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Show HILLTOP TIMES Almost like being there TIMES 5 April 22, 2010 Kids Deployment Day gives students something they can relate to as parents deploy BY MITCH SHAW A line of Hill Field Elementary School students waits Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau D •• to enter an aircraft as part of Kids Deployment Day at the flightline April 14. The event was a chance to experience something resembling their parents' experience during deployments. KIM COOK U.S. Air Force Above, Lilian Combs looks out of one of the aircraft. At left, Natalie Dearinger high-fives MacGruff the Crime Dog as Tyler Deegan leads the way. Below, KalebGallegos tries on a bomb suit helmet with help from Tech. Sgt. Kristoffer Solesbee, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team leader from the 775th Civil Engineer EOD flight A group of students enjoys a robotics demonstration with their teacher and a volunteer parent. CHESS From page 4 Chess Expert by the United States Chess Federation, Liddell explained, "It forces you to make plans. You can't just-willy-nilly move around and do whatever you feel like at the moment. You've got to have a plan. It makes you think in advance." Minnoch added, "It's all logical — it's cause and effect. It's like any other activity. Practice makes perfect. I'm not sure how much it crosses over (into other areas of life). Just because you're good at chess doesn't mean you'll be good at math for example. But there's certainly some type of psychological (benefits): to look, to concentrate, to focus and apply logical thinking." Most players of longstanding have favorite grandmasters. Minnoch's include Bobby Fischer, the famous American who knocked Russian grandmaster Boris Spassky out of his position as world champion during the Cold War, and another RusSian grandmaster, Alexander Alekhine who was strong in the 1920s and 1930s. Both Minnoch and Beunig agree that most of the grandmasters had their eccentricities. Fischer eventually played another rematch with Spassky in Yugoslavia, despite the U.S. embargo against the country. He died in 2008. Beuning points out some commentators thought it somehow appropriate — a 64-square game champion dying at the age of 64. Those who are fans of grandmasters usually carry around books with recorded moves of their games and can recite some of the lore their particular eployments to faroff places are one of the hardest things military families go through. Usually, children watch with tears in their eyes as parents board military planes and leave their families for months at a time. But at Hill Air Force Base on April 14, those roles were completely reversed. Hill held its annual Kids Deployment Day, where more than 600 military children went through the rigors of a deployment processing line. Children from Hill Field Elementary School were given a field trip to the base in the morning and early afternoon, while children from other schools across the Top of Utah participated at night. "It's kind of an all-day thing," said Tech. Sgt. Terri Davis, with the Airman and Family Readiness Center and the event's organizer. "We've got so many military families in this area, and we want all the kids to see a deployment from their parents' perspective." The children, all younger than 12, received dog tags, gas mask fittings and aircraft tours. The children also enjoyed military working-dog demonstrations and entomology exhibits, all of which helped them see exactly what their loved ones would likely encounter while deployed. Davis said the mock deployment was hosted by the Airman and Family Readiness Center, and not only gives children a chance to see what military members experience right before they deploy, but also educates them on how to cope with the temporary loss of a parent. "We're trying to make it realistic so they can really experience it firsthand, but we're also trying to educate them," Davis said. "These kids are obviously going to miss mom and dad very much, but hopefully after this, they'll have a better understanding of why their parents do what they do and be able to cope with it." The children were also given an up-close look at an F-16 Fighting Falcon Thunderbirds demonstration plane, an A-10-C Thunderbolt II, and even piled into a huge C-130 Hercules cargo plane. "We were kind of lucky, because the Thunderbird just happens to be here by chance," said Lt. Col. Mark Proulx, a test pilot at Hill. "Seeing these planes up close on the flightline is something not a lot of kids have the opportunity to do, so this is good for them. They're excited." Hill Field Elementary students Kaedyn Thompson, 5, and Joel Farnsworth, 6, both said they were most excited about seeing the aircraft. "I think it's cool to be here because of the planes," Kaedyn said. chess heroes' legacies include as well as eccentricities. Beuning credits "Fischer Fever" for a lot of players joining the chess ranks in the 1970s. He himself picked up the game while in Vietnam stuck on base during the monsoon season in the '60s, because it was something to do. He joined the USCF in 1976 and seems to have stuck with it. Keep in mind, you don't have to be a bit of an eccentric to be good at chess. "The vast majority of chess players are very normal people," Minnoch said. |