| Day four, the second day of seminars, as well as the final
day of the conference. I skipped the awards presentation in favor of catching up on
some sleep. The day for me began with my friend calling me to ask if I wanted to go to
breakfast. I went, and ended up with a free breakfast, courtesy of Col John Rooney, whom I
know from NBB. Afterwards I decided to skip seminars
during the first session instead checking out the exhibits and the National Board meeting.
Since today is the last day, exhibitors were desperate to get rid of their free stuff. I
wound up with more free stuff than I can probably take in the van on the way back!
While I was checking out exhibits, I ran into a cadet from
NBB 2000 (C/2d Lt Seth Evans). Apparently he was this year's recipient of the Frank G.
Brewer aerospace education award in the cadet category.
After visiting some exhibits, I decided to drop in on the
National Board meeting. A few of the things that went through were the removal of
pregnancy and marriage as grounds for cadet membership termination (although, in the event
that a cadet gets married, they would be required to turn senior member as soon as they
are 18 years old). Also approved by the board were a few new uniforms. The first of
which is dark blue BDUs, which may be worn as an alternate to the current BDUs for those
who do not meet the weight/grooming standards. Also approved were a dark blue jumpsuit to
replace the "Smurf Suit", and changing the ultramarine blue baseball caps to
dark blue to match the new jumpsuit, as well as the new BDUs.
After sitting in on the national board meeting, I went to
the Emergency Services seminar. Most of the information covered there was stuff that I
already knew from the TTT and CTTT courses. Same thing with my next seminar, "The
future of ELTs". The most useful portion of the ELT seminar was the part about
Personal Locating Beacons.
The last two events of the day were the National Commander's reception and the Banquet.
The reception was not very noteworthy. It was essentially everyone standing in the
halls waiting for them to open the doors to the Grand Ballroom. The banquet itself was
excellent. Before it began, I was able to present former National Commander Brig Gen
Richard Anderson, CAP with a CadetStuff.org T-shirt hot off the presses (I will have a
picture up as soon as I get it developed). During the banquet, many people were
recognized, including several charter members of CAP. Also, a new MOU was signed between
CAP and the U.S. Coast Guard auxiliary, which will permit USCG Aux. Members to fly in CAP
aircraft, and for CAP members to go aboard USCG ships (perhaps for search and rescue).
The highlight of the banquet was, by far, the Change of Command. Before the actual
ceremony, Col Bowling, the soon to be National Commander, presented many gifts and awards
to outgoing National Commander, Brig Gen Bobick. Some of these gifts and awards included:
2 Snow Village collectibles, a Life Membership for General Bobick and his wife, the
General's FIRST EVER Meritorious Service award, and his own flag, which was retired by the
National Board. After all of these were presented, the Change of Command ceremony began.
The ceremony was presided over by Lt Gen (Gen Select) Foglesong, the soon-to-be Vice Chief
of Staff for the United States Air Force, and witnessed by 816 CAP members in the room at
the time. After the passing of the flag, representing the changing of hands, Col Bowling
was promoted to the grade of Brigadier General. In addition, (now General) Bowling took
the oath of office, becoming the first ever CAP National Commander to take such an oath.
General Bowling then outlined some of his plans as National Commander, such as creating a
paperwork reduction review board (upon the announcement, I swear I heard my roommate start
to scream "Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!"). After it was all done, everyone went to
congratulate Brig Gen Bowling on his promotion, and headed either home or back to their
hotel rooms for the evening.
Tomorrow I have a long drive ahead of me, and this will be
my last update. Hope to see everyone in Philadelphia next year. Until then (or at least
until I put something new up on CadetStuff), this is Mike Crockett, signing off from the
2001 National Board meeting and Annual Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.
|
|