Photoshop to the rescue!

All of the above is good gouge, thanks! I had hesitated for many years about the magnet thing for exactly this reason...but I saw someone wearing them who looked great, so I thought "sure, why not?"

Lesson learned!

Quote from: TheSkyHornet on April 12, 2024, 12:12:35 AMShtuff happens...

I had a button break on my mess dress last year at a conference. I fixed it with a paperclip literally a minute before I was called up for an award. I sat back down, and the button ripped off again. It didn't make it into the photo, but it killed my uniform; so rather than sticking around after the awards, I left so nobody would call it out.

Honestly, sometimes, this organization can be too harsh on glitches. There's a difference between trying and having an issue versus not trying and not caring.

You tried. Kudos.

Rule #1 when wearing service coats or mess dress, bring a diaper safety pin. They work so well I actually had a set of blues set up with them for the front buttons.

Rule #2 when wearing service dress, have a second set of ribbons, even out of date ribbons.

Rule #3 when wearing service dress or mess dress, bring extra accessories such as ties, bow ties, name tags, etc.

It never fails, someone always needs something that I bring extra of. To include last years conference when a region staff (colonel) forgot their bow tie for mess dress.

Lastly, magnetic ribbon racks are ONLY for shirts, not coats.

Great job, Speedy. Hope to be right behind you.

And thanks for the warning re: mag racks. I always thought "that will work great," and now I know.

Regardless of the uniform faux pas, congratulations on your accomplishment and a job well done!

Quote from: RiverAux on April 12, 2024, 12:04:55 AMThe simple fact is that even if we find a niche that we can dominate, it is extremely likely that it is only going to be relevant for a small portion of the membership.

I wholeheartedly agree and it's a situation that's been building for 80 years. We started as an organization where pilots could utilize their flying skills in support of their nation. Obviously lots of non-pilots wanted in on the fun and we've been trying to figure out what to do with them ever since.

If we're really down to either you're a pilot or you'll put on your spiffy uniform and go work for another organization (Red Cross primarily) then eventually everyone will learn to just join the Red Cross. They have some decent bureaucracy over there, but at least they're very active, federally tasked to support ESF, and extremely well funded. No point going through CAP bureaucracy & the ARC red tape.

Being someone who has worn a magnetic rack for years for both CAP and the Air Force, they work best on the light blue/white shirts.
The thicker material of the Service Dress Jacket is too thick for the magnets to be reliable, you need to use the pins for that. And the standard length pins work just fine, you don't need the long pins.

I'd have to agree with RiverAux

Since CAP is considered a SUPPORTING agency in more realms than not.......

What would it hurt if CAP worked with other groups?  We have no leading edge on disaster relief unless someone here can prove to me that we are the primary source for SAR

Seems like there's plenty o SAR groups other than NASAR and whatnot...look on Facebook...plenty of SAR types in locales probably with a CAP Sqdn within 50-200 miles from them

My AOR CERT seems to poach some members...I held a UTM about 4 yrs ago and a contingent of 6-8 CAPers didn't stick around the whole day claiming 'we's got a CERT mission, the EM called us." More like it was already planned

So to think CAP is its own game in the All Risk/All Hazard DR world...about 2001 we ought to have been buddying up with EMs and FEMA and probably even before when the Office of Civil Defense existed....The loss during the age of of Aerial Radiological Monitoring and the associated Radiological Monitoring Handbook from 1974 that us cadets chased around in a downtown armory for the 47th MP Company with CDV700 series Geiger Counter looking for hidden nuke casks located in various areas... I'm sure a small shock to CAP when things changed politically and OCD being relegated to FEMA and the rework seemingly did not include CAP as such

I do remember in 1975 ARC requested a MNWG Sqdn...my self and another more adult cadet one C/TSGT and one cadet C/WO sat in the ARC EOC til 0200-0330 for an overnite of monitoring CAP, ARC, and ham during a tornado touchdown in a near the Twin Cities

ONCE AGAIN  we were a SUPPORT function to a requesting agency and not the Primary EOC/EOF DR function

SO again, what is the problem of CAP helping another agency...we sure as hell aint getting the 121.5 bells las once we did so it's about time CAP get a culture change and find a way to employ us more ...but again we can't force ourselves on EMs even if they KNOW about us already...heck I'm out here as a few are..."begging" for missions on occasion with all our "showoff" of capabilities and our $500- 750K Cessnas

Shtuff happens...

I had a button break on my mess dress last year at a conference. I fixed it with a paperclip literally a minute before I was called up for an award. I sat back down, and the button ripped off again. It didn't make it into the photo, but it killed my uniform; so rather than sticking around after the awards, I left so nobody would call it out.

Honestly, sometimes, this organization can be too harsh on glitches. There's a difference between trying and having an issue versus not trying and not caring.

You tried. Kudos.

There is nothing that we can do that other agencies can't do though there are things that we can probably do at lower cost, which generally isn't a factor these days. 

The simple fact is that even if we find a niche that we can dominate, it is extremely likely that it is only going to be relevant for a small portion of the membership.  For example, aerial damage assessment leaves a whole lot of CAP members with nothing to do, so we need to evaluate what we might be able to do with everyone else.  If it is helping the Red Cross or some other agency, whats the problem? 

We need to evaluate what we can do with as many members as we have interested in helping whether it is a CAP-niche task or something else.