Encampment stories

[Garibaldi]

Confused here. "Things"? Do you mean summer encampments?

spring encampments.

[ol'fido]

Illinois Wing has two encampments. The Summer Encampment is the usual week long encampment. It is held obviously in the summer. For many years, it was either at Volk or the old Chanute AFB(closed now). The last eight years it has been held in the locations I gave. We got pushed out of Volk after 2004 because of the high ops tempo the base was taking on for the GWOT. Same thing happened to us at Marseilles(which is literally in the middle of a corn field southwest of Chicago near the town of the same name). So we have ended up at the Illinois Military Academy at Camp Lincoln in Springfield. The facility was so new that we were the first and, since then basically the only, user of the dining facility kitchen. I was just told today that our dates for next year are the 14-21 July.

The Spring Encampment is actually run by Group 22. It is a weekend encampment that usually runs in April on consecutive weekends. AFIK, it has always been held at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. It is sometimes referred to as the Great Lakes encampment which can be confused with the GLR encampment at Alpena, MI.

Wisconsin has just got back to having their encampment at Volk as they were squeezed out about the same time we were. Last year they came down to Camp Lincoln with us.

[Eclipse]

ILWG Spring Encampment has been running since 1991, always on the RTC.

[Garibaldi]

Yeah, I remember we were at Volk with ILWG in '94 but it wasn't a joint encampment, two totally separate entities.

[Sluice]

So our flight sergeant had us all standing at attention, giving us a talk because our bunks were not looking to good. After going down the isle and pointing out what needed to be done, he came to my bunk. Since I was a head taller than he was, when standing at attention my eye's were looking above his head. Annoyed that I was looking above him while he was talking, he said very loudly, "LOOK DOWN AT ME!" The whole barracks burst out in laughter. Even our flight sergeant found it funny! I got out of that one!

[Extremepredjudice]

One morning, I was standing in a no salute zone by the latrines (waiting on someone). 4 basics walked by to use the latrine. All 4 saluted and said "Good evening ma'am!"

Just so everyone knows, I am a guy, a C/CMSgt, it was 6 A.M, and did I mention it was a no salute zone?

[ol'fido]

One morning, I was standing in a no salute zone by the latrines (waiting on someone). 4 basics walked by to use the latrine. All 4 saluted and said "Good evening ma'am!"

Just so everyone knows, I am a guy, a C/CMSgt, it was 6 A.M, and did I mention it was a no salute zone?

That's nothing. Wait till some eager beaver calls the latrine to attention when you walk in. If they still refer to you as Ma'am, you might have a bigger problem.

Also, the final dates for the ILWG Summer Encampment have been changed to 23-30 June 2013.

[Luis R. Ramos]

Extreme-

Reminds me of the movie "No Time for Sergeants," about an Air Force new recruit. He is dumb slow but very eager. At some point he is given latrine duty and as his sergeant inspects his work, he calls the room to attention and all the toilet seats go up.

For the life of me, I cannot remember the protagonist's name. I used to watch another show of him, Matlock. He was very famous as well for another show of him where he portrayed the sheriff of a small town. His son was Opie, and Don Knotts was his deputy.

Flyer

[Struts]

Andy Griffith. That was a hilarious movie.

[PHall]

Flyer, your CRS syndrome is kicking in!

[a2capt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqg4rJPUxGs#

[Luis R. Ramos]

A2,

Thank YOU! Made my day to see that scene again... :clap:

Flyer

[Luis R. Ramos]

I was a TAC officer at an Encampment and we were coming back from a party the last night. Everyone in Blues. Tired. Sleepy. Or I do not know, no energy.

Our driver, since we were in an AF short bus, was an AF sergeant assigned to help us...

All of a sudden, he lets bus number 2 pass, looks back, pulls over and starts yelling. He said it so fast that I could not understand what he said. Every cadet runs out and I am going "What the H! What the...!" And as quickly as everyone (except me) left the bus, he yells back and everyone ran back in. Again I am "What the H! What the...!" So I ask someone behind me "What happened?" The answer I got was "It was a fire drill." I was LOL. Fire drill in a bus??? Everyone was pepped up. There was conversation, etc.

Then getting to the barracks, he starts a slalom run using telephone poles as markers. We were in a dirt road... All of a sudden he looks at me. A CAP First Lieutenant. Who could be an informant.  He asks "Sir, have you seen anything improper?"

My answer was "No Sgt, everything is hunky dory."

I saw all he did! Done with care, not exceeding the speed, looking to see if there was anyone or another vehicle...

And I remember the very first day. A cadet started putting toilet paper between the telephone poles by the barracks dirt road. Faster than it took me to think and analyze whether the cadet may have been told to use the toilet paper to close the toad for some reason, the same sergeant thought and decided the cadet was fooling around, and barked a "What are ya doin!" from two barracks from him...

And the AF sergeants were instrumental in us getting an activity... We were the Honor Flight and were to be given a night map reading exercise. The Encampment Commander knew about it, but for some reason decided to talk to us about how special we were after dinner. So she came late, and she was one of those people that can talk and talk and talk and... You get it, she talked to us long and made us late. The Army Sgts who were to give us the activity, were not there since we were late. The AF Sgts who were our drivers scaled the fence of the building, found a way to get into the building, and said "This will be tactical. No lights, no lightscopes, no lightstics, no flashlights." We were in a forested area, yet there was still enough star light for us to find our way around.

Flyer

[Capt. $]

What are your favorite Encampment experiences?

[Jaison009]

Leading the most dedicated cadets of the 1999 AK Wing encampment at Ft. Wainwright, AK along with my Flight Sgt (who was my C/CSM in ARJROTC) to sweeping honor flight. The full motion Blackhawk simulator and our road march (picked up and dropped off by CH-47 Chinooks, simulated events with our Army TAC officers, and then we performed a road march back to our encampment location before drill competition) was awesome too. It was one of the better encampments I attended. 

[The Infamous Meerkat]

HIWG Encampment 2012....    a2capt, care to comment? 

[Duke Dillio]

DCWG encampment 1991...  Held at Ft. Belvoir, VA....  I'd been in CAP for about 4 months....  Got to take pride in not passing out even though about half the cadets there did drop...

[Black Knight]

I cant forget the terrible storm and all of us including staff having to sleep in the mess hall

Oh my god, I hated that night. My friend forgot his pillow, so to be nice, I gave him mine. that was a dumb move on my part

[Black Knight]

One night during motivation check, Bravo flight did a parody of Potter Puppet Pal's "Mysterious Ticking Noise." (they used the cadet command staff instead of HP characters) Everyone was marching and singing it afterwards.

And there was this guy on the SET team who would always yell at cadets "Cadet, GET OFF MY DRILLPAD!!" and one day, someone put an apple on it. So while I'm waiting for my uniform inspection, the next thing I hear is "Why is there an Apple ON MY DRILLPAD!" He kicked that thing so far, it would've made an NFL kicker jealous. (ok maybe not that far) 

I had my C-130 flight right after we ate and right before the storm came in, so it was very bumpy and almost everyone  threw up. (not me, i took a nap in the back)
And I got the 3rd highest overall score! (Iwas 12 then.)

[Sergeant Langley]

I have some of the best encampment story's ever.

    Oklahoma Summer 2012- We are standing at attention on a field for like 10 minuets. We were all starting to get agitated. Then we see two Black-Hawks coming our way. After they knew we knew the staff told us to put our thumbs back and maybe we would get a ride. Soon after that the Black-Hawks landed landed and took us up in sorties. It was the best time ever with both doors open. Although at the end they tore are our barracks apart and made scarecrows with our our uniforms.

    Texas Summer 2012- Best encampment ever. National Guard gave our flight a bunch of Girl Scout cookies. The encampment went well until some stupid cadet ate PEANUT BUTTER cookies when he had a allergy to peanuts.  The cadet and Senior staff were mad. The Cadet who was on CQ with me fell asleep outside. I just barely managed to get him up before a senior member walked over. The Flight Sergeant sadly was not the best role model. Overall though they were both good encampments.