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Encampment stories

Started by Kal, March 28, 2008, 12:24:31 AM

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Sergeant Langley

I have some of the best encampment storys ever.

    Oklahoma Summer 2012- We are standing at attention on a field for like 10min. We were all starting to get agitated. Then we see two Blackhawks coming our way. Then the staff told us to put our thumbs back and maybe we would get a ride. Guess what they landed and took us up in sorties. Best time ever with both doors open. Although at the end they tore are barracks apart and made scarecrows with are uniforms.

    Texas Summer 2012- Best encampment ever. National Guard gave our flight a bunch of Girl Scout cookies. All went well until some stupid cadet ate PEANUT BUTTER cookies when he had a allergy. Staff were mad. The guy who was on CQ with me fell asleep outside. I just barely managed to get him up before a senior member walked over. Flight Sergeant sadly was not the best role model. 
Austin Langley C/MSGT, CAP

Eclipse

http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=12750.msg231808#msg231808

Due to various circumstances, I missed Spring this year for the first time in 13 years.

"That Others May Zoom"

spazyjosh

   Last year at Utah Wing Encampment encampment they called out all the cadets who's hair was out of regs. They told them that their hair was out of regs and that they were going to cut it for them. One cadet completely serious raises his hand and asks "Are we going to a salon?"

      After hearing this the staff all try to contain themselves from laughing until finally the squadron commander said yes. Needless to say the cadet was disappointed when he was lead to a barrack built to the temporary standards of WWII with a little sign that read Wendover Salon and. sweaty men with razors buzzing hair

NIN

Encampment 1989. Its two weeks long, first week being Cadet Leadership School & OJT, 2nd week will be basic encampment and another round of OJT, plus some senior training events.  I'm the Chief TAC and the Leadership Officer for CLS, and this is my first encampment after 3 years of Active Duty. I hardly knew anybody but the senior cadet staff.

During the first weekend, I remarked to the CLS director, an old friend and mentor, that I'd never met this one C/Capt in the OJT program, and that she looked "kind of cute." (mind you, I'm like 23, she's 18, CPP is new, and all I'm doing is remarking...)

Each day during chow, I notice that this c/Capt is always sitting someplace in the chow hall where she's facing me, and I catch her checking me out. I'd look up from my tray or away from the conversation and she'd be looking my way and then she'd look away like she got caught.

By Sunday dinner, I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy and yes, she's definitely checking me out at chow.

"Ron," I say to the CLS director, "I'm pretty sure c/Capt Stuart (not her real name) is checking me out."

"Pffft, Darin. You're crazy."

"I dunno, I keep seeing her looking at me when I glance up. Its strange."

"You're seeing things, man. She's a cadet, you're old...."

I shrug my shoulders and go back to dinner, but it still nags me. Something just isn't right.

Each morning, we got the cadets up at 0545 for PC.  I'm a solid sleeper, so to keep my barracks mates from killing me with flying combat boots, my male Cadet TAC would come in the barracks at 0530 and wake me up each morning.  My bunk is the first bed inside the door of our open bay single floor barracks, so he literally just comes in, shakes me awake and then leaves.

Tuesday morning, I'm busily sawing logs or dreaming of sugarplums or something and I hear "Sir.. Sir.. get up" while I'm being shaken awake.  I'm sleeping on my left side, head to the wall, back to the door.  I partly roll over to my right, saying "yeah, yeah.. thanks.." to the figure of c/Capt Stuart, female, one each (the same c/Capt who I think is checking me out all the time) waking me up, and then roll back over to my left into my original position.

Then it hits me. My eyes click open in barracks gloom.  c/Capt Stuart?!? Wait, WHAT?

I roll over and sit up straight in bed. My male Cadet TAC is standing between the foot of my rack and my wall locker, his back to the barracks door, leaning over like he's just woken me up, like he's done the previous two mornings.

"Sir? You ok?"

"uhhh," I rub my face, "Yeah, be there in a minute.."

He turns and exits the barracks. I'm certain I'm losing my mind, now.  c/Capt Stuart? Waking me up? Really? This has CPP violation written all over it and all I did was imagine it!

I glance across the aisle and idly notice that the CLS director is in his bunk, propped up on one elbow, looking at me in a bemused fashion.  I'm 3/4 asleep still, so it doesn't register. Ron is NEVER awake at 0530. So why is he now?

I get up, grab my boom box and head over to the barracks in the pre-dawn cold to wake the troopies up. I meet my male & female cadet TACs outside the male cadet barracks.

"Sir, are you OK? You didn't look too alert this morning," says my male Cadet TAC.

"yeah, I'll be fine, I just... I just didn't quite wake up right away or something."

That morning at breakfast, I'm relating the story to the CLS Director.

"Man, you're losing it,"  he says. "CLS is affecting your brain or something.  A female cadet in the male senior staff barracks?  How would that even happen? I saw the cadet TAC wake you up.."

I agree and finish my breakfast, certain that I'm a deviant or something.

Later that day, after I notice that the c/Capt is not checking me out at chow now, I'm headed toward our classroom after lunch when I hear a female voice shouting "Sir! Sir!" behind me.  I turn around, its c/Capt Stuart running to catch up with me on the road.  We exchange salutes.

"What can I do for you, Capt Stuart?"

"Sir, I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize? For what?"

"Well, you see, sir, the Major, he put me up to it. I don't want to cause any trouble.."

"Put you up to what? Trouble?"

"He wanted to pull a little practical joke on you, and, well, sir, I didn't think it was fair that it should go on too far.."

Suddenly it dawns on me. My friend, the CLS director (and, honestly, a hell of a practical joker) just totally put one over on me. A multi-day, multi-participant practical joke of epic proportions.  Come to find out, he'd immediately enlisted her aid on the gag, told her to just "get caught looking" at chow, and he'd do the rest. 

Later, he'd engineered the whole "wake up the Lt for PT" scenario.  She'd been frightened to death that I'd wake right up when she shook me, and she said that when I rolled over and opened my eyes, she nearly bolted right there.  My Cadet TAC was standing right behind her and as soon as I'd rolled back over, she stepped back thru the open barracks door and he stepped forward.  2 seconds of "Wait, WHAT?" on my part and the deal was sealed.

The good thing was, its was only Tuesday of the first week of a two week encampment! I had at least 10 more days to scheme for my revenge!

(as an aside, the c/Capt later became a flight officer and is still a good friend 20+ years later. And we still laugh our heads off at this story)
Darin Ninness, Col, CAP
I have no responsibilities whatsoever
I like to have Difficult Adult Conversations™
The contents of this post are Copyright © 2007-2024 by NIN. All rights are reserved. Specific permission is given to quote this post here on CAP-Talk only.

miss.aviator.girl

 I don't intend to share any stories, but ILWG Summer Encampment 2013 was positively outstanding! I went as a basic. Were any of you there?

BillB

#405
In 1965, Florida Wing ran what could be called a CLS followed by a two week encampment followed by a 2nd CLS and two week encampment. I had been dating the Senior Supply officer for a year or so and during the first encampment I said lets go to Georgia and get married (GA didn't have a 3 day waiting period and was close to Tyndall AFB). She said yes and I grabbed the Cadet PAO to shoot photos and we took off for Donaldsonville GA. When we returned I gave her an extra name tag that I had with her "new name", it took two days before the female cadet staff realized her name had changed and they were up in arms that they were not involved. Senior staff knew, cadet staff did not.
So the sneaky cadet staff got busy and during the 2nd encampment they got The Tyndall AFB Dining Hall staff to make up a giagantic sheet cake, got the base Chaplain's OK to hold a full military wedding in the Base Chapel, with all 300+ cadets attending. Wedding photos even made the Base newspaper.
Of course that couldn't happen under todays regulations and CPP. By the way, the Cadet PAO later became a Wing Commander (not FL Wing)
Gil Robb Wilson # 19
Gil Robb Wilson # 104

Silva Bullet

Cool little story here... My flight commander this year (foxtrot flight) at the 2013 GAWG encampment was Lt. Johnson... This years NBB Cadet Commander!

Hooah Ma'am!

TJT__98

Training Day Four, I woke up at what felt like time for PT and thought something along the lines of "Theres no point in going back to sleep, I'll be woken up in ten minutes anyway." And started getting my PT belt and socks on while in bed. Then I started to notice that all the cadets in my flight were either up or waking up.We sat waiting for PT for what felt like two hours, and then I saw the door open, the light come on and my chief walk to the second row of bunks and said in a normal, conversation tone:"Well, you're all awake already so theres no point in doing this. Showers and BDUs."
C/MSgt
Wright Award 21322

Joystick

Quote from: TJT__98 on July 11, 2013, 08:43:47 AM
Training Day Four, I woke up at what felt like time for PT and thought something along the lines of "Theres no point in going back to sleep, I'll be woken up in ten minutes anyway." And started getting my PT belt and socks on while in bed. Then I started to notice that all the cadets in my flight were either up or waking up.We sat waiting for PT for what felt like two hours, and then I saw the door open, the light come on and my chief walk to the second row of bunks and said in a normal, conversation tone:"Well, you're all awake already so theres no point in doing this. Showers and BDUs."

Hey did you go to the Al/MS encampment? I was there and had an awesome time.

My encampment story is that my flight and I were in the van heading back to our base and we were picking and singing Jodies. We started the "Down by the River" Jodie and randomly picked a flight from encampment to add to the lines " ran into ____, had a little talk, we pushed 'em, we shoved 'em, we threw 'em in the river, and laughed as they drowned, we don't need no ____, a hanging around." Well it turns out the cadet officer that was sitting in the front seat was the flight commander of that flight. Whoops!

miss.aviator.girl

#409
Okay,okay. Here's a story from ILWG Summer Encampment 2013. I was the guidon bearer for Bravo Flight. (Bravo Blackhawks HUAHHHHHH!) One night about a male cadet from Echo Flight decided to steal our guidon while we were showering. Okay, I am a female cadet. The guidon was posted in a female room. Nobody was in the room, and this MALE cadet went into a FEMALE room without permission and grabbed our guidon that I POSTED. (Whenever  I posted the guidon I was always very loud about it.) So myself and the other female cadets I was bunked with return from showers and find our guidon is missing. So I find our flight sergeant and she and I went around knocking on everyone's doors looking for our guidon. Now, my voice sounded all scratchy because my throat was sore because at the time I didn't know how to speak from the diaphragm. People told me I sounded like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. So I went around saying " Where's our guidon, my precious, my precious!". It was hilarious. We eventually got it and everybody got yelled at by the Cadet Commander about the rules of guidon stealing. That was a great encampment.

Squadron Honor Cadet, ILWG Summer Encampment 2013

Spaceman3750

I didn't think guidon stealing was allowed at all?

miss.aviator.girl

#411
Quote from: Spaceman3750 on July 15, 2013, 01:38:07 AM
I didn't think guidon stealing was allowed at all?

They allowed it at that encampment, but there were certain rules. It got pretty confusing. As the week went on, cadets from that flight made many more attempts to steal out guidon. (My precious! My precious!)

PHall

So, they allow guidon theft at the ILWG Encampment.


Interesting....

Майор Хаткевич

Quote from: PHall on July 15, 2013, 02:58:03 AM
So, they allow guidon theft at the ILWG Summer Encampment.


Interesting....

Fixed that for you.

Garibaldi

Quote from: PHall on July 15, 2013, 02:58:03 AM
So, they allow guidon theft at the ILWG Encampment.


Interesting....

Time honored tradition...WIWAC, at encampment, the only time you can't snag it is at mess or if it's been secured for the evening. You could snatch it out of an unsuspecting bearer's hand, but you had to be ready for a fight. If you lost it, your flight lost points and had to eat last until they either earned it back or stole it back. Oh, the memories...I cheated and tied it to my arm. Tried handcuffs but it made presenting a bit difficult.
Still a major after all these years.
ES dude, leadership ossifer, publik affaires
Opinionated and wrong 99% of the time about all things

TJT__98

Quote from: Joystick on July 14, 2013, 10:08:14 PM
Quote from: TJT__98 on July 11, 2013, 08:43:47 AM
Training Day Four, I woke up at what felt like time for PT and thought something along the lines of "Theres no point in going back to sleep, I'll be woken up in ten minutes anyway." And started getting my PT belt and socks on while in bed. Then I started to notice that all the cadets in my flight were either up or waking up.We sat waiting for PT for what felt like two hours, and then I saw the door open, the light come on and my chief walk to the second row of bunks and said in a normal, conversation tone:"Well, you're all awake already so theres no point in doing this. Showers and BDUs."

Hey did you go to the Al/MS encampment? I was there and had an awesome time.

My encampment story is that my flight and I were in the van heading back to our base and we were picking and singing Jodies. We started the "Down by the River" Jodie and randomly picked a flight from encampment to add to the lines " ran into ____, had a little talk, we pushed 'em, we shoved 'em, we threw 'em in the river, and laughed as they drowned, we don't need no ____, a hanging around." Well it turns out the cadet officer that was sitting in the front seat was the flight commander of that flight. Whoops!
Yes, what flight were you in?
C/MSgt
Wright Award 21322

Joystick


TheKing

There were some very hilarious things that happened at my encampment. I'll only name one.
It was my third barracks inspection, and I had been studying my OI's required knowledge section furiously as to not be humiliated when I was asked my OI question.

The time came for the Inspection, and when the Squadron staff busted in our barracks door, I stood at attention immediately along with my other peers. The staff went around to everybody, and as they did so, I noticed that they asked a lot of questions about the chain of command. The chain of command that I had not even thought to study AT ALL.
So, they came to me and asked how I was doing, I sounded off "OUTSTANDING, SIR", he checked my uniform, and he asked a question:
"Who is your squadron commander?"
Perfect, I thought. I had no idea who this person was, so I said the first name I remembered from the OI. "Lt. Col. Andy Wiggs, Sir!"
They finished up the inspection and the moment they leave the room, my flight sergeant goes insane. He said, "THAT WAS THE BEST INSPECTION I HAD EVER SEEN, UNTIL WE GOT TO THE OI QUESTIONS! CADET KING!"
He had just called my name, and I just sighed and waited for his verbal beating.
The flight sergeant continued, saying "The squadron commander, who was standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, is not SENIOR MEMBER Andy Wiggs, it was CADET FIRST LIEUTENANT TIMOTHY MCCAN!"
That was all the encouragement I needed to study the chain of command.

PHall

While conducting the inspection portion of our Squadron Drill Comp (winner goes to the Group Comp) I asked each cadet I inspected two questions.
The first was one of the required memory work items and the second was a chain of command question.
I had just ONE cadet who could tell me who the National Commander of CAP was. :-\
Memory work they had down. Chain of Command up thru the California Wing Commander, no problem.
But asking who the Region or National Commander was usually resulted in guessing or in a few cases no answer at all.
The Flight Commander's found out right there where they needed to devote some time to.

TheKing

Another funny one, during flight time at the end of the day my flight sergeant at NC encampment would tell stories. This is one of when he was a basic.  My flight sergeant will be referred to as "joe" as to not disclose any names.
It was just after morning PT, and Joe had about thirty seconds to get his BDU's on. After he went to breakfast, he was in morning formation. His flight sergeant told the flight to get out their OIs and study them. Joe reached in his pocket, and he didn't have his OI, he only had the front and back cover. So he stood at parade rest with the front and back cover open pretending to read the OI. Nobody noticed a thing.

Back to my encampment, people in my flight were starting to get restless with that awful sounding whistle that Chief (My flight sergeant, he was a chief master sergeant) blew in the mornings. So they devised a system. They would get up about ten minutes before the bugle sounded, "inform" their battle buddy that they needed to "use the latrine", get out, and wait until the bugle sounded, and fall back into the flight for PT. I wasn't part of this system.

Last, on Thursday of encampment we had an FTX. Somebody from a different flight was sent to our Basic Ground Team flight to operate the radio. And this guy had a thing for making mission base angry. First, he radioed in mission base, saying "Home base, this is Ground Team 1, over", to which mission base replied "Ground team one, we are not referred to as home base, we are MISSION base, over". Our radioman replied "Sorry, MISSION base this is ground team one, over." Then mission base replied something along the lines of "Don't use that tone of voice with us, young man". There was a point where this guy was having a full out argument with mission base. I kid you not.