Air Academy High School - Vapor Trails Yearbook (USAF Academy, CO)

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122 81 - 82: Cosmic Travel Supreme Decrslons Million Dollar Music Usually at the end of a school year, students are astonished to realize nine months have gone by and they will be passed to another grade, or out into the world. But what actually went on? Students found themselves swamped with digestive systems and quadratic equations, with little time for the real world. So, in response to that ques- tion, here's what happened in the past year . . . President Ronald Reagan celebrated the first anniversary of his inauguration in January. But after a year in office the national economic situation contin- ued to alarm the public as interest rates set record highs with inflation and unemployment rates trailing close be- hind. Students had their own thoughts on some issues that hit closer to home. Junior Melody Harris felt, lt's still hard to tell at this point if what Reagan is doing is right or wrong. Draft registra- tion really worries me, and so does the reduction in student loans, but maybe Reagan's solutions will work. The Rolling Stones' first tour in years led to a series of record-breaking con- certs with thousands of tickets being sold in a matter of hours. The sell-out concerts grossed more than S14 million. Playing in 40 cities across the nation, the Stones gave Americans a reassur- ing look at music in the 80's. Students overwhelmingly approved of the Stones' once again being a ma- jor force in the music industry. Junior Monica Ciletti summed up students' re- actions by saying, l think it's great that they're back. Even though I like some of their olders songs better than their newer ones, I still feel they are one of the few groups who have been able to change with the times and still be successful.

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The United States has always turned to sports for much more than simple relaxation. So when the all- American sport of baseball disillusioned many with its exasperating strikes, fans relied on football to pull them out of the slump. And what a boost people got. The San Francisco Forty-Niners, deemed the Cinderella of the NFL, had people cheering all over the country. and before anyone knew it, a new hero had emerged. As 105 million fans watched, quarterback .loe Montana kept a cool head and helped his team maintain a 26-21 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl January 24. Q, Poland and her angry workers made headlines every day in 1981 - 82, and union leader Lech Walesa became a modern-day hero. As workers rose up in protest over food shortages and unreasonable working conditions, the free world cheered as Solidarity made great ad- vances and then held their breath as martial law was imposed and Walesa detained by martial authorities. Walesa became a symbol of the Po- lish struggle and the ideal of freedom. Anwar Sadat's dramatic visit to Jeru- salem in 1977 launched peace negoti- ations with lsrael and paved the way for the Camp David accords, ending 30 years of war between Egypt and lsra- el. Hrg magazine proclaimed Sadat the man of the year that year. But on October 6, 1981, as Egypt's president reviewed his troops, gun- men opened fire on Sadat and his aides, leaving a scene of death and confusion. The world-shaking event was the la- test in a string of assassinations and attempts, and as a hero was bUfi9d, the world hoped the trend would be -reversed. 1 21 Student Life

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r-'taxa , 118' Q Win-i' Long delayed and widely criticized, Columbia's sec- ond flight in November of 1981 finally put to rest any doubts that there will one day be regular commuter runs to the cosmos. From the instant of Columbia's touchdown, a mo- ment watched by tens of millions of people in the U.S. and millions more around the world, Americans seemed to go into orbit themselves. Senior Todd Praisner felt the excitement of Columbia also, and said, The whole concept of space is amaz- ing. Who knows what could be up there? l'm all for the space shuttlel Americans cheered as Ronald Reo- gon fulfilled a campaign promise by nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. President Reagan described O'Con- nor, sworn in in the fall of 1981, as having unique qualities of tempera- ment, fairness, and intellectual capac- ity. All AP news photos courtesy of the Sun 1 23 Student Life