United States Air Force Academy Class of 1975

Memories of...The Tunnels

Marty Stytz

All of us in CS-11, but Jay Wallace, were in the tunnels at least once. Had a big raid into them our junior year when most of us went.

	John Howard
I was a doolie in CS-36, and at the end of Hell Week, we were all recognized by the 3rd classmen in the tunnels below the squadron.

	Bud Calloway
Yup, I think during Hell Week as a doolie, or maybe as a 3-degree. I don't remember; pretty cool though.

	Dink Yurko
I’ve been in the tunnels – and scared to death that I would be caught and executed. I followed our erstwhile class president, Bill Ellingsworth, into the tunnels, but I cannot remember why, or how long, or where we went.

	Rick Douglas
For "scientific research" & hot fresh Mitchell Hall donuts – better than Krispy-Kreme!

	Jim Carlson
Walked through a portion of it on my own once. Got creeped out by the idea of getting stuck/hurt and maybe decomposing there out of sight, out of mind. Never found a good reason to go back– or a girlfriend to explore it with.

	Tim O'Connell
Made many a trip to the tunnels from building to building. I thought everyone did, but it looks like I was the experienced “tour guide” of our class. The only time I remember being nervous was a Saturday night when a couple of guys asked me to show them how to get down there. It was winter time so I grabbed an A-jacket off of the bed in the room we were BS- ing in – thought the jacket was mine. When we heard someone while we were under Arnies, I got concerned. Not so much that we would get caught but that if we got caught, I might have an honor violation hit me since I was "disguised" as John Sullivan! – Sure glad "you" didn't get caught John!

	John Sullivan
Gee . . . .I never missed my A-jacket. I didn't know anything about this. Anyway, I still have that A-jacket. I wonder if it would still fit Tim. I bet it would.

	Tim O'Connell
You sure you have it, John? Have you checked lately? Does it look like someone used it for a "crime" lately? You may want to put it in wall safe!

Greg Frick

Ed Wilcock and I were experienced 'cave dwellers' and actually roamed extensively in the tunnels. Hey, what else was there to do on a Saturday night if you didn't have a weekend pass?? I guess we never really weighed how seriously screwed we would have been if we got caught. We did find the tunnel down to the gym and with a little 'tinkering' of the door going into the gym, we were able to get into the gym at night and take some late night and unobserved swims in the pool. Heck they probably have cameras going now and make this improbable! We heard that there were emergency tunnels leading from the New Dorm area down to other parts of the Academy such as the Prep School – we searched and searched and never did find it – would be curious if anyone else ever discovered the pathway or could confirm if it exists. What’s amazing is the extent of the underground facilities that are available underneath for the workers that maintained the underground infrastructure. We were scoping out their locker room once and almost got busted by someone. Overall, roaming the tunnels was pretty harmless fun to fight the boredom. In later years, I think some people were using it to hide drugs or something, and I think now if you get caught down there it is cause for immediate expulsion!

	Hoss Erving
Ask Lee Demitry about his late night excursions trying to find his way OUT of the tunnels (without his glasses) after being hauled down there asleep, wrapped up in his Golden Magnet at 0200 by the After-Midnight-Foosball Boys of Bulldog 13 (Parker, Ruddock, Geiser, Tamkun, Ruth, Fritzsche, Erving, et. al.) Do the words "You guys piss me off" strike a familiar note?

	Ric Lewallen
In third class year, I met up with the members of the KAFA radio station club. One of the things we had to do was occasionally string wire to an on-scene site through the tunnels. I abused that privilege to the max and was quite a tunnel rat. I got to know the janitors who worked in there, and was never questioned when found on the elevators going to/coming from the tunnel. One time, I was down there and took a classmate with me. We caught another couple of cadets down there and chased them out. I was in the drama club and was in a BS session during practice when I told the story of chasing some other cadets. Suddenly I had a hammerlock on me and this guy was yelling, "That was me, you SOB!!!" When he finally calmed down, he told me his side of the story. We had chased them near Arnold Hall. He had popped out in that loading dock that faced the planetarium between Arnold and Harmon Hall. When he came out, there was an AP car there with its lights on. Thinking "we" had alerted the APs, they thought they were total goners and walked to their doom. As it turns out the AP had stopped someone for speeding on the road in front of Arnold hall. They could not see the stopped car and just about passed out from relief that they were not the object of the AP’s attention.

	Tony Toich
I will fess up to being in the tunnels, during my Junior year, with Mike Anderson, while he was 2nd Group Sergeant Major!

	Mike Anderson
You dawg! Yes, I knew the tunnels very well. Explored them as a smack – all the way until I was a senior. There was a tunnel from near Fairchild to the heating plant. It was at a constant slope and awesome to "skateboard" down in a fashion. There was a way to get to the gym via the tunnels. My confession would be the time I explored the tunnels "legally" when I was the cadet officer of the day! That was fun ‘cause I got to discover all the legit ways and elevators to get into the tunnels! Quite a few of us 14 Cobras were excellent Tunnel Rats if I recall!