WIWAC

45. Orange vests for SAR?  What's that mean?

Let's see. WIWAC...

1. we had actual military vehicles to use for FTXs. Our unit had one for transport and one with a big box full of radios for comm
2. problems in the unit were NEVER reported to Wing...we took care of things on our own.
3. we wore OG jungle fatigues just about anywhere besides meetings. Complete with subdued rank and insignia, which I still have.
4. We blew fireworks on New Year's Eve on our week-long post-Christmas FTX, complete with bottle rocket battles that we spent weeks prepping for.
5. it was a given that seniors kept their hands off cadets. Like I said, we took care of things on our own.
6. The bigger the knife, the better.
7. Rappelling and rock climbing was the best part of any FTX
8. 15 and 16 year old cadets were old. Looked old and acted old. If you were 18 or over you were positively ancient.
9. forget pup tents, we used parachutes for shelter.
10. 10 general orders and other cadet knowledge that we were expected to know each and every meeting. I can still recite most of them after 31 years in CAP

MAJ Kevin Estes
Emergency Services Officer
115th Composite Squadron
Rogers, AR

Only 10 general orders? WIWAC, the AF had 11, and CAP had 12.

Wish I could have experienced some of these. I fell out of the back of John Deer Gator way back when with CAP at an event. I did not get hurt, and made everyone laugh, and I learned why I should NEVER drag my feet on the ground when sitting unsecured (it was my fault purely, not anyone elses). I had an Air Force loaned radio (a member of ours is in combat comms squadron) and did not drop it or break it, but I did almost have my patrol cap run over. It was my only taste of the old days. If I could actually use a knife freely or do half the stuff you guys did, I'd be the happiest cadet in the world. You learned life lessons back then.

Nobody says you can't use knives to accomplish what you need to accomplish. You simply can't do stupid things with them. Normally, we all learn through mistakes - however, when it comes to knives or other sharp pointy objects you can learn those lessons on your own time, because as a SM and GTL your butt is my responsibility, and when you slice your finger open doing something stupid with your knife you may learn from it, but your mistake (learning experience) is coming down on my head ("Why were you letting C/Snuffy do that with his knife?!?").

Seriously..."Use a knife freely"? What does that even mean.

As for a lot of this list, the reason today's cadets can't do a lot of the things you remember so fondly is that you guys did the the things you remember so fondly, and it cost somebody a lot of money at some point. 

From some of the things I did WIWABS I wonder how I made to my current ripe age relatively intact.  "When in doubt, pour more gas on it!"

Actually, most of us were smart enough not to get caught at the time. That's why we're senior members telling old war stories instead of ex-members giving depositions to the plaintiff's attorney.

Actually, most of us were smart enough not to get caught at the time. That's why we're senior members telling old war stories instead of ex-members giving depositions to the plaintiff's attorney.

Good point.

Wish I could have experienced some of these. I fell out of the back of John Deer Gator way back when with CAP at an event. I did not get hurt, and made everyone laugh, and I learned why I should NEVER drag my feet on the ground when sitting unsecured (it was my fault purely, not anyone elses). I had an Air Force loaned radio (a member of ours is in combat comms squadron) and did not drop it or break it, but I did almost have my patrol cap run over. It was my only taste of the old days. If I could actually use a knife freely or do half the stuff you guys did, I'd be the happiest cadet in the world. You learned life lessons back then.

Nobody says you can't use knives to accomplish what you need to accomplish. You simply can't do stupid things with them. Normally, we all learn through mistakes - however, when it comes to knives or other sharp pointy objects you can learn those lessons on your own time, because as a SM and GTL your butt is my responsibility, and when you slice your finger open doing something stupid with your knife you may learn from it, but your mistake (learning experience) is coming down on my head ("Why were you letting C/Snuffy do that with his knife?!?").

Seriously..."Use a knife freely"? What does that even mean.

As for a lot of this list, the reason today's cadets can't do a lot of the things you remember so fondly is that you guys did the the things you remember so fondly, and it cost somebody a lot of money at some point. 

From some of the things I did WIWABS I wonder how I made to my current ripe age relatively intact.  "When in doubt, pour more gas on it!"

It means use a knife without someone yelling "OH GOD, LOOK AT THAT CRIMINAL USING A KNIFE DURING A CAP MEETING! PUNISH HIM!" Which I have seen and sadly experienced multiple times in my current CAP career.

It means use a knife without someone yelling "OH GOD, LOOK AT THAT CRIMINAL USING A KNIFE DURING A CAP MEETING! PUNISH HIM!" Which I have seen and sadly experienced multiple times in my current CAP career.

Ridiculous response, but why would you have a knife at a meeting, and if it's anything like the Rambo-esque possibly warranted.

It means use a knife without someone yelling "OH GOD, LOOK AT THAT CRIMINAL USING A KNIFE DURING A CAP MEETING! PUNISH HIM!" Which I have seen and sadly experienced multiple times in my current CAP career.

Ridiculous response, but why would you have a knife at a meeting, and if it's anything like the Rambo-esque possibly warranted.

I carry a small swiss army knife on me all of the time. A harmless thing that I end up using the scissors that are built into it more than the actual blade. I carry it to cut small things that may need to be cut, like boxes, envelopes, paracord, tags on new shirts, electrical tape, and all of the other practical uses for a swiss army knife. People in my area were extremely crazy about knives for some weird reason I don't think I will ever know, which made me want to use my screw driver feature to screw the missing screws back into their head. Things have changed though, and now people in my squadron treat knives normally.

To make sure this is clear, I do NOT carry my knife to harm anyone.

OK,  that's silly, though I know there are plenty of schools with zero tolerance and less that a Swiss Army will get you expelled.

...now back to your scheduled thread...

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.

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.

That knife looks.. beautiful If I brought one of those to my squadron meetings and a Senior Member in my squadron saw me, I'd probably watch them call Security Forces or the rent-a-cops on base on me.

An era where for years the Supply Depot showed a knife hanging on the front of the ubiquitous Y-Harness.

I was out surfing the first half of the day today with one of my best friends of 23+ years.  He and I were both cadets together and we happened to bring up WIWAC stories to include how we organized our ground team like a Special Forces A-Team.

We also mentioned how we NEVER owned tents, let alone use them.  Poncho hooch or go home!  We truly lived by the "travel light, freeze at night" mantra.  And dude, if you didn't have your LBE and Ruck set up IAW 75th Ranger Regiment SOP, you were definitely a loser.

We created our own Recondo course which had its own RECONDO tab.  I don't even remember what the course entailed, but it rocked.  We held it at the University of North Florida's Army ROTC training areas (with obstacle course), lakes, rappel tower, etc.  Seniors?  Um no, there were no seniors involved.

How about, as a C/A1C, me and one of my friends got our CC to write letters stating we were Public Information Officers for the squadron and we were doing a piece on the Golden Knights.  My mom drives us to the Lake City Air Show, don CAP flight suits, and climb aboard the Golden Knight's plane as the jump out for the air show.  We were maybe 15 years old.  And yes, I have pics to prove it.

Man, the 80s were a good time in CAP.

I wish they still had the Drummond Island:  Declassified story on the old CadetStuff site.  That was literally the best CAP story I've ever read.

I just read the Drummond Island stories or parts there of that I Googled.

I had DEJA VU all over again.

Wish I could have experienced some of these. I fell out of the back of John Deer Gator way back when with CAP at an event. I did not get hurt, and made everyone laugh, and I learned why I should NEVER drag my feet on the ground when sitting unsecured (it was my fault purely, not anyone elses). I had an Air Force loaned radio (a member of ours is in combat comms squadron) and did not drop it or break it, but I did almost have my patrol cap run over. It was my only taste of the old days. If I could actually use a knife freely or do half the stuff you guys did, I'd be the happiest cadet in the world. You learned life lessons back then.

Nobody says you can't use knives to accomplish what you need to accomplish. You simply can't do stupid things with them. Normally, we all learn through mistakes - however, when it comes to knives or other sharp pointy objects you can learn those lessons on your own time, because as a SM and GTL your butt is my responsibility, and when you slice your finger open doing something stupid with your knife you may learn from it, but your mistake (learning experience) is coming down on my head ("Why were you letting C/Snuffy do that with his knife?!?").

Seriously..."Use a knife freely"? What does that even mean.

As for a lot of this list, the reason today's cadets can't do a lot of the things you remember so fondly is that you guys did the the things you remember so fondly, and it cost somebody a lot of money at some point. 

From some of the things I did WIWABS I wonder how I made to my current ripe age relatively intact.  "When in doubt, pour more gas on it!"

I remember one bivouac where we had a fire watch(literally). About midnight it started raining. We told the cadet that had the 12-2 shift to keep the fire going. He did. About every 10 minutes, you would see a bright flash like a nuclear explosion as another cup of Coleman fuel went on the fire. With Coleman running about $13 a gallon today, he spent about $22 keeping the fire going for 2 hours.

Nothing beats the memory of someone running with a can of Coleman trailing a flame!

Actually, most of us were smart enough not to get caught at the time. That's why we're senior members telling old war stories instead of ex-members giving depositions to the plaintiff's attorney.

^^This.

As I've often said: "As a unit commander, if I'd have had myself as a cadet, pulling the antics I'd pulled BITD, I'd have to kick my own butt."

Seriously. I'd have 2B'd myself like 3x.

I was out surfing the first half of the day today with one of my best friends of 23+ years.  He and I were both cadets together and we happened to bring up WIWAC stories to include how we organized our ground team like a Special Forces A-Team.

We also mentioned how we NEVER owned tents, let alone use them.  Poncho hooch or go home!  We truly lived by the "travel light, freeze at night" mantra.  And dude, if you didn't have your LBE and Ruck set up IAW 75th Ranger Regiment SOP, you were definitely a loser.

We created our own Recondo course which had its own RECONDO tab.  I don't even remember what the course entailed, but it rocked.  We held it at the University of North Florida's Army ROTC training areas (with obstacle course), lakes, rappel tower, etc.  Seniors?  Um no, there were no seniors involved.

How about, as a C/A1C, me and one of my friends got our CC to write letters stating we were Public Information Officers for the squadron and we were doing a piece on the Golden Knights.  My mom drives us to the Lake City Air Show, don CAP flight suits, and climb aboard the Golden Knight's plane as the jump out for the air show.  We were maybe 15 years old.  And yes, I have pics to prove it.

Man, the 80s were a good time in CAP.

I wish they still had the Drummond Island:  Declassified story on the old CadetStuff site.  That was literally the best CAP story I've ever read.

Our CC was a Viet Nam war vet, 11ACR, who had befriended many a soldier in his day. One day he heard one of his former cadets, now an F-105 driver, was working near where he was, borrowed an APC with a handshake and drove over to visit.

Our GT's handbook WAS the Ranger Handbook. We were ready to survive in the woods if Atlanta was nuked. To get our specialty unit patch, you had to rappel down a 250' hole and ascend back up, do a 3000 meter night navigation course, and rappel down Whiteside Mountain, a 750' cliff on the side of a big mountain. I went down one time and was startled to see a C-172 flying BELOW me. Our playground was the mountains of North Georgia, specifically near Camp Darby, the Ranger training camp, where we used to find all sorts of items dropped by the Rangers like map cases, M-16 mags, and even a belt of blank M-60 ammo from time to time. One night, we were running around the woods and "accidentally" infiltrated the camp and were getting sodas from a machine when an instructor came up and started yelling at us "Rangers," telling us that we'd better get back to the barracks if we knew what was good for us, and our CC politely went up and talked to him. We got our sodas and got the h*** out of there. And there are stories whose statute of limitations hasn't quite run out yet...

SAR CAP in Daytona Beach.  A single senior member driving a 1983 Mazda B2000 pick-up truck.  1 Cadet in the cab, 5 in the back.  We drove down from Jacksonville (i.e. I-95 at 70 mph) in fatigues and gear.  The only flak we got was from the safety officer because we couldn't provide a vehicle check sheet upon arrival to mission base.  The 5 teenage cadets in the back and a single senior member didn't cause anyone to bat an eye.

I'll see your Mazda pick-up and 5 cadets, and raise you a surplus 1953 Willys jeep (strata blue, of course).  One senior, two cadets, all of our gear, pouring rain with hand cranked wipers and no top or seatbelts.  For that matter, the only seat that was attached to the jeep was the driver's. 

Used this, along with a surplus AF pickup at a SAREX in Adrian, Mi, circa 1985.

I call. OD green Jeep 1 1/4 ton pickup (otherwise known as a five-quarter), a CAP blue Jeep CJ with an aircraft landing light mounted IN the hood so it rotated up, and an OD green Korean War vintage ambulance with a giant blue cross on the sides (Wing made us cover up the red so we wouldn't be confused with an ACTUAL emergency vehicle) with no seat belts. We also had a Mule at our disposal until it developed an oil leak that we could never fix.