Families from across Central Texas made the most of a dreary Saturday morning in San Antonio, when drizzle and lightning delayed the opening ceremonies of The Great Texas Air Show by more than two hours.
While some families packed up and headed out after exploring the inside of stationary planes and seeing other static exhibits, many others stuck around for the main event at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.
Family members paced restlessly, while a young father and his son played catch and old friends caught up over drinks and jumbo corn dogs. Attendees competed to see how many pushups and pullups they could do to win tote bags and T-shirts.
Universities joined branches of the military and local law enforcement in using the free event, which attracted an estimated 80,000 people, to recruit prospective students, service members and cadets.
A large truck turned training unit caught the eye of brothers Randy and Jackson Goodman as they walked toward the main strip around 11 a.m.
Randy, 12, said he was excited after seeing the word cybersecurity on the side of the truck, which was a mobile training unit for a research and training project based at UTSA.
“Cybersecurity has been my dream career since I was like 6 years old,” he said while completing tasks on a computer inside the truck. “I love technology. I love computers.”
He is also interested in the concept of cybersecurity itself – good hackers getting paid to hack into their own servers so they can block bad hackers out, he explained.
His brother, 10, was also excited by the game-based training happening in the truck, although he said he needed more help from hints baked into the game-based training module.
Nate Acevedo, the manager of the initiative known as The Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute said the unit, nicknamed “The Beast,” has been used at multiple schools and will partner with Lackland ISD, where the Goodmans go to school, in the future.
“This is our mobile training vehicle where we provide smaller media manufacturers with no-cost training on general cybersecurity hygiene and cybersecurity awareness,” he said. “Seventy five [percent] to 80% of all attacks come through [individuals].”
“We also provided five schools here in San Antonio with free esport league training,” he added.
The training, he said, is similar to the video game Halo, and students learn entry level skills that would be used in the penetration testing and cybersecurity role.
Outside, families huddled under a tent set up by Texas A&M San Antonio, a university with strong military ties.
“One in six students at TAMU-SA are military connected,” Tila Jernagin, director of military affairs, said as she stocked T-shirts the school was giving away.
The university has a stand-alone department dedicated to serving military connected students, she said.
“We’re military embracing, meaning we embrace the successes of our veteran students and our military connected students,” she said.
Prospective students got notebooks and shirts and had the chance to take a photo with a life-size cutout of President Salvador Hector Ochoa at the tent.
Professors, alumni and students also chatted with prospective students and their families.
Ruby Mannankara-Cabrera, an adjunct professor with the behavior analysis master’s program, said it was a unique and fun way to connect with the community, despite the drab weather.
“A lot of families have been wanting to share material with their extended family and friends, so that’s been nice to have,” she said. “Today’s been really fun to connect with the community and also sharing that we’re here as a campus of Texas A&M.”
Despite the success and growth of the school, some people didn’t know there was a campus in San Antonio, she said.
As the first patch of blue sky showed through the clouds, cheers rang out across the base and a Nanchang CJ-6 tore through the sky, corkscrewing as a trail of dark smoke marked his traversals.
A second show is scheduled for 9 a.m. Sunday, which is expected to be dry and partly sunny.
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly refer to Nate Acevedo.
