Operation Junior Deployer: success! Published Sept. 23, 2011 By David Edwards Air Force Academy Public Affairs U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- If all deployments were like the one Saturday at the Air Force Academy, Uncle Sam would probably have to start turning people away. Who could say no to oodles of military swag, cake and ice cream upon returning, and malaria pills that looked suspiciously like Skittles ... because they were Skittles? Certainly not the intrepid souls who deployed around the breakfast hour and were back in time for dinner the same day. What kind of deployment was this? It was Operation Junior Deployer, which the Academy's 10th Air Base Wing was offering for the second time to give kids a taste of what their parents go through when they deploy for real. Two busloads of adventure seekers experienced a deployment that was extremely compressed - and extremely awesome. "It wasn't even a question of do we want to go; it was just when," said Michael Delforge, whose daughters Olivia and Gabby enjoyed their deployment. "It seems to get better every year, but the redeployment was the thing I really wanted to see. The Youth Center had a great ad for this." Delforge, who works in finance at the Academy, said the family is very familiar with the junior deployer concept from having done it at other military bases. The person who makes it all happen at the Academy is Master Sgt. Lisa Taylor. She is in charge of family readiness, so the event is a big part of her job. She took the lead role this year and is involved in the event every step of the way. That means coordinating a major production that required four to five months of planning. "This is a huge event," Taylor said. "We had approximately 130 volunteers." Taylor said the highlight of the day for the kids was the spate of activities at Jacks Valley. They watched a K-9 demonstration by kennel master Chris Jakubin and charged through the land navigation course and the leadership reactive course. The Bird and the Academy cheerleaders were there to greet them on their return to the homestead. The original plan was to make Operation Junior Deployer an annual event, Taylor said. But organizers decided on an 18-month cycle instead. The Academy's program is modeled on that of similar events held at other bases. Last year's theme of the Year of the Air Force Family complemented the vision nicely. "We had about $20,000 offered by the Air Force that we could compete for, and this was one of our proposals," Taylor said. Technical Sgt. Amber Wortman talked with Taylor after most of the parents and children had already filed out of the Youth Center courtyard. They were discussing the future of the event when Wortman's daughter said decisively, "I want to do it again next year." No doubt a lot of other parents heard those same words.