The barracks were terrible. We made the best of the situation.
What standard operating proceudres need to be in place for the barracks?
What made the barracks so terrible? I actually thought the barracks were pretty nice. The only things that I can think of off the top of my head is that water fountain, and the air conditioning at night. It dropped to seemingly near-zero temperatures in the male barracks at night. I have spoken with other basics and we did not mind CQ duty because it meant we could have a few moments escape from the arctic wasteland that the male barracks became at night.
C/TSgt Daniel Otto
The barracks were great as far as basics are concerned, I would try to make sure everything was ready and not have marines still in there next year. From all my experience, open bay barracks are colder then Canada in winter!! I think I was one of the few basics that figured out why we needed sweat pants and a sweatshirt though… ( basics are the dumbest creatures on earth!) but CQ duty was amazing!
C/SMSgt. Toby Morgan
Part of the barracks problem was having the squadrons together. Having flights together was bad enough, but having the squadrons bunking together created a lot of confusion, especially where we had to have basics from two different squadrons sharing a bunk. It was confusing for staff, and confusing for basics. It also made it impossible to give a "motivational talk" to a flight/the squadron in the barracks, or work on jodies, because the other flights/squadron were right there, and starting a war in the barracks isn't a great idea… Also, having the females downstairs made it difficult to pass out instructions. There were times when the males were preparing to move out to the buses because of a change of plans, and the females had not been notified… Also, since the female staff had to bunk with the basics, it made it difficult to get in and out of the barracks in the mornings/evenings without disturbing the basics. Having female senior members in with the basics made it even more difficult, because they wanted to go to bed early, or they might start trying to give orders to cadet staff, or interfere in some way, whereas if they had been in another place, it would have been so much easier to just do what we, as staff, needed to do. Those are some of the barracks problems from the female first sergeant's perspective.
~ C/2d Lt Larson
oh, another problem was that after lights a few cadets who start talking, or polishing their boots, soon around 6 cadets were doing it and kept us up…..
C/SMSgt. Toby Morgan
This is unacceptable. Lights out means lights out and if CQ has to enforce that, then so be it. If staff meetings can take 15 minutes per night, then one staff member can go into the barracks and make sure basics don't do stupid things like start shining thier shoes.
Should we make all flashlights and other light-making devices contraband?
C/Col Feinstein
Toby, let's remind ourselves that CAP is air force, not USMC, so we do NOT use periods in our grade abbreviations.
C/Col Feinstein
I don't think we should make flashlights contraband. That's over the top. We should, however, instruct the cadets on CQ duty to stop anyone caught doing anything other than trying to rest.
C/TSgt Daniel Otto
Adding to Otto's statement, the cadets on CQ should be told that if cadets who are shining shoes refuse to go back to bed, that they should wake their flight Sgt and have he or she take care of it. Yes or No?
C/MSgt Horner
The Sergeant of the Guard was the flight sergeant, except for Whiskey, because the flight sergeant was the lovely Danielle Bullock. Cadets on CQ report to the SoG.
C/Col Feinstein
I had CQ twice, and I was never informed about a Sergeant of the Guard. For us to be able to report to the SoG, we need to know what it does, and who it is.
C/TSgt Daniel Otto
How about if a cadet is caught using a flashlight after bed twice, the flashlight is taken as contraband?
~C/2d Lt Larson
So basically, what we have decided is:
- The barracks were too cold
- Mixing up flights and squadrons did not work out very well
- Sharing barracks with marines was a bad idea
- CQ needs to know about the Sgt of the Guard
- CQ needs to make sure cadets go to bed at bedtime
- Having senior members in with cadets didn't work very well because SMs wanted to go to bed early
- Mixing cadet staff and basics didn't work very well either, because cadet staff had no privacy or place to sort of shake off the cadet staff-ness and relax.
Anything else?
~C/2d Lt Larson
It would be good to explain to basics what CQ stands for: Charge of Quarters. The other basics I spoke with had no idea what the letters stood for. Also, is it standard for flt sgts to bunk with the basics? This makes it hard for flt sgts when they are trying to get ready in the morning, but don't want basics to be awake yet.
C/TSgt Daniel Otto
The flight Sgt should be in the basic barracks, because he is in charge of CQ (Sgt of the Guard). also if something happens during the night, i.e. a basic falls out of his/her bunk and breaks a leg, however unlikely this is, your going to have 50 basics crowding around trying to help, while no staff is there to keep order, or to warn the medic.
C/MSgt Horner
If we are in unified barracks, then only the NCO on SoG should sleep in the barracks. But each group of basics needs to have a NCO around. So if each flight is in seperate barracks, then the flight sergeant will sleep with the flight. The first sergeant woulfd fill in for any gender issues (ie: whiskey flight).
C/Col Feinstein
