cadet blogs

Upcoming Summer

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

It’s the second semester, and just like last year, plans are already being made for this coming summer. Summers at the CGA are very different from any normal school. Generally you go home for three weeks, either consecutively or separately. This coming summer is called “2/c Summer,” as it precedes my 2/c year.

The main focus of 2/c summer is making the transition from leading self to leading others. The culmination of this is being cadre for the incoming swabs, for the AIM Program or for the CGA Scholars before they go to prep school. Basically right about now we are all given a “dream sheet” to fill out and request which cadre section we want. There is waterfront, Swab Summer, AIM, and CGA Scholars. I am very eager to be a waterfront cadre, teaching the swabs the basics of sailing and boat handling.

In addition to being cadre, 2/c spend a week learning the “Rules of the Road,” Leadership and Management school, go to the range and get qualified on pistol and rifle, and my favorite, spend a week at an air station as part of the Cadet Aviation Training Program (CATP). I am totally psyched about CATP, since it’s basically my dream to fly and there is very little exposure to the aviation community here at the Academy. I can’t wait.

I guess a lot of people would cringe at the thought of doing all of this, and staying at school for most of the summer with only three weeks at home, but the summers at the CGA are probably the best part of life here. It’s during the summer that cadets get a chance to go out and work with the “real” operational Coast Guard, and do the cool stuff that we all came here to do once we graduate. It’s a good look toward the future, and certainly a good motivator that keeps the goal in perspective.

More about Mick.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/10/2012 12:46 PM