(This article was originally published in the oft-lamented CAP Officer, a professional online journal for CAP officers that ceased publication in 1998. It is offered here with the permission of the former editor of the CAP Officer. The tone is more 'scholarly' than the normal CadetStuff article, but you can handle it, chief! - Ed.)

Introduction

I have long been a proponent of removing officers from the drill teams in the National Drill Team Competition. Briefly, it is my firm belief that Cadet officers should organize, train and lead instead of actually performing in events such as drill. This will obviously limit the number of slots on an NDTC team available for Cadet officers to two or three.

The officers of the Cadet corps and many Cadet Program personnel have been vocal and obstinate in their resistance to this idea. The basic arguments against my proposals come down to two things: it's not fair and why shouldn't Cadet officers be allowed to show their stuff?

While I believe that a Cadet officer can show his stuff more effectively by training and leading his Cadets, I can understand that the urge for one-on-one competition burns hot in our corps of Cadet officers. These are, after all, among the finest young people in the country. Competitive urges are natural to them.

With this in mind, I am proposing a competition to be run alongside the National Drill Team Competition and the National Color Guard Competition - the National Cadet Officer's Competition.

Teams and Events

A National Cadet Officers Competition (NCOC) team will be made up of six Cadets who have received their Mitchell awards. Each member of the team must be personally recommended to the Wing Director of Cadet Programs by the Deputy Commander for Cadets and Squadron Commander. A squadron may have no more than two Cadets on the NCOC team.

Preliminary testing of potential team members should be completed at the wing level, preferably during NDTC competition. The six highest-scoring competitors will represent the wing at the region level.

The NCOC will consist of eight events. The events are set up to test every aspect of a Cadet officer: fitness, organization, planning, presence, command ability, teamwork, etc. Each event is designed to test a different combination of these qualities:

1. Physical Fitness Test. Cadet officers should be the fittest of our Cadets and have this opportunity to prove it. Competitors will take the standard Cadet PFT, scaled above 100 points for exceptional achievement.
2. Volleyball. This will test teamwork and communication. It will also test physical fitness and stamina because there are no other players to rotate in and out during play. Rules and scoring are identical to the NDTC format.
3. Written Examination. This will allow for a testing of the Cadet officers depth and breadth of knowledge because unlike the NDTC and NCGC testing, NCOC testing will be comprehensive and include questions about the entire spectrum of Civil Air Patrol and it's missions. Questions on AE, ES and CP subjects and various staff positions, along with current events and CAP history, will be included.
4. Quiz Bowl. This will not only test the knowledge of the teams, it will also challenge them to construct their two panels with as much knowledge represented on each as possible. Identical to the NDTC format with two panels of three Cadets each. Questions will, again, cover the gamut of CAP as in the written testing.
5. Impromptu Speech. This will test our Cadet officers' abilities to think quickly and thoroughly, to prepare and organize their thoughts and to present them in public. Three team members will be selected at random and each provided with a different subject for an impromptu speech of at least 2 but not more than five minutes. Team members will be sequestered as a to present to the judging panel
6. Standard Drill. This will ensure that our officers have not only learned the lessons of the Cadet NCO grades, but that they have maintained those lessons as they progressed. It will also test all important command presence and voice. Three team members will be selected at random and provided with a drill team of junior Cadets made up of a mix of Cadets from each NDTC team and a drill card with drill movements equivalent to three or four minutes of drill.
7. Formal Counseling. A duty of the Cadet officer is to maintain discipline and motivation in Cadets. This will test their ability to address the problems that might surface with a Cadet while ensuring the Cadet stays with the Program and that the requirements of the CPP are met. Each team will be provided with three situations requiring counseling of a Cadet and allowed five minutes to prepare. Different pairs of team members will then counsel a Cadet on the problems outlined before a judging panel.
8. Class Presentation. Since training Cadets is part of leadership, this examines how well our officers can, if given time and materials, prepare to instruct their Cadets. Each team will be provided with a unique subject a week prior to the NCIC and will prepare a class for presentation with a maximum length of a half hour. Suitable materials pertaining to the training subject will be provided when the class is assigned. The pertinent or important points to be covered will be provided to the teams as a list of bullet points. Preparations will include a class outline, and may include handouts or displays.

Inspections will be eliminated because Cadet officers are assumed to know how to take care of their uniforms. This is also the idea behind having the officers command drill rather than perform it.

Judging

Judging panels will be made up of Civil Air Patrol, active duty, reserve or retired officers. Where practical, former Cadet officers - particularly Spaatz awardees - should be used as judges. Since much of the judging is subjective, criteria sheets should be provided to give each judge with a clear concept of what he is looking for in performance for each event he is judging and to help him gather his thoughts.

The PFT and volleyball will be judged and scored identically to the NDTC and NCGC

The written examination will be scored with each correct answer adding 1 point and incorrect answers subtracting 1 point from the team overall score. Unanswered questions do not count for or against the team total.

The Quiz Bowl will be identical to the NDTC format.

The impromptu speech will be judged according to Toast Masters International criteria. Judges will also look for topicality, appropriateness and delivery. Potential subjects are: introducing a guest speaker, discussing current events, providing opening remarks or a short dedication speech.

The standard drill will be judged by the NDTC drill judges. The drill commander is the subject rather than the drill team itself. Errors on the part of the drill team will not count against the commander provided the commander corrects his flight appropriately. Also judged will be command presence, command voice, correctness of commands, knowledge of drill, staying within NDTC drill deck boundaries, etc.

The formal counseling competition will use a single Cadet for each scenario of the contest to ensure the situation and reactions facing the teams are as similar as possible. Counseling will be judged on criteria such as fairness, appropriateness, effectiveness, and the requirements of the CPP.

For the class presentation contest teams will be judged on depth of preparation, quality of training materials, effectiveness of presentation and thoroughness of instruction.

Scheduling and Sponsorship

Adding an additional contest to the already difficult NDTC schedule won't be easy. However, because Cadet officers are more mature and capable, much of the chaperoning required of NDTC and NCGC teams would be eliminated. NCOC teams should be able to more-or-less take care of themselves. This should minimize the oversight required by NHQ and the various regions. With this in mind, transportation becomes almost a moot point.

Judging would be a critical issue, as always. The biggest issue being the availability of judges. However, NDTC and NCGC judges could do 'triple duty' in some cases. Most of the NCOC events should be fairly quick and easy. There are few iterations because of the small size of the teams. For instance, quiz bowl should move much faster with only two quiz bowl teams per NCOC team. Also, the written test and the PFT could be administered either en masse or in conjunction with the NDTC testing.

For other events, care has been taken here to minimize the time requirements. For instance, in the Impromptu Speech, Drill and Formal Counseling events, each team will only compete three times. And, with care taken to overlap the actual performance, most of teams should be able to complete their assigned tasks in less than fifteen minutes.

Finally, this competition could be constructed and sponsored by the Spaatz Association or the Eaker Association, or perhaps jointly. This would be an excellent initiative for these organizations as they should have as good an insight into the requirements of Cadet officers as anyone.

Conclusions

It probably isn't fair that, in a perfect world, Cadet officers have such a limited participation in the NDTC and none at all in the NCGC. However, the contest outlined here should help alleviate that and allow our Cadet officers to compete nearly one on one for the right to be called the finest group of Cadet officers in the Civil Air Patrol.

Hopefully, if nothing else, the competition for one of the Wing NCOC team slots will attract officers who are willing to participate in a NDTC team rather than leading it. Obviously, leading, training and organizing a team of junior Cadets for NDTC is one of the most difficult and time consuming tasks a Cadet officer can undertake. NCOC should be an outlet for those officers who don't have the time, the manpower or the inclination to compete for NDTC.

This obviously won't be an easy thing to do. There are a number of concerns, not the least of which is momentum. Any organization the size of CAP is difficult to turn. And while logistics is probably not a critical issue, availability of judges will be.

However, it is incumbent upon Cadet Programs to provide the best opportunity for our Cadets in all ranks to show their abilities. NCGC is clearly designed for Cadet NCOs and airmen, NDTC is set up for Cadet NCOs, airmen and officers - each in their appropriate role. Even the questionable practice of allowing officers in-ranks participation in the NDTC doesn't properly test those officers against the things they are learning and being promoted for. It seems fairly obvious that in order to give our Cadet officers an opportunity to demonstrate their individual prowess in a clearly judged way, a new competition must be developed that evaluates the leadership lessons they are taught.

That is the goal of the National Cadet Officer's Competition.

Capt Shawn Stanford can be reached by email at
Shawn.Stanford@alltel.com.

The author would like to thank the following for their assistance:

Capt David Jadwin, CAP
Clark County Composite Squadron (Las Vegas), NV031
NV Wing, Pac Region

1st Lt Steven M. Lewis, CAP
Deputy Commander for Cadets
Jersey Village Composite Squadron #42367
TX Wing, SW Region

1st Lt Michael L. Willis, CAP
Deputy Commander for Cadets
McLean County Composite Squadron, IL240
IL Wing, GL Region