Ever wondered when the best time to have an effect on your cadets is? Ever wonder if there is a secret to leading and inspiring young cadets? The answers are "always" and "no".

Not very inspiring, huh? The fact is that most of the positive leadership stuff you hear and read is correct. All of the good advice comes down to this; your job is to teach and to care. Here is a short anecdote about the time I realized just how much impact a leader can have when not actually thinking about it.

Although not everyone was happy about it, I was a team leader in 1982. It was my third year there and I was becoming an old hand. My team was clicking along pretty well the first week, even though many of the teams suffered from morale and leadership problems. Our commandant (and Group Commander) had died weeks before, and the staff had been pretty demoralized. Worse, we were stuck with senior members who had never even been to DI before. We had a serious leadership problem at the top that caused havoc throughout the school.

Another problem we had was that the school had more than doubled in size over the last year. This meant that logistics, command, and control were all made much more difficult. In addition, the rapid expansion had made it necessary to use a few team leaders that we normally wouldn't have taken on. That was a big mistake.

As a result of all this, the training and leadership provided at the school was not up to the normal standards. Everything was disjointed and uncoordinated. Some teams had great leaders, while other teams were mostly ignored. Some team leaders continued the "we are all in this together" mode of operation, while others acted as if their charges were a nuisance.

Just before we left for the Death March to Marblehead (See Death March 1 and 2 for my experience as a student), I got my team together, briefed them on what they needed to bring, inspected their gear, and then sent them to fill their canteens. I left my assistant team leader in charge of them and, with nothing left to do, wandered over to where the other teams were getting ready.

It was chaos. Many of the cadets looked completely lost, and there were very few staff members around. In fact, there were way too few staff members for this many cadets. I wasn't sure where the team leaders were.

I spied this one cadet who was a complete mess. His field gear consisted of a book bag and a milk jug. Here we were about to go out in the field for three days, and this poor guy didn't even know how to adjust his straps or pack his bag. This was inexcusable since he had already been on the Island for over a week. He was close to tears and his team leader was nowhere to be seen. I took pity on him and rigged his gear as best I could. I gave him a couple of my spare canteens and dumped the gear he didn't need for the march. I tousled his hair like I was some grandfather and moved on.

Once I was done with him, I saw this other guy rolling up his sleeves and looking very dejected. He was wearing new BDUs. That uniform was not authorized for CAP use for another decade, but we allowed the students to wear military camouflage uniforms in the field because the one or two sets of green fatigues cadets normally brought were filthy by the second week. As long as we were staying in the wilderness and away from the public, cammies were seen as practical alternatives.

It was immediately obvious that he didn't know how to "airborne roll" his sleeves since the roll did not have camouflage on the outside. I walked over and taught him how to do it. Then, without a second thought, I moved on to the next guy. I probably helped about ten people before we were told to mount up.

I quickly forgot about the guy with the sleeves and went on with my life.

Fast forward three years... I arrive at my squadron meeting and climb out of my car. Across the parking lot, this tall guy in a flight suit, flak vest and helmet jumps out of this crappy van and comes striding over with this big grin on his face.

"Hannibal! How ya doing man? It's great to see you!" Those were his exact first words to me. It's funny how I still remember them today. He began to shake my hand and talk about the Island, but all I could think was "Who the hell is this?" I didn't have a clue.

Next he started thanking me for getting him through a really hard time at the Island. He said he had been ready to quit, but after I had talked with him, he had decided to stick it out. I still had no idea what he was talking about. To this day, I have no idea what I could have said to him. It was months later when he mentioned rolling his sleeves and I started to get a vague memory of that day. It had meant nothing to me, but it had apparently made an impression on him.

Today, this guy is one of the finest and most respected officers in CAP. He has been heavily involved in Wing headquarters in more than one state, is an expert in emergency services and cadet programs, and is an excellent squadron commander. He is also one of the few people on the planet that I trust implicitly.

As a cadet officer, he helped me through some really hard times, especially when I was in trouble with Wing HQ. He continued to watch out for me as we both became seniors. I am very sure that his advice and intervention prevented me from getting kicked out of CAP several times. I most likely would not be in CAP today if it wasn't for him.

You never know what is going to be an important interaction with a cadet. I remember a moment similar to the "sleeves" when a c/2LT from another squadron came up to me and offhandedly said I had potential to be a great cadet commander. Before that moment, I was a cadet airman with absolutely no intention of ever making c/A1C. After that two-sentence conversation, I was ready to move up and make a difference. I am sure that the conversation was nothing to him, but it was a turning point for me. I had no idea I might be on the other side of that conversation someday, and certainly not when teaching some poor guy how to roll his sleeves.

So many cadet leaders concentrate on creating a "leadership style" or on building some kind of image they think makes them good leaders. You don't need all that to inspire, train and lead cadets. All you need to do is take the time to help and set a good example. The time you take to help that mess of an airman can be the most important thing you do in CAP.