specializing in something

[Abby.L]

Hello all,
I have recently "bloomed" in my CAP life and have now been promoting regalurely V my old promoting twice annually, and I was wandering what sorts of specializations that I can get into and how. For example, my best friend is the safety officer at our squadron, and he seems to enjoy it. we also have a few GTM cadets and they seem pretty happy.And here I am a plain old NCO? so yes, if you have any ideas for what I could do as well as ways to get to said position, that would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance.

[mclarke]

As a cadet, you can not specialize officially in a duty assignment, however, you can be appointed a position and usually work the SM of that assignment (cadet safety officer working with SM Safety officer). I do wish cadets could have duty assignments, would be a lot more to learn, do and succeed at.

To answer your questions of duty assignments you may be interested in as a cadet I would check the member section of gocivilairpatrol.com. Look at the pamphlets in the 200 sections as they list most of the opportunities for SM and a lot of times cadets can work a senior member to get more involved in that area.

[Eclipse]

For clarity, the most a cadet can be appointed is "assistant" to a respective duty position, and I don't agree that cadets should be allowed to
serve "real" staff roles.

Perhaps cadets that are both over 18 and Phase IV.

The purpose of the cadet program is for cadets to be served and learn and grow personally, and most of the lessons are very generalized on purpose to provide good baseline training without getting to specific, especially in phase I & II.  Having them serve in real staff positions would impede that and takes away from their time as cadets.

To the OP, there is nothing wrong with looking into ES as one of the places to spend more time if you feel you are not getting everything you can from
your regular meetings, I would also suggest getting involved in larger activities outside your squadron such as encampments, flight academies, ES bivouacs, etc.

[Abby.L]

I suppose that only being an assistant would make sense, so thanks for the replies and I hope that this will at leat help me get to do something other then just be a sergeant.

[DC]

Talk to your Chain of Command about wanting to assume a greater role in the squadron. I'm sure they can find something for you to do if you ask. You can also put some effort into being the most professional Cadet NCO you can, thus placing yourself in line for a Flight Sergeant or First Sergeant job at some point.