What's Wrong With This Picture?

It’s the middle of your first day at summer encampment.  In your flight are cadets from nearly every squadron in the wing.  As a new CAP cadet, you’re amazed at all of the "interesting" ways cadets from other squadrons do things.

Your first formation was certainly amazing! When the flight sergeant gave the command for the flight to fall in, a cadet from a unit near your own shoved his way to the front, aligned himself on the flight sergeant, then took several steps to the right, faced the front, and shouted “RIGHT GUIDE!!” at the top of his lungs. 

You watched in amazement as several cadets scrambled to fall in to the "Right Guide's" left. As the front rank assembled, the second and third ranks started to fall in with a great deal of pushing and shoving.  Some cadets in the second rank whipped off their covers with their right hand and extended their right arms in front of them, using the cover to gauge the distance between them and the cadet in the rank ahead of them.  Still other cadets put up their right arms as they fell in to check the interval between them and the the cadet to their right.

"Hmmm," you think, "I’ve never seen that done like that before, and that's sure not the way I was taught to do it at home. But, the flight sergeant seems happy with it, so I guess I'll keep my mouth shut for now,"

How Should It Have Happened?

When the flight falls in, the guide is supposed to assume the first position (for some odd reason, the "guide" is a position that is seldom used in CAP, but we will reference it here for the purposes of illustrating the correct method and because it is a required position), the element leaders then align off the guide, and the remaining flight members then align themselves off the element leaders and the individuals in the front rank.

Lets look a little more closely at the process:

The guide positions him or herself 3 paces from the flight sergeant and in a position that should assure that the first element is centered on the flight sergeant.  The guide then raises his/her left arm to a "dress right dress" position.

The first element leader then assumes his/her position immediately to the left of the guide.  Upon feeling the first element leader at his/her fingertips, the guide then performs an automatic "ready front"  and assumes the position of attention.

Now the remaining element leaders fall in behind the first element leader, execute a dress right dress, obtain their 40-inch distance visually, and align themselves directly behind the element leader in front of them (this is commonly referred to as "cover"). The whole process of obtaining Dress, Cover, Interval and Distance is referred to by the acronym "DCID."

The remaining airmen then fall into any open positions to the element leader's left, aligning themselves behind the individual in the rank in front of them (again, "cover") visually, and executing an automatic dress right dress.  As soon as DCID has been obtained with the cadets in front of them and to their left, the airman will execute an automatic ready front and assume the position of attention. Something to remember: Cover and interval for cadets behind the first rank is obtained visually, not by the actual arm distance.

This is done at the position of attention, so therefore it is done without talking.  The guide does not sound off with anything, not "RIGHT GUIDE!" not "ONE, ONE!"

Important Things To Remember

If the guide doesn't know how many people are in a particular formation, he or she may not get the exact centering of the first element on the flight sergeant. It is generally incumbent on the flight sergeant to make those fine adjustments.

The only interval that matters is the front rank of cadets, who are the leading individuals of each file..  All cadets behind the front rank merely cover on the individual in front of them, irregardless of the arm distance of the individual to their right.