CLS 11

So you all remember hearing about Cadet Leadership School before, right? I went in 08 as an airman first class. I had been in CAP a little under a year. I was petrified. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, but I was glad I went. Bravo flight will always hold a special place in my heart. In 09, I was a senior master sergeant, and a member of the public affairs team. Yep, that was sorta the beginning of my public affairs love. This time, I was only somewhat petrified, and it was not a terrible experience. I skipped CLS 10 because I got sick right beforehand and didn't feel like going while running a fever.

CLS 2011 was Presidents Day weekend in February (yeah, this post is late). It was great going there, remembering my previous experiences. CLS this year was absolutely awesome. I was a member of Foxtrot flight, or the senior NCO/officer track. Essentially, it was college-level CLS. The classes were really great...the teamwork and such was great, food was good, and I wasn't freaking out like I normally do with things like this. So here's a basic rundown of what happened. And it's with pictures. I wasn't on public affairs staff obviously, so I had fun being the annoying person-with-the-little-pocket-camera-who-takes-random-snapshots-all-the-time. Well, not all the time. But I still got some.

Going to the very beginning of my story, around 11 pm, Thursday night, I decided that it was time to start packing. So I did that, and got done around 1:30. I had to work the next day, so I loaded all my stuff up and drove to work Friday morning. My mom came by later to get the van and bring me the shampoo that I forgot. A little after 3, I was informed via text that the CAP van was on its way. They picked me up from work, which worked well because the Comfort Inn is right next to the thruway. We left around 3:30. We stopped around 5:00 to eat supper at McDonald's. I asked Jeff how my hair looked and he, in a gentlemanly and courteous manner that is truly indicative of his caring soul, informed me that it looked like it was attacked by eggbeaters. Sarah and I make a dash for the McDonald's bathroom to salvage our hair. Then we ate supper (and yes, people stared and talked to us...not often does a large group of BDU-clad teens come waltzing in to McDonald's...). Anyway, we got to the base around 5:45.

From here on, we essentially unloaded stuff from the vans, and sat or stood around and talked. Cadets who were on staff hurried about getting organized and such. Since one of the members of the public affairs staff borrowed my camera, I had to show it to him and give him last minute admonitions and the like. From my squadron, Jeff, Matt, Harvey, and I were in Foxtrot. There were other members from different squadrons as well, but we four knew each other already, and it was nice having others who were on the same page and who could correlate the same stuff to the squadron. So anyhow, Jeff and I sat down at a table and essentially talked to the cadets around us, much to the chagrin of the sergeants who were trying to maintain law and order while doing time-filler general knowledge. But, there are perks to being a captain, so at our end of the table, we were lawless cadets who kept talking and didn't participate in GK.

Once the staff was all set up, we began the process of inprocessing. Then, after reporting to admin, going to medical, getting my t-shirt, and having my luggage rifled through in search for contraband, I lugged my luggage to the base hotel where we were staying. It was a really nice place. My roommate was Grace, also homeschooled, and she was a very nice girl.

Then, we all went back to the base dining hall for the necessary opening/introductions/etc. This is where they're like, "HI!! We're going to have fun!! And be safe!! And my name is [whatever] and these people are [whoever] and we're cool, and you're cool, and we're gonna have fun!! And be safe!!" I took the opportunity to assess my flight, Foxtrot. Caitlin and Moriah were the cadets in charge...our senior member mentor was Maj Nodar. There were two other girls, and then 7 guys. After the intro thing, Foxtrot trotted (sorry) back to the hotel where we convened for our introduction/opening time. We sat on the floor in the lobby, introduced ourselves, made jokes about each other to remember each detail, and then talked about goals. SMART goals, to be specific. When we were done with that, we headed back to the dining hall for a snack, and then as far as I remember, we went back to our rooms and went to bed.

Okay, do you remember in CLS 2008, my flight's motivation check was "AHOO!! AHOO!!"? Well, apparently, that was from the movie 300, and here is a wiki link about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_%28film%29 [hop over and read at least the first couple paragraphs, if you're not familiar with the movie]. I mention that because this year, my flight's motivation check was also from 300. Namely, we yelled, "THIS. IS. SPARTAAA!!!" like that. I've never seen the movie, incidentally, but I think enough people had (or had heard of it) that it was epic. So we came up with that motivation check during breakfast on Saturday morning.

Then, we headed off for classes all day. Boring, right? Actually, not. Some of you know that I've developed an interest in brain types (also known as personality types) (and if anyone cares, I'm an ISTP. Right brained.), so the first class was super interesting to me, as it was all about personality types: how they're different, how they work together, what the strengths of each are, how the different types handle change and so forth differently, and how we can work together as a better team when we understand our weak points and others' strong points. After a brief intro, he split the room up into introverts and extroverts. I've heard that roughly 70 percent of the population is extroverted, and the dynamics in that room definitely supported that. Most of the room was on the "E" side, while we "I" people looked at each other and felt cool. Maj Nodar explained the differences between us ("they like to be expressive and communicative! They're impulsive! They're quieter and like to think things through!"). Then we had the Sensers on one side and the Intuitive-ers on the other side, and again, he explained the differences between that. Same for Thinkers and Feelers, and then for Perceivers and Judgers. It was really neat, because some of the cadets who were from my squadron, I've worked with a lot...we get along quite well, and yet, we're so opposite. It's so cool how we all have strengths and weaknesses, and we all complement each other, and even though we're different, we work together and respect each other, especially as we understand those differences.

We had more class time, and then went back to the dining hall for lunch. Then, it was back for more classes, till supper. The classes (generally) were interactive, stimulating, thought provoking, and just plain awesome. Project management, impromptu speaking, how to train, how to plan, how to lead...yeah. College level stuff...it was great. Oh, we had a project, too...it wasn't all classes. We were given a scenario, split up into two groups, and told to come up with something. In our scenario CAP had been given a large sum of money, with very specific (and we felt, constricting) uses for the money. We had to accept or decline the offer, or propose a counter-offer. We chose to propose a counter-offer, and we had the weekend to work on our presentation, and on Sunday, each team would present our proposal to the CLS command staff. That was pretty cool.

Anyhow, after supper on Saturday, we had a moral leadership session, and then a chapel service (which was concurrent with another class for the people who didn't want to go to chapel). It was a good service...and I'm pretty sure that I was the only one who noticed that the cloth on the altar was crooked. After chapel, we went to the dining hall for a snack. After we had all arrived at the dining hall, all the staff members were told to go to the kitchen. Then, it was told to us that the staff would be demonstrating servant leadership by serving our snack to us. To me, that was a pretty vivid example of leadership. Leadership, summed up right there. You can teach tons of leadership classes, but that was an incredible, succinct example of leadership, and I am sure it made a very distinct impression on most of the cadets there.

Then, some member of Foxtrot VOLUNTEERED (yes, I said volunteered. Aren't we special.) for KP duty, and it was epic. We got to stay up till like 11 or so doing dishes...yeah, be jealous. KP late at night is fun. It was also cold, but that's ok because it's fun. Then, after KP, we headed back to our room, spiffed up dress blues uniforms, and went to bed.

Sunday morning involved getting packed and into dress blues, and then transporting luggage to the dining hall before breakfast. Then...let's see...we had a class, then another class, and then another class. Then lunch, then working on our project, and then presenting our project. And then another class, and then we kind of got done ahead of time, so we had some break time before we had to head to the base theater for graduation. My family came this year, which was cool. I think it was their first non-squadron activity that they went to. And then we said goodbye to everyone, and left. And got semi-lost on the way home. But it was all good.

Okay, here are pictures.

First one is the vending machine in the building that our classroom was in. The vending machine got some use, let's say.

Eh, this is me, Saturday evening.
The food line. Food was good.
My flight. We were awesome.
My flight eating.
This is inside the classroom.
The girls...me, my roommate, and Michaela.
*undramatic end*