So you've marched across that parade deck (or tarmac, or grass field), and you've earned that pretty red, white and black ribbon. You've endured a week of hardship and harassment from a C/CMSgt who's never picked up a Drill and Ceremonies manual in his life, and a 13 year old C/2d Lt who's a Gunny Hartman wannabe. You think to yourself on the ride home, "Hey, I could do that!" After all, how hard could it be to spend a week yelling at cadets and marching them around?

Actually, if you do it how it's supposed to be done, pretty doggone tough.

During the summer of 2002, I attended Cadet Officer School. While COS was an unforgettable experience that I wouldn't trade for the world, there was another learning institution I attended. This was a place that made me reevaluate my effectiveness as a leader, a place that I credit for making me into the leader I am today. Of course, I'm talking about encampment, namely the 2002 Georgia Wing Encampment, and the role I played for 8 turbulent days was Golf Flight Commander, AKA role model to 15 fresh faced cadets, AKA mentor in the ways of the Cadet Program, AKA fearless leader, AKA "Daddy", -you get the idea. Even after the RST, the numerous e-mails sent between me and my flight sergeant, the hours of pouring over regs and online resources, nothing could prepare me for Saturday afternoon, when my flight sergeant turned around, saluted, and reported "All cadets present, sir."

Up to that point in my life, staffing an encampment was the single-most challenging event of all my 16.9 years. Even with my recently sewn-on set of 3 pips, I was barely prepared to take on the challenge of looking after 15 cadets I had never seen before in my life, cadets who had second thoughts on why they came to encampment, or why they joined CAP the week before. I had to deal with homesickness, irritability (the cruelty of abstaining from caffeine and sugar), quibbles and arguments among the cadets, squaring-away my flight sergeant (I actually had to get a new one just before the start of encampment, since the one I had was reassigned as first sergeant), getting myself squared-away after the staff meeting (when it's almost midnight), and of course, the lack of sleep a staffer gets during encampment (I think I averaged 5 ½ hours a night, and that was because I learned to manage my time well). I hate to think how things would have been if my flight sergeant and I didn't get along (a problem I've witnessed at several encampments).

I don't mean to discourage anyone, but this is just the nature of the beast. You have to be prepared to give up you own comforts to ensure your cadets are taken care of, and you need to be able to work under pressure, because as a flight commander you'll be feeling lots of it, not just on a daily basis, but on an hourly basis.

In order to help you make it through the week without inflicting bodily harm to a basic cadet (because that's against the CPP, and that would be a "no-no"), I've put together a few thoughts on what you need to do and remember during this week of fun, adventure, and mental torture.

Listed below are what I like to call "The ABC's of Encampment":

Accomplish your goals: Know what the goals established to you by higher command are (reading over Chapter 5 of CAPR 52-16 would be helpful), come up with your own echelon's goals (goals for the flight, goals for the squadron, goals for the encampment, etc), come up with way to reach these goals. Obviously you want to create week-long goals, but create daily goals, and during staff meetings discuss whether or not they were met and why they were/weren't. Don't be afraid to let your basics in on them too, and please be a little more specific than "We're going to be Honor Flight". Come up with a game plan, and include everyone in the planning.

Basic cadets: TAKE CARE OF YOUR TROOPS. This is your most important role as a leader, especially as a flight commander or flight sergeant. In the RealMilitary, mission accomplishment comes before troop welfare (hence casualties of war), but in CAP, this just isn't the case. An encampment staffer should become intimately familiar with CAPP 52-10, the Cadet Protection Policy and take all the Required Staff Training to heart. All training conducted during the encampment should have a purpose that ties into the Cadet Program, and when in doubt.....don't do it! (you can ask your superiors about it later). Although your Tactical Officers have been assigned to assist the cadet chain of command with safety and personal issues, remember "everyone is a safety officer". This idea should work its way down to your cadets as well, as they should all be looking after one another. Don't rely on your Tacs to take care of every potential hazard or medical issue (as most seniors tend to become forgetful in their old age), be "always vigilant" (now where have I heard that before?), check their feet for blisters, watch out for heat cases, look out for fatigue, other cadets singling out a certain cadet in the flight, etc. The more people looking out for these problems, the less likely a medical or hazing issue will occur.

Also, on another leadership note, if you're a flight commander, you should be the last to eat during chow. A good flight commander would ensure the squad leaders and guide are eating after all the other basic cadets, to instill the concept of "TCT".

Communication: Staffing an encampment is a very demanding job, one that requires grace under pressure and flexibility. It also requires more than one person to run. Remember, you're not alone. Keep the communication going with your chain of command, and if you're a flight commander, delegate tasks to your flight sergeant. His only job is not to move cadets from place to place (not unless you want it to be). Likewise, the flight sergeant should be delegating authority to his or her guide and squad leaders (I'd recommend not to do this immediately after in-processing, but to wait at least a day before you start giving them responsibility). If you expect to get your flight to the simulators on time, you might want to get with your squadron commander and find out when they'll need to be there, instead of expecting him to tell you at the last minute. Take some initiative, and be proactive, not reactive.

When you have a problem you just can't seem to take care of yourself, let your superior know. The stress of encampment can get to even the best of us at times; it's always good to have someone to talk to and "vent". It's also good to let someone else take charge when you can no longer control your emotions, or you're simply too fatigued (the latter means you should probably start hitting the rack earlier, rather than goofing off with other officers after lights out).

There's many other leadership principles and traits out there to learn, but you can only do so much studying from a textbook. Encampment is the great living leadership laboratory of CAP. If you're genuinely interested in training cadets in "the ways of the Force", instead of screaming at cadets because you're just plain better than them (and that's what my flight sergeant did to me! Back when encampment was hardcore!), then the challenge of staffing an encampment just might be for you.

By now you've probably noticed I've been talking primarily about the flight commander and flight sergeant. Next time I'll go into more detail about the support staff (known in some wings as the "exec staff"), what to expect, how to conduct yourself, how to interact with basic cadets, and more.

Until we meet again...