Adventures of the Boy Unit in Civil Air Patrol
My son joined the Civil Air Patrol as a cadet last fall, which is a bit like junior ROTC. So far he's done quite well and learned a lot. Probably one of the most important things he's learning is people politics. Among the adults, there are a few power games going on not so behind the scenes. Among the cadets, there's the constant race to out-rank each other. Some of what goes on seems frustrating and unfair to my fair obsessed, rule-following mutant. Like his friend who's also in jrROTC can rank up twice as quickly as he can, even though he doesn't try particularly hard at either jrROTC or at CAP. That means the friend gets honors and privileges, like being chosen (on basis of rank) to carry the US flag for parade even though it's even odds whether he'll actually show up or not.
I point out that it's the rules, it's the system; it's good training for the military since he's obsessed with joining the Air Force. The military isn't fair, nor is it solely the meritocracy it pretends to be. Whinging won't change that.
Overall he likes CAP and it challenges him to think. One of the senior (adult) members who is in charge of cadet recruitment is a cranky old lady who used to be a drill instructor in her youth. She's very enthusiastic about CAP, hugely generous with the cadets in a variety of ways, and she scares the ever-loving crap out of 99.9% of them. They do not get where she's coming from and she's a little nutty. But without her help, Boy Unit and the others wouldn't have made it to Encampment (CAP cadet camp) or been able to do several other things. So now he has to figure out how to maneuver around her and keep her from scaring off new cadets (she seems to have frightened off about four interested parties in the last few months) without setting her off or behaving like an ingrate.
And yes, dear friend (you know who you are), I am minding my own business and keeping the advice down to a bare minimum. I trust him to work through this on his own. Even though I'm very conflicted about his desire to join the military, I will support his decision and help him in any way I can, including letting him learn his own lessons about how to deal with difficult persons and the Way Things Work. Harder on me than on him, I suspect. :)
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I point out that it's the rules, it's the system; it's good training for the military since he's obsessed with joining the Air Force. The military isn't fair, nor is it solely the meritocracy it pretends to be. Whinging won't change that.
Overall he likes CAP and it challenges him to think. One of the senior (adult) members who is in charge of cadet recruitment is a cranky old lady who used to be a drill instructor in her youth. She's very enthusiastic about CAP, hugely generous with the cadets in a variety of ways, and she scares the ever-loving crap out of 99.9% of them. They do not get where she's coming from and she's a little nutty. But without her help, Boy Unit and the others wouldn't have made it to Encampment (CAP cadet camp) or been able to do several other things. So now he has to figure out how to maneuver around her and keep her from scaring off new cadets (she seems to have frightened off about four interested parties in the last few months) without setting her off or behaving like an ingrate.
And yes, dear friend (you know who you are), I am minding my own business and keeping the advice down to a bare minimum. I trust him to work through this on his own. Even though I'm very conflicted about his desire to join the military, I will support his decision and help him in any way I can, including letting him learn his own lessons about how to deal with difficult persons and the Way Things Work. Harder on me than on him, I suspect. :)
This entry was originally posted at http://spaceoperadiva.dreamwidth.org/29740.html. Please comment there using OpenID.