Academic

We did not accomplish the academic goals. How can we make the academic training more efficient?

The OI should have the military chain of command: SECDEF, SECAF, SECNAV, SECARMY, CJS, VCJS, CMC, CNO, CSAF, CSARMY, etc

What were the academic goals?
Also, there weren't really well-planned "study sessions" for your OI or other academic stuff.
OI study time basically consisted of just reading your OI, or cadets quizzing each other. If cadets were actually taught, via some sort of explanatory lecture, the information in the OI, they might learn it better. Same with any other academic info that staff wants them to learn.
-C/SMSgt Holly Riley

The problem was the lack of time to accomplish these things. Essentially, we only had about 2 hours per day to do those things, because we were either at USMC activities or SMs would not let us drill. We definately could have had squadron-level classes before and after meal times though.
C/Col Feinstein

sounds to me that SMs are the worlds biggest problem!!!
C/SMSgt. Toby Morgan

What do you guys think of putting the biographies of the cadet executive staff in the OIs?
Like…
Alpha Flt/CC: "Alpha Flight, what is C/Maj Kier's biography?"
Alpha: "Ma'am, C/Maj Kier's biography is as follows: C/Maj Zachariah Allen Kier attends the Virginia Military institute and is a biology major. He will graduate in 2011 and will recieve a comission in the United States Army as a O-1. He has been in CAP for 5 years, for which he served 1 year as the cadet commander at NC-160. Maj Kier was the 8th CTS Commander at the 2008 Encampment."
C/Col Feinstein

I think that's a great idea, only we should do it for all line staff, mainly because it would show cadets the credentials of their staff and hopefully encourage them to respect their staff more. ~C/2d Lt Larson

Do you know how much space that would take! The OI would be a novel! We could have 2 pages blank where the sq/cc, 1sgt, flt/cc, and flt/sgt can tell the basics what to write and memorize.
C/Col Feinstein

Major Wiggs had a good idea a few weeks ago. he suggested that we send the O.I. out early to all the basics, that way all the diligent cadets who were determined to excel at encampment would be studying before hand, and the ones who are not so determined would have to memorize it at encampment.
C/MSgt. Cameron Horner

I like that idea.
C/TSgt Daniel Otto

I oppose this idea. Encampment is about stress. You have the physical stress of not getting enough sleep, constantly moving, etc. You have the emotional/mental stress of your flight staff and first sergeant in your face 24/7 and from trying to work together with your flight so you can get honor flight and eat first. Then you have academic stress of learning material while being yelled at.
Having to learn your OI is a balancing act. It is about balancing the tendency to study your OI (being alone) and being with the team but not studying your OI.
And in any case, the basic can keep their OI after encampment and continue using it to study and train basics in their home squadron.
C/Col Feinstein

I agree with Colonel Feinstein. Despite what people may tell you, learning the information in your OI is not the main reason you are given the OI. There is stuff in there it would be beneficial to learn (i.e. marine/CAP ranks, definitions of leadership and followership, emergency procedures, and how to do a hospital corner) and that's why staff takes the time to write the OI, but that isn't the only reason you are given one. It is to add stress, to see how well you study under stress, to see if you will help your fellow flight members with OI memorization, and to give you something to do when we are too busy/tired to think of anything else for you to do, or want you to be quiet but not fall asleep… And its another factor in helping decide honor cadet. If a cadet can still have time to get good inspections, drill well, keep their bunk and locker neat, and memorize their OI, they are exceptional cadets. ~C/2d Lt Larson

It is my understanding that it will be NCWG policy to mail OI to basics. We can subsitute the academic stress with the following

  • the fact memorization of the squadron and flight staff for each cadet
  • testing them on material taught in classes, like the one on Department of Defense organization and the US government that I would like to see incorporated into the encampment training manual. You may think the second topic here is not relevant to CAP, but ask yourself this, are you a good member of the department of the Air Force if you can not name the three branches of government?

So what we need now is a boatload of class ideas that the Encampment Training team will draw up lesson plans/powerpoints for. 1…2…3… go!
C/Col Feinstein

Okay, also, the staff bibliographies can be handed out by flight staff on day 0 and taped into OIs, then cadets will be expected to memorize stuff from that. If the bibliographies are put in the OI ahead of time, then cadets will know who their staff will be, and that would take away the uncertainty stress factor on day 0, which I think is important. You show up, belong to nobody, but get an identity when assigned to a flight. That's when the flight staff hand out the bibliography pages.
~C/2d Lt Larson

They will be given the C/Exec staff bios, but not the flight/squadron staff bios in the OI mailed to them. We can leave blank pages in the OI for basics to write about thier sq/cc, sq/xo, sq/ccf, flt/cc, and flt/sgt. Of course, those line staff woudl have to write thier biographies and submit them to the exec staff well before encampment.
C/Col Feinstein

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