2010 "State of the Council Address"

[Pendragon]

I noticed this morning that your Cadet King, or whoever operates the site, pulled the video down from the facebook page.   I am really debating whether or not sending him a message asking him why he decided to do so.  If anything, I am going to send a message asking for that report he mentioned.  I am interested to see it when it is published.

I am not a member of your organization, though I am familiar with Civil Air Patrol.

Now, I am not posting to offend any of you; you have every right to speak your mind.  Freedom of speech is nice, isn't it?

As an outsider, I took no offense to his address.  Sound enhancement, camera cuts, bad lighting... that's what you guys are harping on?  I know you are a nonprofit, so I imagine there wasn't a budget for him to make this film.  It just seems like he was trying to make something out of nothing.  I can understand that: building something from scratch with little to work with. 

Your perception is your reality, and I get that, but I think you are confusing arrogance with confidence.  There is a difference in being arrogant in character and arrogant in action.  I previously did not know who he was, so the first however many seconds built a background for me.  It told me he knew what he was doing based on years of experience.  I think your young cadets can look up to that.  It seems to me, they would have opportunities to look forward to.

I liked the quote the one guy on here gave from Eleanor Roosevelt.  FDR was one of my favorite presidents, and Eleanor was a great woman.  I am glad that your Cadet King is thinking big, "discussing ideas."

He is out there, trying to do something, trying to make a difference; and I do not think it is self-serving or that he is bragging, I think he is being accountable by trying to tell you, both in the video, and on the facebook page.

I served in the military, and I have worked in business.  In the business world, there are times when it is cut-throat, and ego is everything.  There's nothing wrong with ego.  My take on your posts is that each of you feel challenged and that you had your ego attacked.  If you say you do not feel that way, well, then you should, because this kid's got something!  He reminds me a lot of me and many of my fellow general officers.  I think this boys vision is great!  I hope he can achieve it, despite the opposition.

I am the CEO of a company, and I would hire a guy like your Cadet King to come work for me any day.   As for the rest of you, enjoy your freedom of speech that my buddies and I served to protect for over forty years.  I just hope that you put as much time as you do posting on here with complaints as you do asserting efforts in pursuit of constructive projects that are going to help your organization and its members.

In the service, you would never do this to one of your own.  At the end of the day, you are all on the same team.  That is what is offensive from all of this: not his video, but the fact that members like you would chastise to such a degree one of your own.

That's my outside input.  I'll leave you all to your "small-minded discussion of people..."  rather than "ideas." 

Regards,

[Ned]

Folks,

All cadets in CAP participate in a leadership laboratory.  Unlike some youth programs, we place a great emphasis on cadets actually leading others and place them in positions of great responsibility (under senior member supervision).

WIWAC, I think I did some terrific things.  On the other hand, I also had some monumental failures in judgment as I was attempting to do great things.  (Buy me a beer and ask Jenkins or me about kazoos at encampment review ceremonies sometime.)

I guess the point is that we expect every cadet to overcome challenges and sometimes their performances are less than we (or they) expect.  Indeed, the ability to fail in a safe environment and learn from it is the hallmark of our program.

I submit that publicly and permanently (in the internet sense) pointing out perceived failures of individual cadets is not what we should be doing.  Indeed, it is kinda the opposite of what responsible seniors do.  This is especially troubling when we do it by name and in a way that will follow the cadet forever (as long as Google survives.)

So, accept my personal request to resist the temptation to do so any further.  The video under discussion has been taken down.  Everyone involved is learning from the experience in the finest tradition of our program.

In the future, if you come across items that concern CP at the national level, please feel free to contact NHQ instead of spreading the problem over the internet.  As you know, we have incredibly dedicated full time corporate team members working every day at NHQ who can and do respond quickly when necessary.

Also, we have dedicated volunteer CP leaders at the National level, including a former NB member whose current full time CAP assignment is to serve as the NCAC advisor, Col Larry Trick.

All it takes is a quick email or phone call.  I know that is certainly less fun than publicly ridiculing a college student about his communications skills, but it is quicker and more effective.

And I submit, more professional.

All of you are free to email me or call me with CP concerns 24/7.  It is my job.

Now, let it go . . . .


Ned Lee
Lt Col, CAP
National Cadet Advisor
(Contact information easily available on eServices, not repeated here simply to avoid bot-harvest)

[raivo]

Agreed. I could probably have kept a few of my thoughts to myself, but it is what it is now.

Although I will comment that I find it peculiar that three of the participants in this thread only registered their accounts in the last three days, and apparently for the sole purpose of commenting here.

Peculiar.

[Spike]

Agreed. I could probably have kept a few of my thoughts to myself, but it is what it is now.

Although I will comment that I find it peculiar that three of the participants in this thread only registered their accounts in the last three days, and apparently for the sole purpose of commenting here.

Peculiar.

Not peculiar, but purposeful. 

Ned is right though.  No matter how much of joke this was or how wrong of an idea to do a presentation in that manner, it is a learning experience for that Cadet, and we should all shut up and move on to stuff like uniforms or what Wing is worst. 

[Stonewall]

I served in the military, and I have worked in business.  In the business world, there are times when it is cut-throat, and ego is everything.  There's nothing wrong with ego.  My take on your posts is that each of you feel challenged and that you had your ego attacked.  If you say you do not feel that way, well, then you should, because this kid's got something!  He reminds me a lot of me and many of my fellow general officers.  I think this boys vision is great!  I hope he can achieve it, despite the opposition.

As for the rest of you, enjoy your freedom of speech that my buddies and I served to protect for over forty years. 

In the service, you would never do this to one of your own.

I looked through the posts and of all the folks that posted in this discussion, 9 are current, former or retired military.  So don't tell me military folks don't eat their own.  And don't act like you're the sole provider of freedom while we're just a bunch of unpaid volunteers.  There are many campaign medals to go around here. 

[Bluelakes 13]

If nothing else, these 5 pages of messages shows one thing (among many others).

We should really reconsider not allowing folks to join anonymously.

[Major Lord]

The service would "never do this to one of (their) own"? The Haditha Marines? Col West? The Seals currently on trial? And lets not forget our own beloved Billy Mitchell, who was thrown out like a paper prophylactic when his opinions did not track with the brass.....

As far as trashing a cadet for publicly embarrassing CAP, I understand Ned's instinct to try and keep it in-house. Unfortunately, when it goes out on Facebook, Youtube, MTV, etc.  the cats well out of the bag...I maintain that the public domain is the most appropriate domain to discuss a public fiasco. Our attempts at letting the system work in secret and trusting those in the appropriate echelon to handle things, resulted in cataclysmic damage to CAP and many members. Of course, I am not comparing this problem to Tony Pineda (AKA, Lord Vodemort, HWSNBN, Etc.) but only the mechanism of exposing problems to the light of day.

Major Lord

[flyguy06]

Why is there still discussion about this? I thought Ned's post would be the last. Just let it go folks. Move on. Nothing to see here.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Would make sense to use CAPID as part of signup here.

[SilverEagle2]

^^ Cause who is going to validate that? 

[Eclipse]

^^ Cause who is going to validate that? 

There are any number of people on this board with the access to validate CAP membership, however that would change the
dynamics of this forum in a direction that the mods do not support.

FWIW, I'd prefer it if this was restricted to members-only, since I have no idea why someone who isn't a current member would care
enough to participate in these generally trivial discussions.  At the point that I separate from CAP (for whatever reason), River will
have the 2MFT stars all to himself.

[Fuzzy]

I can't believe how quickly the video was removed. Sounds like somebody got a phone call.

[lordmonar]

The service would "never do this to one of (their) own"? The Haditha Marines? Col West? The Seals currently on trial? And lets not forget our own beloved Billy Mitchell, who was thrown out like a paper prophylactic when his opinions did not track with the brass.....

Not to mention Admiral Kimmel, Admiral Boorda, Maj Gen Terry Schwalier, the two F-15 technicans in Germany (one committed suicide), the Airborn Battle Manager in the blackhawk shoot down in Northern Iraq....there is a long list of miitary people who get thrown under the bus for one reason or another.

[Short Field]

He reminds me a lot of me and many of my fellow general officers.    I am the CEO of a company, and I would hire a guy like your Cadet King to come work for me any day.   ... enjoy your freedom of speech that my buddies and I served to protect for over forty years. 

I guess the General is sending King a job offer as we speak....

[JC004]

...me and many of my fellow general officers.  I think this boys vision is great!

Generals write english goodly?

[JayT]

So......bascally, did someone creat these new accounts?

[raivo]

Maybe, maybe not.

Strange coincidence, though.

[PHall]

Pendragon = Cadet King's father???

Don't know if it's true or not. But from the tone of his post, I wouldn't bet against it either.

[FARRIER]

I noticed this morning that your Cadet King, or whoever operates the site, pulled the video down from the facebook page.   I am really debating whether or not sending him a message asking him why he decided to do so.  If anything, I am going to send a message asking for that report he mentioned.  I am interested to see it when it is published.

I am not a member of your organization, though I am familiar with Civil Air Patrol.

Now, I am not posting to offend any of you; you have every right to speak your mind.  Freedom of speech is nice, isn't it?

As an outsider, I took no offense to his address.  Sound enhancement, camera cuts, bad lighting... that's what you guys are harping on?  I know you are a nonprofit, so I imagine there wasn't a budget for him to make this film.  It just seems like he was trying to make something out of nothing.  I can understand that: building something from scratch with little to work with. 

Your perception is your reality, and I get that, but I think you are confusing arrogance with confidence.  There is a difference in being arrogant in character and arrogant in action.  I previously did not know who he was, so the first however many seconds built a background for me.  It told me he knew what he was doing based on years of experience.  I think your young cadets can look up to that.  It seems to me, they would have opportunities to look forward to.

I liked the quote the one guy on here gave from Eleanor Roosevelt.  FDR was one of my favorite presidents, and Eleanor was a great woman.  I am glad that your Cadet King is thinking big, "discussing ideas."

He is out there, trying to do something, trying to make a difference; and I do not think it is self-serving or that he is bragging, I think he is being accountable by trying to tell you, both in the video, and on the facebook page.

I served in the military, and I have worked in business.  In the business world, there are times when it is cut-throat, and ego is everything.  There's nothing wrong with ego.  My take on your posts is that each of you feel challenged and that you had your ego attacked.  If you say you do not feel that way, well, then you should, because this kid's got something!  He reminds me a lot of me and many of my fellow general officers.  I think this boys vision is great!  I hope he can achieve it, despite the opposition.

I am the CEO of a company, and I would hire a guy like your Cadet King to come work for me any day.   As for the rest of you, enjoy your freedom of speech that my buddies and I served to protect for over forty years.  I just hope that you put as much time as you do posting on here with complaints as you do asserting efforts in pursuit of constructive projects that are going to help your organization and its members.

In the service, you would never do this to one of your own.  At the end of the day, you are all on the same team.  That is what is offensive from all of this: not his video, but the fact that members like you would chastise to such a degree one of your own.

That's my outside input.  I'll leave you all to your "small-minded discussion of people..."  rather than "ideas." 

Regards,

This is nonsense from a 20 year old, 3rd class ROTC cadet.

[Cecil DP]

The horse died three days ago, quit flogging it!