Two of my fondest memories in The Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program had to be the two times where my name was called. The first time, I vividly remember, "Per CAPM 39-3 and accordance with CAPR 52-16 Cadet Airman Basic Elliott Korona is now promoted to Cadet Airman." Until last September it was the most pride I ever had in the program. The second time I remember hearing a different voice, one of experience and pride. For several reasons for this promotion, I felt even better; I acheived something that I never even knew would happen. The events were less than two years apart, but within those two years I was able to achieve more then my staff and more then any cadet I knew, but not without the help of so many others.

I can remember joining CAP in October of 2001. I was going to the meeting place, shaking, I was so nervous. I did not know what to expect. I had recently had many thing happen to me; I was still scared from my brothers passing 9 months before. However, I had my best friend there, now C/SMSgt Justin Haber. We are still in the squadron together. We have been going to school everyday together since the 3rd grade. We walked in and were greeted by an unfamiliar face that welcomed us. I knew at that very moment that this was for me. That night I joined this great organization that has helped me so much, and in my fathers words "saved you from all that could've happened after Seth passing."

My Father, a huge influence on me, went to Valley Forge Military Academy and College, class of 1969 and 1971(C). His outlook stayed the same throughout his life and started there about the ranks in any branch of service or program. In school, he was always an enlisted cadet, rose from Private to Supply Sgt then back to Private. His outlook on this was that officers were never his favorite kind of people, and how children learn mostly everything from parents as they grew up, I had this outlook as well. As I said before, when I received Airman in January of 2002, I had the plan of never movinn into the second half of the cadet program. I thought "Amn or Sgt for life" was my kind of thing. We had two officers at that time, C/1st Lt Steve Doty and C/1st Lt Jeff Reese. Both of them were great officers, and I still speak to them today, though Steve is an A1C now and Jeff is at Group HQ, they are still good friends. Regardless, I knew there was no need for me to be an officer, anyways at that time I disliked the idea of being one. Being saluted, being called sir, it never was my thing.

This was the time when I also joined CadetStuff and started my learning. You can search for my first 200 posts and see a lot on how I was. I remember being chewed by Capt Brodsky and maybe Capt Stanford about writing that I never wanted to be an officer. It was not until later I realized this was untrue. Somewhere around when I wrote my post "Personal Story to Inform Leaders." This was then when I started my true calling to my advancement, when I started talking to Lt Col Kirt Bowden, Capt Christina Dworkin and more people. I learned more from the people that I met here then I will ever learn from a book. I can say that the people that I met here have taught me more then any book, any manual, any regulation could ever teach me.

When I became a Flight Sergeant of Bravo Flight in my squadron, I was finally something I wanted and strived for. It took a lot of hard work to prove I was the best for this position. At that time, there were higher-ranking cadets in my flight then me. Which caused some confusion, but overall it was for the best. I knew that leadership by example was the only thing I could do to get these more experienced cadets to follow me. Therefore, I knew I had to set the example. I was an Airman for 9 months mostly because of Color Guard. Now I had to promote and prove to my leaders that I was ready for the promotions. It was then that I set my goals:

1. Prove that I could gain respect from my higher grade cadets
2. Gain grade by proving to my leaders that I am ready
3. Gaining all the knowledge, leadership, and followership from my peers

These sounded easy, but really, they were the three hardest things I ever did. I was a small C/A1C commanding a flight. A scary site, but I tried my hardest and made my first goal. I gained their respect, which was very hard. Being able to tell C/SSgt Boyajian to go over there and hold a post was not the easiest thing to do when he is being told by a C/SrA.

Unfortunately, my tenure as a Flight Sgt did not last to long. I was promoted to flight commander when mine resigned from the program. Now my goals switched again, it was a different picture. I was not just in charge of 15 cadets, now I was in charge of a whole flight in general. This time was different; I knew I had a good team. My good friend I mentioned earlier was my flight Sgt, Sgt Haber. My goals and priorities changed, I had a flight now that looked up to me as a figure of officership and even more leadership even though I was only a C/TSgt. My outlook on officers, as I mentioned before, changed dramatically. I saw the need for standardization of a squadron, and officers were part of that. At this time now, we had only one officer, C/2d Lt Justin Forcier. He was a good leader, but there was no one else for our squadron to see with those officer pips, no one else to turn their eyes to for help. All they saw were the stripes. Now, I knew what I wanted. First, I had a class on goals with my fligh and I learned what everyone wanted to achieve. For myself, I wrote on the space, "Grade you would like to be within the next year: C/2d Lt". This was completely different from when I was standing in front of my squadron in January a year before. AT that time I would have never thought of making it to TSgt at all. Now, here I was, I wanted something, I knew how to get it, and I knew where there would be help along the way.

That summer I attended AETCFC-MS, NESA Adv GSAR, and Encampment back to back to back, with one day of rest in-between NESA and Encampment. I met so many more people in these 4 weeks, and found out more about what I wanted and myself. At this time, I was a C/SMSgt. When I came back home to my squadron I finally saw some problems with the leadership. The most noticable that now we had zero officers. I knew the saying, "If you can't get something done right, do it yourself." So, the next time I could, I would test, study, then test again for Chief. My goal was now to be C/2d Lt, and I knew that I could do it.

It was finally time to take the Mitchell exam, I was very nervous and I actually called Lt Col Bowden because I thought I was taking the wrong test but it was just nerves playing with me. I sat down at the desk, started the test, and it went by so quick. I thought I didn't do well, that I didn't study enough, until my score was announced. "Testing for tonight, Cadet Korona, 97 on the Mitchell exam, congratulations...." It was overwhelming, not that I just passed with a high score, but that I set a goal, made sure that I followed it, and then most of all I accomplished it. Now that is something to be proud of, I was only the fourth officer to get their Mitchell at the squadron ever. I remember every moment of reporting to Lt Gen Charlie Searock, seeing the three stars as I raised my right hand to salute the General. It was one of my favorite moments in my life.

Now I was the only officer in my squadron, and this was a problem. I did not know what I needed to do and I had no one to look up to. I could not go to my C/CC because he was still an NCO, I couldn't go to anyone in my squadron. I had to research everything, read everything about phases III and IV start to finish. I now knew that I had two major responsibilities.

1. Learn what I need to do to go on and how to do it.
2. Pave the way for the future officers, like how to do SDAs, accomplish tasks, officership and so on.

This new responsibility has taken me to where I am now. It has proven to others and me as well that if you have a firm goal, you can achieve it.

I received First Lieutenant after a hard struggle to learn about the new officer program that no one else knew. I had accomplished so much and there is so much more for me to accomplish. My cadet career is a little under three years strong and there are more to come. My biggest achievement during all of this was said to me by a now C/TSgt who is a flight sergeant in my squadron. It sums up my whole outlook, she said, "You are a true leader, you lead by example, you don't just tell us to come to activities, you come as well. You don't just tell us to wear our uniform well, you wear yours perfect. You are a true leader." These words alone made all my hard work and goals worth it, knowing that in my personal achievement I also showed many others how to achieve what they want.

Goals have a way of changing in time, the plans for a building generally stay the same, but on the inside, there are many changes that happen during the construction. As I started as an Airman I never wanted to be an officer, but now here I am. What changed? Personally, it was my outlook. In the beginning, I thought only about my goal and myself. Now in the end I think about the goals of others and how my personal goals relate and help them. Everything can change, but it is how you overcome those changes and make them for the better. That is what counts.