JULY 2009

05 July 2009

Today marks the end of my first week as cadre. It has been a great experience, but I’ve completely lost my voice and I’m pretty exhausted. Being cadre is just about as tough as being a swab. We’re up and dressed well before the swabs, and we stay up way later, debriefing each day and planning out the next. It’s tough to keep the intensity high. It takes a lot of energy to remain that focused on maintaining the training environment and putting the right amount of stress and pressure on our swabs. We worked really hard all week to make sure every training exercise had a clear purpose that the swabs understood and saw how it would benefit them in their time at the Academy or in the Coast Guard.

It was a big challenge being completely responsible for a large group of people. Everything from their training to making sure they got to medical appointments on time. I’m really glad that I’m doing Swab Summer cadre vice any of the other sections because I’ll be able to see my swabs develop over the summer and over the course of the next two years I spend at the Academy, so I think it will be pretty rewarding. It’s been fun working with my classmates and seeing their leadership styles. We’ve been able to mesh together as a group really well, and I think that we’re doing a really good job training 2013.

I’m headed off for three weeks of leave. I’m going home to decompress, spend time with my family, and see all my friends. See you in August!