CLS

HUAAAHH!! BAD DOGS!! AHOOH! AHOOH! AHOOH! BRAVO, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH THE BULLDOGS? WHEN A BULLDOGS INVOLVED, ALL ELSE WILL FALL!! BIG THNGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES!! HUAAAHHH!!!

Ahem. Yes, I am alive. Obviously. No, I did not have fun. What did I do, and why didn't I have fun? Well, that would take quite a while to answer. You say you have time? Well, then, buckle your seatbelts, and get ready for a VIP tour of the Western New York Groups Cadet Leadership School of 2008. Please be aware that all this was written in hindsight. I was basically functioning in a daze mode while at the NFARS (Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station), and like I said, it wasn't really fun. But I did not go there to have fun. The object wasn't to have fun, but to learn. If you did have fun, great, but the idea was to "Acquire the wisdom to lead," as CLS's motto states. Without further ado, I shall let you get on with this, because it promises to be extremely long. However, to specify some "double-meaning" words, when I say cadet, I mean a member of the cadet program, someone who is between 12 and 21 years of age. When I say senior, that means anyone over the age of 21. 'Flight' does not have anything to do with propelling oneself through the air without any floor contact; it is a noun meaning somewhere between 5 and 10 cadets under a cadet flight commander, cadet flight sergeant, and a senior officer (TAC Officer, sometimes called TACO).

Friday: Various members of my squadron left in the CAP van for CLS. When we got there, we walked into the base dining hall and inprocessed. This means that I had to report to some guy, probably the cadet commandant. I don't remember. After that, I gave my name to a couple officers, got my t-shirt, spoke with the medical guy, got my luggage checked, and got a room key. Then I was shown to my room, which was basically a hotel room. I was able to unpack my luggage according to the OI, which means that they had my closet figured out down to which drawer to put my socks in and which hanger to hang my BDUs on. Following that, the entire school went to the dining hall to study General Knowledge (GK), listen to all the introductions and speeches, and eat a snack. Finally, we were marched to our barracks and our flight commander, Cadet 2 Lt. Santiago, along with TAC Officer (senior) Lt. Wharton spoke with us. As a side note, Lt. Wharton was 6'7", so I felt kind of short standing next to him. I went to bed around 23:30 hours and slept very little. It was cold. I think they turned on the air conditioning instead of the heater.

Saturday: We were woken up around 6:30 or quarter to 7, and we had a very minimal amount of time to get downstairs. I mean, I slept in my BDUs, and with my hair in a braid, and I was still hurrying. No time to redo my hair, wash my face, or grab a quick bite to eat. While we waited for breakfast, we did motivation checks. Basically, the flights would compete for loudness and creativity by shouting. The flight that won got to get in line for food first. So when a staff member or another flight would walk in, we would yell, "GOOD MORNING, [DELTA FLIGHT/CADET PLETTS/ETC]!" If for some reason Alpha Flight yelled the same thing to Delta, and Delta greeted Alpha and not us, Alpha would yell, "HOW DOES THAT FEEL, BRAVO FLIGHT?? Then our flight sergeant would have to come up with an equally nasty response. One funny exchange ids as follows:
Charlie Flight, after lunch: EXQUISITE MEAL, MESS OPS! WE THANK THEE!
Bravo Flight (my flight): "OOOH! BIG WORDS!
Charlie Flight: MAYBE FOR YOU!
Bravo (and just about every other flight): "Oooooohh...."

Unfortunately, Bravo wasn't first in line that meal. But anyhow, after breakfast, we attended a couple of classes, and then went to the gym for PT. Pushups, situps, running, sit and reach, stretches, just general PT. After that, we went and showered, and then had lunch. I didn't have much lunch; I was too nerved up to swallow more than two apples. But anyhow, we went next to Building 800 for classes, and the classes lasted for a really long time. It was pretty warm in that room, and my eye was hurting. It was pretty lousy timing to come down with a minor eye infection. Then it was time for supper, but I didn't feel good. So the medic and I sat out in the hall during supper. And every time an adult (usually female) would walk by and ask me how I was doing and offer their services, the medic, who was a cadet, would say, "Oh, adults!" and, "Overprotective adults!"
After supper, we were told to change into our PTs because we were going to go over to the gym and do some recreational volleyball. And we did. And then we came back and had a snack. I think. That part of the evening is erased from my mind. I can't remember anything from when we got back from the gym and when Bravo Flight was on KP. KP went fine, though. The kitchen was huge, very huge.
I don't remember what happened after that, but lights out was at 23:00.

Sunday: Sunday's uniform was dress blues, so we got up and got in those. Then we went for breakfast. I had as apple, I think. We may have had a class after breakfast, but then we went to our barracks to prepare for inspection by SET. (Play scary music here.) SET stands for Standardization, Evaluation, and Training. Anyhow, they are the big scary guy cadets who will flip your mattress over if the bed's not made according to the OI, or dump the contents of your drawers over the floor if they're not organized properly. They also ask you General Knowledge questions and look at your uniform. So about three flight commanders/sergeants had to come into the girls' barracks to show us how exactly to fold your blankets in an E, and smile the pillows and give us tips on how to withstand the questions from SET.

We also put candy on our pillows. Why did we put candy on our pillows? Well, according to the OI, candy is not supposed to be there. Naturally, SET noticed that, and they had to take care of it. And the only way to take care of it was to eat it. I wouldn't go so far as to call it bribing, but...After Sgt. Wharton had dusted the tops of the door frames (he's really tall), SET arrived, and I was the very last person they inspected. And two guys were firing, questions at me, literally grilling me with questions that weren't even on the GK sheet that they had given me to study. For the other kids, there had only been one interrogator, and normal questions. The other cadets told me, after SET had cleared out, that SET had just been messing with me because I knew everything. I didn't really think too much about it.

After that, we went to lunch, and School Commander Captain Johnson began handing out Challenge Coins. Challenge Coins are special coins handed out to cadets and seniors who the staff decided to commend. They handed out maybe ten altogether during mealtimes, and I heard that they had given out some during the day. Anyhow, I was standing in the back, feeling kindof lousy, and very thankful that I had done nothing outstanding to merit having to go up and stand at attention in front of the whole school and get one. Then Captain Johnson said, "Cadet Airman First Class Erika [S.], Front and Center." What???! I gave my Flight Commander a very confused look and went front and center. Captain Johnson said that SET had recommended me for a Challenge Coin because of my "mastery of General Knowledge." Oh. At any rate, we had another class or two, and then we went to the base theater for graduation. That was interesting. I'm sure that you all have seen graduations before, so I won't go into detail here. Following that, we grabbed out luggage and left for home. If anyone has any tips on how to eat when you don't feel good, and you don't feel good because you can't eat, please share. Encampment is in July and it's a week long, and I'd really like to be able to go.

So that was CLS in a nutshell, and for those of you who actually made it this far, wow, and I'll talk to you later! Maybe I can even get some pictures!