cadet blogs

Summer Days

(The Cadet Experience, Class of 2012) Permanent link All Posts

July is here at last. At the Academy, it’s a time of long summer days, all sorts of trainings, and, usually, falling asleep at night in pools of your own sweat (except for those lucky few living with the air conditioning in E-Annex). And, of course, summer training is in full swing.

I’ve already got to experience a lot more this summer than I’d ever thought I would. Back in May, I had the opportunity to go down to Aviation Training Center Mobile in Alabama for our Cadet Aviation Training Program. There, several of my classmates and I had the opportunity to fly in several Coast Guard aircraft, including HC-144s, Jayhawks, and Dolphins. After that, I participated in our Coastal Sail Training Program, where, working in a group with four other cadets and two safety officers, we spent two weeks sailing around various ports in Long Island Sound and the surrounding area. It was a really great time and let me get a hands-on feel for leadership and teamwork out there in an actual nautical environment.

R-Day, the infamous day when the new class of swabs first reports to the Academy, was last Monday. As a result, the Academy is now swarming with new faces, most of them fresh out of high school. It’s really loud with them yelling all the time, and a faintly pungent stench is beginning to creep up in certain places in Chase Hall. It’s all part of Swab Summer, and to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The beginning of AIM, however, is just around the corner. The first batch of AIMsters will report this Sunday. All the cadre have already spent a week in trainings and discussions preparing for how we’re going to act as cadre and how to react in certain situations. It’s an exciting time. For most of us, it’s the three weeks we’ve been most anticipating this summer. I’m a little anxious to see how things will turn out, but I’m sure it’ll be an intense and rewarding time both for myself and the AIMsters I’ll be leading. And with leave just three short weeks away, things are just looking up from here.

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Last Edited by Leann Strickland at 2/1/2012 3:14 PM