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Started by ol'fido, November 17, 2011, 12:41:12 AM

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Майор Хаткевич

You can have plenty of Warrior Spirit in today's CAP. You just have to know when to turn it on and off.

Huey Driver

Quote from: usafaux2004 on February 12, 2013, 04:24:34 AM
You can have plenty of Warrior Spirit in today's CAP. You just have to know when to turn it on and off.

Yes, plenty of that in CAP. It's just that outside of CAP which I was referring to. Our youth need to know how to stand up to challenges and take them by the horns, like a warrior, and to help more than just the individual.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right...

FARRIER

Quote from: Garibaldi on July 15, 2012, 02:12:08 AM
We had a SAREX today and I took a few cadets down the road for it. On the way, we started talking about stuff, and I mentioned some of the stuff we did as cadets, and their favorite story was the one of my first FTX where I ended up hanging upside down from a tree at 0330 while on guard duty. I told them that in NO WAY was I condoning this sort of behavior when one of the senior cadet NCOs got a gleam in his eye. They were amazed at the stuff we did and got away with, and I told them that no seniors were involved in any of it, that we did it on our own and the thought at the time was "well, no one got hurt or killed, so no harm, no foul." I told them flat out that this sort of stuff couldn't go on now simply because some cadet will blab to the wrong person and the entire wrath of CAP would land on my head. I think they get it. They're not as dumb or careless as we think sometimes.

As a cadet, staying over night at an airport during a SAREX, across the road was a drive-in theater. Not using all our brain cells, we ran across to look through the trees that lined the back of the drive in. We saw the police officers car and figured it wasn't too smart.
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ol'fido

Quote from: FARRIER on February 12, 2013, 04:49:56 AM
Quote from: Garibaldi on July 15, 2012, 02:12:08 AM
We had a SAREX today and I took a few cadets down the road for it. On the way, we started talking about stuff, and I mentioned some of the stuff we did as cadets, and their favorite story was the one of my first FTX where I ended up hanging upside down from a tree at 0330 while on guard duty. I told them that in NO WAY was I condoning this sort of behavior when one of the senior cadet NCOs got a gleam in his eye. They were amazed at the stuff we did and got away with, and I told them that no seniors were involved in any of it, that we did it on our own and the thought at the time was "well, no one got hurt or killed, so no harm, no foul." I told them flat out that this sort of stuff couldn't go on now simply because some cadet will blab to the wrong person and the entire wrath of CAP would land on my head. I think they get it. They're not as dumb or careless as we think sometimes.

As a cadet, staying over night at an airport during a SAREX, across the road was a drive-in theater. Not using all our brain cells, we ran across to look through the trees that lined the back of the drive in. We saw the police officers car and figured it wasn't too smart.
D-Day, where are you when we need you. Whereabouts unknown....... ;D
Lt. Col. Randy L. Mitchell
Historian, Group 1, IL-006

FARRIER

Quote from: Eclipse on July 13, 2012, 06:44:18 PM
Quote from: NCRblues on July 13, 2012, 05:06:46 PM
Quote from: Eclipse on July 13, 2012, 04:55:50 PM
Facebook is not allowed in my house, period.   They can do what their friends do and sneak an account they think I don't know about at the library, but not on my router.

Ouch. Why the drastic limit? Even if your kids are over 13 you still say no?

FB is very quickly becoming the only way to get a hold of some of the Cadets in my wing. (Well that and texting; and I am certainly not going to text cadets)

We've encountered this phenomenon here, too. The fix is that they are directed by their commanders that they >will< get email addresses (assuming the unit doesn't have a domain of its own), and they >will< check them daily, etc.  Official announcements, UODs, etc., are sent through those channels.
The "social" sites may be used as a secondary connection, but the unit with effective IT and PA folks know better then to use those sites as the primary
communications tool.

Facebook is not a proper, nor secure medium for discussing those things, since from the get-go your information is the product.

Most members comply, the ones that don't / won't find themselves left out and comply when it becomes important to them.  Obviously this is not the same issue as cadets not allowed to have email, since if they have Facebook that's likely a non-issue.

As to the personal prohibition of Facebook, I don't use it, neither does my wife, nor anyone in my family on any level that is consequential to care,
I share photos and whatever via email or other services and we don't need to alert people to when we're having dinner.  I'm actually the kinid of person that does things and goes places and would have interesting updates and check-ins, then I realized what a bad idea it is to be telling the world
that I'm not home and all my tasty goods are sitting alone for the picking at their slow pace (because my flight schedule is posted, and my hotel, etc.
I can't even really blog about what I do, because as a subcontractor for a marketing company, my clients don't want it known they are subing as well.
Lots of NDAs in what I do, and NDAs are the antithesis of Facebook.

I can't see a single reason why it would be "necessary" for >anyone< of elementary school age to use this service, especially in that all they would be doing is running home and then jumping on the computer and talking to / about the people they've just seen 10 minutes ago.

The relative value of this "social" nonsense does not, in my opinion, outweigh the risks and cyberbullying issues that these system inevitably bring into play. 

I'm not by a longshot a luddite, I just see no value in this proposition. Not being in that space has not cost me any friends (I have no interest in reconnecting with high school "buds" I haven't seen in 20 years, nor cyberstalking ex-girlfriends), any business, nothing, but I have seen plenty of
people in that space who tasted the worst it can offer. 

And to bring this back around to WIWAC - all those kids sitting with their nose in a screen checking out what the Kardassians just did, are >not<
out in the woods with a snorkel on, or jumping out of a plane, or even just walking the neighborhood to see who the zombies have eaten today.

Sidetrack: There are event promoters that will not use e-mail, and only FB, because it is easy claim that you didn't get the message, you didn't understand the message, etc. I won't work with anyone that has an aversion to communicating via e-mail.
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Quote from: BillB on July 13, 2012, 09:39:27 AM
Cadet Haughly
I think you would be amazed by the amount of senior supervision there was back in them-old-days. But regulations allowed much leeway in the cadet program. Also many of the seniors were former cadets. The motto was "If I couldn't get away with it, you can't". At an activity, seniors knew what the cadets were going to try do befoe the cadets even thought of it.
There was a different attitude towards cadets and the cadet program. As a holdover from World War II to some extent, cadets were viewed as future military officers or enlisted specialists. Now as one senior member involved in the cadet program said. "cadets are just children".

Teenagers do get a bum rap these days, in the fact that they don't get credit for their abilities. When I worked as a staff photographer, I would cover events like "Building Soda Bottle Rockets" at the local library. The ages attending were eleven through fourteen. There was the standard chatter and lunch table style harassment, but they took the project seriously. And when it came time to launch their rockets, they were all business.

The librarian that oversaw the summer projects , loved art and science, never held a tight reign over the young people. She maintained boundaries though. She never spoke down to them, but to them. They saw it and didn't abuse it.
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Extremepredjudice

Quote from: JerseyCadet on February 12, 2013, 03:43:10 AMMy ex-squadron commander said to me the other day, "In my day, there was no ADHD, but there was a such thing as a swift kick in the a$$." True to a point.
No sir, not true to any point. A kick in the ass in no way fixes ADHD. It is a real mental health problem. Anyone telling you otherwise is being ignorant and ignoring mental health issues.
I love the moderators here. <3

Hanlon's Razor
Occam's Razor
"Flight make chant; I good leader"

Майор Хаткевич

+1. Just because you teach someone to shut up doesn't fix the problem. It only makes then close up.

ol'fido

Remember me telling you about the little airport at Dixon Springs? One of our bivouacs down there was during some pretty cold weather. A couple of our seniors brought a couple of shelter halves to use for a tent. Naturally, us cadets were up way before the seniors. We were standing around the fire pit shivering and all of a sudden we notice the tent. One of these seniors was stick thin and about 5'7" and the other was 6'4" and about 280-90. Well, we notice that the bigger senior is sleeping with his BARE feet OUTSIDE of the tent and is still snoring away. All of us pulled our jackets a little tighter, inched a little closer to the fire, and shook our heads. So yes, it's not all one sided. Seniors can amaze the cadets from time to time.







Lt. Col. Randy L. Mitchell
Historian, Group 1, IL-006

Jaison009

Quote from: jimmydeanno on November 17, 2011, 07:39:53 PM
A lot of these things aren't even from too long ago.  I joined as a cadet in '97.

We had C/Sgts.
We had C/FO for the Mitchell.
The Eaker didn't exist.
C/MSgt was 6 stripes down.
No C/SMSgt or C/CMSgt.
No Armstrong or Feik achievements.
CPFT was a point system with only 3 events.
The CPPT was really misunderstood.
The CAP Depot was around.
We ordered our insignia from the CAP bookstore, and it took longer than Vanguard.
There were 8 NCSAs and it was more expensive to attend than today.
CAP was "what you did" it wasn't #9 on the list of things to do.

The CAP Depot was awesome :)

Jaison009

Quote from: Stonewall on July 07, 2012, 06:12:29 PM
Gerber Mark II was the dream knife of choice back WIWAC, although I never did acquire one at a cost of $100+.



I remember a cadet's parent speaking to our CC one evening asking if it were true that the Gerber Mark II knife was a mandatory item for all cadets.

The Ka-Bar (newer generation prefered) or the Army M-7 bayonet and a machete was the gold standard for our GTs.

Jaison009

Quote from: ol'fido on July 08, 2012, 01:01:43 PM
Quote from: Stonewall on July 07, 2012, 11:37:48 PM
Quote from: Mosbius on July 07, 2012, 10:51:19 PM
Our GT's handbook WAS the Ranger Handbook. We were ready to survive in the woods if Atlanta was nuked.

Both of these^^^

Ranger Handbook was SOP and had to be on your person when in the field.

6 hours southeast of Atlanta, we were preparing for the same thing.  And of course, Red Dawn was required viewing.
Red Dawn, Apocalypse Now, and Stripes: The holy trinity of movies WIWAC.

No Full Metal Jacket??

Stonewall

Quote from: Jaison009 on February 12, 2013, 03:36:00 PMNo Full Metal Jacket??

FMJ was a "must see", but it was in a different category.  Hard to describe, but while we quoted the heck out of it, it was faux pas to quote it because then everyone knew you were just trying to be like Gunny Hartman.  No teenage cadet was as hard core as that guy, so we just avoided it.  Watched it about 100x though.
Serving since 1987.

Jaison009

#173
1. CAP was our life.
2. Encampment was a weeklong (or more) awesome adventure
3. PT was used for motivation, punishment, fun and sometimes all three
4. We did winter and summer campouts in Alaska that required firearms continuously present
5. We were friends and hung out outside of CAP. We had lots of paintball wars.
6. PT might consist of events such as "capture the flag"
7. We had C/FOs
8. Being on the GT and wearing the badge meant you were "high speed"
9. We had overnight stays at the CAP buildings as part of the cadet basic training/orientation
10. The Cadet Staff planned and ran the meetings.
11. We did awesome things that are not allowed now days
12. Cadets knew how to wear uniforms (sleeves rolled proper, boots spit shined, Blues and BDUs pressed, etc)
13. We did a uniform inspection every meeting (we used uniform measuring tools regularly)
14. Cadets feared and respected their leadership simultaneously
15. Cadences were not something that you sang near SMs
16. We had "blood winging" at promotion ceremonies and very little CPP
17. We would check out of school for SAR missions
18. We had Cadet GTLs who would run a mission while a SM drove where ever the ELT led us.
19. Being encampment staff was hardcore.
20. Bus driver caps for cadet officers :)




https://www.facebook.com/jaison.scott/photos#!/photo.php?fbid=4166898174738&set=t.706010069&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/jaison.scott/photos#!/photo.php?fbid=266865599999241&set=t.706010069&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.52064695069.84452.706010069&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=52064780069&set=a.52064695069.84452.706010069&type=3&theater

I'm the fat guy wearing the pips and diamonds if you cannot tell  :P

Yes those are M-4s we are carrying at Ft. Wainwright, AK. No it was not an encampment. Just another fun activity arranged by the Cadet staff: Mike Gomes, Ry Williams, and myself through connections we built.

NIN

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.

FARRIER

Quote from: ol'fido on July 14, 2012, 01:03:43 AM
Well. as I have gathered from the few cadets who have posted in this thread, most of them want to do the wild and crazy stuff that we did WIWAC. They want to have the same originality, fun, elan, and camaraderie that we did as cadets and young seniors. They just don't know how. They haven't been around enough of us old and crusty ex-cadets that can show them how to have fun, commit a little harmless mayhem, and build some unit cohesion through benign shennanigans.

When I think about all this stuff and boil it down to the bare essentials, it comes down to one thing: CAMARADERIE.

That is the magic glue that holds this and other silly organizations together. Some people have BS troops, sports teams, military units, frats, the neighborhood gang that gives them that sense of belonging to a group that was the best of friends and the best at what they did. It isn't berets, tabs, or "budweisers" that hold units like SF, Rangers, or SEALs together. It's the camaraderie of the shared experience.

At one magical, marvelous time in our lives, Stonewall, NIN, and myself found that "Nirvana of Camaraderie" with CAP. So did a lot of other seniors, cadets, and ex-members. That is probably the one thing that will keep me sending in my dues every year; the idea and the hope that I will find that again or be able to lead others to it.

Exactly! I found the exact same environment later when I worked in the airlines. Corporate America (aerospace), not the same. I'm still in contact with people I worked with from the airlines. It's great to experience it as a youth, so you know what it is as an adult.
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That Anonymous Guy

I know today's teens get a bad wrap but a lot of it (not all) is deserved. I'm often ashamed of my generation.

SarDragon

Quote from: NIN on February 12, 2013, 07:27:42 PM
Quote from: Jaison009 on February 12, 2013, 04:12:44 PM
7. We had C/FOs

Pffft. N00bs.

Oh, like you're not a n00b, too. ISTR I was graduating HS while you were still a bun in the oven.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

FARRIER

Quote from: Stonewall on July 12, 2012, 05:05:15 PM

One final picture, I promise.  The same C/Lt Col that led the survival training and is an SF officer now is in this picture with me. The two of us  are talking to then CAP/CC BGen Rich Anderson.  Crappy pic, it was a polaroid.


Burgundy shoulder slides, they were not ugly :)
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