Go round

From USAFA Folklore

While the academic year has two semesters, the intramural and military duty year had three go rounds (sometimes referred to as "gos" or "go arounds") for the fall, winter, and spring (identified as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd go rounds). At various times during the Academy's history, cadets have changed intramural sports and/or cadet military duties each go round.

In the 70s, go rounds were also refered to as "make lists", and numbered accordingly, e.g. 1st, 2d or 3d make list. As noted above, the make lists drove the military assignments for the cadet command structure--each squadron, group and wing staff got a new group of people in position for each make list. The only exception to this rotation were the Wing and Group commander positions--cadets assigned to those positions either remained in them for the entire year or held their positions during the academic semester.

More recently, the go rounds have been arranged differently. There are four per semester, and known as A, B, C, and D-go first semester; E, F, G, and H-go second semester. Physical education classes last one go, and some academic classes last two. Each go lasts ten lessons, which, conveniently, is approximately one month. Squadron grades for inspections and other military performance are added up at the end of each go, and used to determine squadron standings within the wing. Military duties are kept for the entire semester.