Over the course of UMA’s extensive ten year history, tidbits of culture have been added to the student body and flights. One bit of culture has been the addition of Flight mascots. Most people don’t know the story behind them. In turn, this can lead to people questioning why their flight has the mascot it has. If people learned the story behind their mascot then maybe they would be able to grow more connected to their flight as a whole.
Each Flight at UMA has a mascot that represents them. The mascots are as follows: Alpha’s is Wolves, Bravo’s is Blackhawks, Charlie’s is Cobras, Delta’s is Devil Dogs, Echo’s is Eagles, Foxtrot’s is Falcons, Golf’s is Grim Reapers, Hotel’s is Hell Hounds, India’s is Immortals, Juliet’s is Jabberwocks, Kilo’s is Kryptonite, and Lima’s is Legends.
Some of these are easy to follow. Alpha, Delta, and Hotel all follow a canid (a mammal of the dog family) theme. Echo and Foxtrot follow an avian (related to birds) style. Charlie chose a snake, which is still an animal. The ones with animals are generally easy to understand.
Then we get to the ones that can be slightly confusing. Golf and Juliet fall into this category. Most people know about the grim reaper, but compared to the other mascots, the mascot concept is a bit more abstract. Juliet is in a slightly different situation. Not many people know about the Jabberwock, which can make it hard to understand this choice of mascot.
Bravo is in its own category as they chose to be the Blackhawks. Not a bird, but a helicopter. Thankfully it’s a relatively famous helicopter, which helps people know where it came from.
The India Immortals can be quite confounding. Immortal is the state of being incapable of death, but it’s hard to think of a condition being a mascot. Kilo has the mythical stone of Kryptonite. Anybody who’s watched, or read, anything DC knows that kryptonite is the bane of Superman. Makes you wonder if Kilo is the villain. Lima Legends can also be equally confusing. How is an old story supposed to be a mascot?
Each mascot has their story from somewhere. The origins of all the mascots at UMA vary depending on the flight.
Alpha is the “Alpha Wolf Pack”. According to Mrs. McCutchan Alpha Flight chose that mascot because, “what else would Alpha be if not an Alpha Wolf, the symbol of leadership?”
Apparently the origin behind Alpha is from “the Alpha Wolf Bomber Squadron from WWII.”
That’s where the information ends as there wasn’t a specified squadron that can be easily attributed to Alpha. Overall most bomber squadrons performed acts of bravery flying over enemy territory to deliver massive payloads. Even if the specific squadron can’t be found it’s still awe inspiring that they drew inspiration from a WWII bomber squadron.
Bravo is one of the interesting flights that chose an inanimate object as their mascot, the Black Hawk helicopter. The full name is the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.
The story behind this mascot is uncertain, but there are many stories behind the helicopter itself. The Black Hawk was created to replace the UH-1 Huey, at least for the army. Since the Vietnam war the Huey had been in use. Replacing that excellent helicopter had been a challenge, but the Black Hawk was able to do it.
The Charlie flight mascot is the cobra. The flight chose this mascot because, in the words of Mr. Storm, “Because of the alliteration (and it’s better than ‘Charlie Chickens’).” According to Mr. Storm this is where their mascot came from: “Well, when a mommy cobra and a daddy cobra love each other very much….”
Before Charlie flight were the Cobras, they were the Kingpins. The source of the mascot was from Mr. Storm’s deployment. The reason that it changed was because of a flight vote.
The origin of Delta flight’s Devil Dogs is interesting. “The “devil dog” originated from a statement attributed to the German High Command, in remarking on the determinedness of the Marines, to the effect of “Wie sind diese Teufelshunde?”, which means “Who are these Devil Dogs?” Since then the Marines have taken the comment as a compliment to their fighting ability, and refer to their comrades as “devil dogs.”. According to Lt. Col. Woodbrey, “It is a friendly greeting between Marines.”
Echo chose the Eagle as their mascot. What type of eagle is undetermined, and the origin of its selection is unknown.
When choosing their mascot, Foxtrot flight had to choose between either a phoenix or a falcon. Of course, they ended up with the falcon. Foxtrot did have a different mascot last year. According to Mrs. Nielson, “it was Fukuiraptor.” For your information the Fukuiraptor is a dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period.
Golf flight’s mascot has a very extensive history, provided by Sgt. Wass. The mascot is named after numerous famous bomber groups. Each one of them had the logo of a grim reaper, which is the mascot that they ended up choosing.
All of these bomber squadrons were accomplished on top of carrying the logo of the grim reaper. Seemingly this is both the origin and reason behind choosing the grim reaper.
Hotel flight, one of the more renowned flights chose the hellhound as their mascot. This mascot was voted on by the flight members. That vote pulled from “a list of common ‘Hotel’ mascots.”
India’s mascot is less obvious. India’s mascot is the Immortal. Specifics aren’t really there. All that’s known about this flight is that they haven’t changed their mascot since the beginning of flights at the school.
As for Juliet, they took inspiration from the Jabberwocky from “Through the Looking Glass.” Instead of just being the Jabberwockies, they are just the Jabberwocks.
“Many years ago, when I was reassigned to Juliet Flight, I worked with Major Lovejoy. As a courtesy to me and my ELA background, he wanted to choose something literary. He made several suggestions, and I chose the Jabberwocky.” Mrs. McNeely.
The flight has tried to change their mascot to the Jets in the past. Every time they get vetoed by Mrs. McNeely and the other flight advisors.
Kilo flight’s mascot is the fictional element, Kryptonite, noted within the comic book series, Superman. Proving that they are truly the villains, they chose the mascot because it’s a “reference to the bane of Superman.” Kilo’s advisor, Mr. Dockter indicated that the mascot has been in place since he took over four years ago.
Lima officially has a new flight mascot. They were always called the Lima Legends, but now they have a face to go by. Now they use a knight as their mascot, which is very similar to medieval knights. One of the striking details of their new mascot is that it has a cape.
An honorable mention is Maverik, the thunderbird. Maverik is our school’s mascot, but not a flight mascot.
Each Flight has their own mascot. Some of them have changed and some of them are stranger than others. They all identify their flight and will continue to do so. On top of that they provide great culture. Something people are sure to remember.
