Cadet Program Innovations, August 2021

[Eclipse]

https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/media/cms/Booklet_2021__Web_2110AE280C87C.pdf

Less testing, milestones changed (no longer cumulative because cadets are super busy)

[Jester]

And no more Lindbergh Award.  I'm really looking forward to the wailing and gnashing of teeth about "cancel culture/political correctness/insert boogeyman phrase here" over that one.

[JohhnyD]

And no more Lindbergh Award.  I'm really looking forward to the wailing and gnashing of teeth about "cancel culture/political correctness/insert boogeyman phrase here" over that one.

Although Charles Lindbergh's incredible
feat of airmanship as the first to fly solo
nonstop across the Atlantic remains a
milestone in aviation history, his legacy
of racial bias conflicts with CAP's Core
Values.

[PHall]

Let's hope they don't dig too hard in to the past of most "aerospace leaders" of the past.
It was a very different time back then. What could have been normal "mainstream" values in the 1930's and 40's
would be called racist today. We could end up with a bunch of unnamed achievements if we don't watch out.

[JohhnyD]

Curry served in "BlackJack" (Not his real nickname) Pershing's "racist" border Army. Betcha he is next on the hit list.

[Jester]

I mean, let's not pretend that Lindbergh wasn't openly anti-Semitic and enamored with eugenics and Hitler.

As far as Curry, I doubt it.  Being in the military during segregation you had nothing to do with implementing and openly speaking out against a specific ethnic group and supporting the regime that are actively persecuting them are two different things.

[Eclipse]

The Lindberg thing is anecdotally interesting, but at the end of the day, who really cares?
It's coffee-house fodder at best.

The real issues are going to get lost in background noise about that.

A few other high points that are actually important.

The organization still has clear issues with basic comprehension in the CPP (and other) rules.
"2-Up" is not a "suggestion" or a "best practice", yet that was not a 100% response.
How this is a. possible, and b. not a "#1 action item from NHQ" is beyond me.
(even if you say "they were there, people didn't know about #2" that means
#2 wasn't supervising anything, or the perception is they weren't, the results
being essentially the same).

This is what you get when leaders are chosen based on presence and you can't push them to comply.

The mantra about CAP being "too expensive" is clearly untrue and needs to be left at the side of the
road along with the pilot shortage verbiage.  No parents and 1% (likely less) of cadets indicated rides to
meetings or cost as a factor in non-participation.

It's a biased sample, obviously, since you're not asking kids who never joined if it was too expensive,
but this is the data provided.

The testing changes are clearly another retention play, the idea that "cadets are overscheduled" as
a justification for anything is misguided at best.

Life is choice, choices have consequences, that may well be one of the top lessons CAP provides
to its members, both cadet and Senior.  Except not any more, where choice is increasingly not required.

We've joked for years that CAP isn't the "Correspondence Air Patrol", now that's what it is becoming.
Go down that road too far, and that will be CAP's downfall.

Another season of the Civil Zoom Patrol, coupled with more online time vs. in-face instruction
isn't going to fix things, it's going to make it worse. The large number of cadets rising through
the ranks with few in-face meetings showed what a bad idea that is over this summer.

CAP didn't cause the pandemic issues, but decades of failures to compel compliance to regulations,
uphold standards, and generally work the program as presented, are coming to roost.

The response from higher HQ is often "What do you want us to do if people don't comply?"

"Make them, or remove them."

"But then we won't have anyone."

And?

When you depend on "leadership", especially locally, who participate in "you're lucky I showed up
at all mode", continuously accept poor performance, and make constant allowances where none
should be considered, while...

...at the same time having no issue running high-engagement A-Players into the ground over minor mistakes,
or legitimate gray areas...

...this is the CAP you get.

[Holding Pattern]

The Lindberg thing is anecdotally interesting, but at the end of the day, who really cares?
It's coffee-house fodder at best.

Ironically enough you point out why we should care in the very next sentence you write.

The real issues are going to get lost in background noise about that.

Rather than focusing on the real issues facing CAP we're busy revising history instead.

[foo]

The cleansing of history continues apace, as well as the troubling dumbing-down of academic standards. I guess this will make a lot of people feel good.

[Jester]

The cleansing of history continues apace, as well as the troubling dumbing-down of academic standards. I guess this will make a lot of people feel good.

Nobody is "cleansing" the history of Lindbergh's achievements, but it's hard to present an award named after an avowed anti-Semite and public Nazi sympathizer while also having a core value of respect and promoting diversity and inclusion. 

We talk about Wernher von Braun in the rocketry curriculum but we don't name an award after him.  I assume that's for a reason.

[PHall]

Curry served in "BlackJack" (Not his real nickname) Pershing's "racist" border Army. Betcha he is next on the hit list.

General Pershing's name is John J. Pershing.

[JohhnyD]

I mean, let's not pretend that Lindbergh wasn't openly anti-Semitic and enamored with eugenics and Hitler.

So was Joe Kennedy and many, many leaders of the time.

[dwb]

Do we have a Joe Kennedy Achievement in the cadet program?

[Jester]

Do we have a Joe Kennedy Achievement in the cadet program?

Boom.

[SarDragon]

Click.