opponents operation. The Hoyas did
and remain undefeated. get one point during a foul
After the completion of shot, but it didn’t change
two games this goal was the fact that the Tigers
secured and the Tigers of crushed the Hoyas with a
Flight 3-12 became the final score of 20 to 1.
only flickerball team to Referees on the field
remain undefeated during were heard saying that
their four games. During they had never seen a
their two games on April game where a team was
29 they fought and defeated defeated that badly. The
the Hoyas. Tigers next mission will
Flight 3-12’s final game The scoreboard from the final flickerball game between 3-12 and 2-14 be to defeat the staff
of the day was against Flight 2-14, a sure they acted as a hard defense during the traditional staff vs.
game lead by team captain OT 1st Lt. against the Hoyas. OT Underwood students flickerball game May 20.

Page 1 Tigers Lead the Way! Volume 1 Issue 9

 OT Focus: Logan Ziegler
up in Plattsburg, home of the
tigers (see I was born to be in
Squadron Three), a small town
north of Kansas City. In high
school I considered joining the
Air Force but didn’t. I graduated
from Plattsburg High School in
2003 and started college at the
University of Missouri–Rolla.
I was on born on April 26,
After five semesters I made the
1984 in Kansas City, MO and
difficult decision to switch majors
never made it far from there. I
from aerospace engineering
have lived in Missouri my whole
to aviation technology at the
life until I left for OTS. I grew
University of Central Missouri.
Warrior of the Week: OT Capt. David J. Murphy
Page 2 Tigers Lead the Way
At UCM I acquired my
Commercial Pilot’s License and
my Flight Instructor License.
Looking back I’m glad I made
the switch because I love flying
and because I met my soon-to-be
wife at UCM. Samantha Garton,
the aforementioned soon-to-be
wife, and I crossed paths in late
2007 and on June 3rd we will be
married. My parents Christopher
and Pamela Ziegler, my little sister
Shelby, all currently reside in my
Missouri home.
On Saturday, April 30, 2011
OT Capt. David Murphy was
announced as the Warrior of the
Week at the Commander’s Call in
Gilbert Hall at Officer Training
School in Montgomery, Ala. OT
Capt. Murphy received the award
because of achievements in his
job as Chief of Public Affairs.
OT Capt. Murphy helped to
organize the Easter Egg Hunt
volunteer event, gathering 25
OTs to participate in this event.
Additionally, OT Capt. Murphy
also helped to design and develop
The Blue Line, the Wing’s official
Newsletter. Finally, OT Capt.
Murphy also helped to organize
the blood donation event that
was also held on April 30.
OT Capt. Murphy said that
getting the award was a complete
surprise. “I didn’t think I would
actually win so it was that much
more gratifying to get the award,”
OT Capt. Murphy added.
Volume 1 Issue 9
 Events this Week The Intel Brief: Ground Zero in Tuscaloosa
by CNN
Monday - It was around by 5 p.m. Wednesday
CWT#3 when residents first saw the monster
CWT Review tornado heading toward the heart of this
Europe proud Southern university town.
Africa Discussion Many prayed. Others grabbed video
phones. Some fled for their lives.
Peer Evals II
The winds hissed. The destructive force
of Mother Nature that day won’t ever be
Tuesday - forgotten by the 93,000 people who call
SNCO Perspective Tuscaloosa home.
Europe Discussion That day has united them, through
Dynamic Subordinancy horror and hope, tears and prayers.
Intro to Wargaming Michael Zutell, a manager at a
Mobility Line Training CVS, rushed a family of three into the
Purchase Mess Dress pharmacy’s breakroom, where they
huddled with employees. Their car had
screeched to a halt at the door, the tornado
Wednesday just across the street.
Final PFA Not too far away, Lenora Bolden saw
Khobar Towers it from her front porch and cuddled with
First Officer Assignment her 5-year-old daughter and husband. Her
LRC daughter sang out, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!”
Bolden chimed in with “Thank you! Thank
Thursday you! Thank you.”
LRC Janet Puckett buried her head in clothes
in an alcove of her house a few blocks away.
OTS Finance Help Desk
“Oh God,” she said as her house trembled.
LRC Feedback Gar Blume had a different reaction. “Oh
s---,” he screamed.
Friday Blume was in his law office in a
LRC Tuscaloosa neighborhood known as
LRC Feedback Alberta or Alberta City -- a working-class
Advocacy Brief Remake residential area east of downtown that’s
DADT Briefing predominantly African-American and
Hispanic.
Blume would owe his life to five people
Dining Priority Times who pulled him from rubble -- one of
Mon - B: 0645, L: 1125, D: 1730 whom he said was a known drug dealer. In
a one-block radius around Blume’s office,
Tue - B: 0645, L: 1125, D: 1730
he said, at least 15 people were killed.
Wed - B: 0645, L: 1125, D: 1730 Sharon Burns had no way of knowing at
Thu - B: XXXX, L: 1125, D: 1730 the time, but Alberta Baptist Church -- the
Fri - B: XXXX, L: 1125, D: 1730 house of worship where three generations
Sat - B: 0645, L: 1125, D: 1730 of family have attended, the church where
Sun - B: 0645, L: 1125, D: 1730 her grandfather laid the cornerstone in
Personal Events “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key
Birthdays to success. If you love what you are doing,
OT Griffitt’s Wife - 8 May you will be successful.”
OT Erwin’s Wife - 24 May - Herman Cain, American businessman, author and speaker
May 2 - 8 The Tiger Strike - Flight 3-12
1922 -- was about to get pummeled.
Just up the road, Alberta Elementary
had stood as a beacon of hope for low-
income children here. Built in recent
years, the school was a state-of-art facility,
complete with a computer lab, gym, library
and plush rooms. Luckily, it was empty
Wednesday afternoon.
One of the few things still standing at
the school is a doorway. Above it, the sign
reads, “School is cool.”
As bad as the destruction is across
Tuscaloosa, Ground Zero lies in Alberta,
where homes and anything else in the
tornado’s path were demolished for blocks
on end.
“I’ve never seen devastation like this,”
President Obama said as he toured Alberta
during a visit to Tuscaloosa on Friday.
Front yard a trash can
Janet Puckett stands outside what’s left
of her home on 30th Avenue in Alberta.
Its walls crumbled under the force of
the storm. Her living room and a front
bedroom disappeared. The roof of the
house got sucked up, too.
“A war zone,” she says of the mountains
of broken 2-by-4s and other debris all
around.
She raised her three boys in that home,
lived there for 30 years. She points across
the road, three homes up, to where her
truck landed in an oak tree. “It’s buried
in a twisted part of the tree,” she says. Her
other vehicle got tossed across the yard, its
windows smashed in.
The tornado picked up a neighbor’s
home and dropped it across the street. The
woman inside was killed.
Puckett is glad to be alive, she says, “but
I’ve lost everything really.”
She laughs, smiles and chuckles as she
surveys the damage, her family all around.
The only thing intact in her home is the
Continued on page 6
Page 3
OT Maj. Thomas Cheney attempts to throw. OTs demonstrate sportsmanlike conduct. OT 1st Lt. Ramon Underwood goes for a catch.

OT Lt. Col. Chris Pair (right) works as

OT 1st Lt. Logan Ziegler (left) and OT Maj. Travis Griffitt (right) attempt to block an opponents throw. scorekeeper with a Hoya.
Page 4 Tigers Lead the Way Volume 1 Issue 9
OT 1st Lt. Jacob Erwin throws the ball. OT Maj. Travis Griffitt attempts a block. OT Col. Joseph Camp throws a foul shot.

OT 1st Lt. Drew Browne move with a sense of urgency Members of Flight 3-12 take a momentary break from scoring while the other team
while playing flickerball. attempts a foul shot
May 2 - 8 The Tiger Strike - Flight 3-12 Page 5
 The Intel Brief: Ground Zero in Tuscaloosa, Cont.
Continued on page 6
deep freeze, which sits where it always has
in the kitchen.
“You have to laugh to keep from crying,
I guess.”
When the tornado hit, she simply hung
on tight and kept her head buried. Walls
shook, dust fell everywhere.
“When I looked up, all I could see is sky,”
she says. “It was still daylight. You see the
pictures on TV of these war zones. That’s
what I was thinking of.
“My nerves were shaking all over my
body.”
Her youngest son, Tommy, was killed
seven years ago at age 23 in a car accident.
Her husband has been hospitalized for
the last six months with an array of health
problems. Now this.
“They say the Lord can’t put on you
more than you can take,” she says. “But
how much more can I take?”
Amid the debris, she’s found some
photos of her youngest son, “but not all.”
“I don’t know where they are,” she says.
“Under all that mess, I guess.”
She tosses an empty french fry container
on the debris heap. Her front yard is now
a trash can. The family has planted an
American flag out front, a ray of hope that
they will rebuild.
A few houses up, amid the twisted piles
of former homes, someone’s walker stands
in a front yard. Resting against it is a young
woman’s wedding photo, a wide smile on
her face.
Roger Davis stands outside a cousin’s
home. He raises his hand and points up
and down the road. “This is Ground Zero,”
he says. Many people here are renters.
“Do you think most these people have
insurance? This is just ridiculous.”
“Just take a walk through, it’s a mess. It’s
a mess.”
“But I’m hopeful. There is some hope
in this,” he says. “All I can say is God Bless
America.”
‘The woman with the baby is screaming’
The CVS lies in the heart of Tuscaloosa’s
commercial district, next to the city’s main
mall and the Wood Square Shopping
Center, just west of Alberta.
CVS manager Michael Zutell herded
workers into a windowless breakroom after
news of a tornado was confirmed. He and
shift supervisor Devin McAnnally then
Page 6
walked to the front of the store to lock the
door.
They couldn’t believe their eyes. The
tornado was across the road, above a
Chipotle restaurant. A 4-door Dodge
Stratus sped into their parking lot and
stopped right outside the front door. A
husband and his wife jumped out, the
woman clutching their young baby. Zutell
ushered the family into the breakroom.
“I’ve always heard the story of the train
sound, and that is what it was,” Zutell says.
“It was just loud as can be.”
About 12 people were hunched in the
breakroom.
“You’re just hearing glass breaking, the
woman with the baby is screaming.”
Standing outside of what is now a shell
of a building, he says, “I thank God.”
“Absolutely blessed,” McAnnally adds.
“It’s mindboggling to think you walked
away OK.” Zutell said.
The day after the tornado, the two men
were handing out water to strangers.
Proof of how lucky they are lies next
door inside the shopping center. Not a
single wall is left of Big Lots. The Krispy
Kreme and Full Moon BBQ are gone too.
Cars tossed like toys sit on top of each
other.
‘We heard a freight train and we just
cuddled’
Lenora Bolden walks around to the back
of her house where one of Tuscaloosa’s
classic druid oaks fell between three
homes, only scraping one. Its trunk juts 15
feet into the sky.
“We’re all safe,” she says. “That’s why I
can tell you God is good.”
She lives at the edge of Alberta City. She’s
lived at the modest home for 10 years.
“My husband and I were standing on
the porch and we seen the funnel coming
across,” she says. “We heard a freight train
and we just cuddled.”
She was heartened by the community’s
resolve. As soon as the storm cleared and
the sun shone, neighbors helped neighbors.
Strangers pitched in, too. Anything to help.
As she talks, about eight members of
Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue stroll down the
street carrying axes and other chopping
equipment. They’ve been conducting a
street-by-street search of the city.
Jim Ray, one of the firefighters, pitched
Tigers Lead the Way
in along the Gulf Coast after Katrina. “This
damage is much more devastating than
what we saw in Katrina.”
He keeps walking. There are more
homes to search.
‘It’s just a building’
“Let’s just say he’s a self-employed
pharmaceutical salesmen,” the lawyer says.
“A drug dealer.”
“He gets free legal services for the rest of
his life.”
How anyone survived in Blume’s law
office is one of those freaks of nature.
Nothing remains but a pile of twisted
wood, smashed cinder blocks and wrecked
bookshelves.
“We’re grateful and fortunate to be
alive,” he says. “Fifteen bodies were found
in a one-block radius of my building.”
He and his wife, Nettie, were inside
when the tornado hit. The lights had
flickered and he’d gone into the server
room to cut off all computer systems. His
wife followed. Then the walls crashed in.
He got buried, she got slammed by an
8-foot-tall bookcase.
“Are you alive?” Nettie screamed.
“Yes,” he said.
Her legs were pinned. Blume gently
tried to make his way out. He heard voices
and waved his arms. “Help!”
The drug dealer and four other people,
he says, “dug me out and dug my wife
out.”
“If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have
gotten out.”
Across the street, the sun shines
through the roof of Alberta Baptist
Church, many of its stained-glass
windows smashed.
Soft notes from a baby grand piano
waft through the tattered area, a girl at the
keyboard, surrounded by about 10 friends
and family.
The church has been here for 89 years.
It had just gone through a $3 million
renovation.
Inside, the piano -- and faith -- is about
the only thing still holding together.
Sharon Burns, the granddaughter of
the man who founded the church, sheds
gentle tears.
“It’s just a building,” she says softly.
“But with lots of great memories,” her
close friend, Jeanne Silliman, adds.
Volume 1 Issue 9
 Ropes Course
On Thursday Class 11-05
experienced the ropes course. This
was the capstone of the obstacle
courses for our time at OTS. We
all had fun and some of us pushed
ourselves past our limits. The ropes
course challenged our sense of
balance but paid off with some fun
obstacles at the end. We got to swing
from a tower and catch a cargo net
before ending the course with an
awesome zip line ride.
However, the high point for the
day was the tower. We got to scale
a rock wall dozens of feet in the air.
The toothpick gave us amazing view
of the entire area. What really made
the toothpick interesting was when
the flight commanders in the area
would challenge us not to rely on the
crab claw and attempt to distract us
while we were teetering on the beam
up there. The tower culminated with
us repelling down and enjoying the
ride.
All in all we got to spend a
pleasant morning outside enjoying
each others’ company and have some
fun on the obstacles. We all had
fun wish and wish we could spend
more time doing such challenging activities.
Various scenese from the ropes course on April 28, 2011.

May 2 - 8 The Tiger Strike - Flight 3-12 Page 7