At Williams Field Air Force Base (1941-1993), humor was important for helping pilots-in-training relax and build team spirit. Each flight class created its own special identity with unique mascots and funny mottos to solidify their bond and help make it through the Air Force’s tough training program. Teamwork was important to make sure groups could work well together in stressful situations. The base, affectionately called Willie, trained some of the best pilots in the world, while also serving as an environment for deep and lasting friendships.

This exhibition features objects and stories from the Spirited Devils, the 11th class of trainees to graduate from Willie in 1991, which is also referred to as 91-11. Their mascot was the Tasmanian Devil, a cartoon character popular in the 1990s. Equally as humorous was the class’s motto, “Hurling through the air” rooted in an inside joke among the class.

Undergraduate Training Pilots spent their free time off-base, relaxing and bonding with their friends. At their first party as trainees, members of Class 91-11 took over the stage when the band took a break and started playing music on the spot. Impressed by their whirlwind energy, one person at the party said they came through like the Tasmanian Devil. Because of this, Class 91-11 chose the Tasmanian Devil as their mascot during their time at Willie.

Back on campus, Class 91-11 joined Willie’s longstanding tradition of painting ceiling tiles to reflect their unique experiences. In the summer of 1990 when they began training, the Arizona heat hit a record high of 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The extreme heat, combined with high altitude and flying speed, caused most of the pilots to vomit, or "hurl," which is humorously shown on the “Hurling Taz” tile.

Class bonding experiences at Willie included fun and playful activities. To celebrate a pilot’s first solo flight on the T-37 training aircraft, their classmates put them in a specially decorated tub and dunked them into icy cold water while everyone cheered and laughed. In this picture, Charley Camplen of class 91-11 is getting ready to be dunked after completing his first solo flight on a T-37.

Yearbooks from Willie, like this one from Class 76-08, show the friendships formed by each group of trainees. The page on the left is a collage of funny pictures and captions, like today’s memes, and the page on the right is a joke glossary of terms used by the trainees. While terms like “washed out” were common at all Air Force bases, some were more specific to each class’s unique experiences.

The goal for graduates of Willie’s training program was to fly Air Force jets. However, when the Gulf War ended in February 1991, the U.S. government decided to close Williams Field as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act. This sudden change left the Air Force with too many newly trained pilots. Unfortunately, instead of flying, these recent graduates were assigned to desk jobs for two to three years. To show their frustration, Class 91-11 painted a ceiling tile with their mascot, the wild "Taz," looking sad and stuck at a desk.

Class 91-11’s graduation scarf, designed by Tim Boese, was made to look like a runway. It shows training planes taking off into the sky, along with the funny image of desks with wings landing. This clever design expresses the graduates’ frustration and symbolizes their wish to be flying rather than sitting at a desk. Despite the humor, it also reflects their determination to leave behind the classroom and soar into the skies as pilots. Indeed, the graduates eventually went on to fulfill their dreams of flying planes for the U.S. Air Force.