JUNE 2009

Wow. So today, June 2nd, was the infamous R-day! Class of 2013 is officially the newest class at the Academy and we, the class of 2011, are officially training them. It has taken two years to get to this mark, and those two years have been long and painful, but finally we are here. It was strange to see all of the incoming swabbies running around and yelling. I remember myself running around, thinking, “What have I gotten into?” I can remember having that hoarse voice from yelling loudly. I remember being sore from running everywhere and I remember being so scared of making a mistake that I actually made more mistakes. I remember it all too well and as I saw the class of 2013 come in, I couldn’t help but picture myself in their stead.

R-day had taken months of preparation. Coming back from Christmas leave, we had our first training in January. These trainings encompassed everything from sexual harassment, to suicide prevention, to understanding mental and physical fatigue. The Command wanted to ensure that we would receive the proper training necessary to train and prepare the swabs as best as we could. Some of my classmates woke up at 0530 to participate in the morning workouts that the swabs would eventually go through; fixing what was wrong, and improving upon what we could. Others created trainings and cleaned the barracks, preparing rooms for the incoming swabs. Three weeks before the swabs came, all of us had to go through a brief remembrance of our own ‘swab summer’ with the Company Commanders from Cape May so that when the time came, we too would remember what it was like. And when that day came, it came early.

R-Day started at 0500 with my cadre section getting dressed and heading down to our auditorium, Leamy where we prepared the building for the incoming swabs and their parents. After it was set up, I was stationed at the entrance checking in swabs and greeting their families to the Coast Guard Academy. It took four hours for all of the swabs to be checked in, and once they were checked in, I was allowed to leave and rejoin the rest of my company for the remainder of the day. When I arrived in the passageway, there were 37 swabs on the bulkhead, attempting to count-off. It was interesting seeing how even the most basic of concepts were so new and so foreign to the swabs. We had to teach them things like how to square, how to sound off, and how to use sir or ma’am appropriately. To us, these things were so ingrained in our minds that we didn’t even notice we were using them. Once they were absent, however, it was quite apparent that we were no longer dealing with cadets; rather we were dealing with civilians who just graduated high school.

The afternoon culminated in a Swearing-In ceremony in which all swabs marched onto the parade field and took the Coast Guard Academy oath. It is this oath that officially binds the new swabs to the Academy, trusting that they will adhere to the core values of honor, respect, and devotion to duty. It is this oath that is the backbone behind everything that we do. Taking this oath means that we are entrusting you into our family, it means that we have confidence in your abilities, and that we will push you until you reach the maximum potential of those abilities. It is this oath that marks the beginning of a new chapter in your lives. Mine was two years ago, for the class of 2013, it was today.

Melissa K. McCafferty

Melissa.K.McCafferty@uscga.edu