<p>You all now are in your last month of AFA life. What is the ONE parting piece of advice you would give to cadets and/or their parents.</p>
<p>For example:
1.Don’t forget your ticket you printed up before flying across country to go to the USNA VS USAFA Football game</p>
<p>2.You can make a V-Neck t-shirt from a crew by pinning it!</p>
<p>3.*Safety pins work as well as sewing when it comes to buttons! *</p>
<p>4.* Be careful of your myspace/facebook page as a 2014 appointee*</p>
<p>It can also be serious, I just wanted to give you all the chance to have fun with the thread.</p>
<p>Congrats, Good Luck and remember you will soon be the FNG!</p>
<p>OBTW share if you will one story that you classified as HORROR, but now look back and LYAO. Isn’t the class of 10 the same class where there is the famous You Tube I Day Bus Berating a cadet from a girl because a guy had did a whole myspace page with jets, etc?</p>
<p>Big Picture: look at the habits USAFA’s system is trying to build. Some of the non-sensical methods aren’t actually non-sensical.</p>
<p>Little Detail: put your e-mails on your hard drive and save them. A 3 month old e-mail saved me from a PERC (review board).</p>
<p>Story time: While working BCT, I found a can of Gatorade in one of the basics’ rooms. We had made it abundantly clear this was not allowed, yet they left it in the middle of the floor! I bowled it down the hallway as hard as a possibly could, screamed, “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???”–and was promptly informed by another cadre member that they had been given the Gatorade by the safety/medical NCO the night before…
There is no eloquent way to recover from that one, so I just said, “Oh” and walked back into my room.</p>
<p>^^^^ I’ll add one caveat to Pima’s request for a “horror” story: What did you LEARN from it? There’s a huge reason the military decided to fund an academy and selected you to attend it: they want to teach you leadership through your academy experience. We love to hear the horror stories – I’m sure those getting ready to join you in June would also love to hear what they learn from them. They’re nervous enough as it is; it is good to start learning what NOT to do, and how to be a better cadet, now. </p>
<p>So Raimius, I would have to disagree with you on the “no eloquent way” to recover from what you described. The Academy’s make the cadets lead BCT because they expect YOU to learn from your experience of leading people as well. You learned that a good leader will investigate the situation before going off the deep end of chewing out those under you. (We’ve all had to work under someone like that before. Never a fun time for the underlings, who are always happy to see your butt hit the door on the way out.) You do a little digging and discover they screwed up? Then feel free to berate and humiliate them to your heart’s content (and in BCT, we expect this, if not down-right encourage it ). There is a logical reason that the situation seems out of normal? Well, a simple “carry on” will suffice. But it also keeps those under you on their toes because they know they have someone over them who will ask the question “Why?”. </p>
<p>I do however see one flaw in your story. The young cadet had a logical reason for having the Gatorade in his room. He still had NO excuse for littering by leaving the empty in the middle of the floor! He still deserved a butt chewing for that example of disrespect. :)</p>
<p>SHOCKER, but I am with Bullet, you should have diverted the OOPS into WELL WHAT THE HADES WAS IT DOING ON THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR EMPTY? DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT ALL TRASH IS TO BE DISPOSED OF PROPERLY?</p>
<p>One thing I will say about successful officers is they can make lemons into lemonade. They are very quick on their feet to alter the OOPS towards their benefit.</p>
<p>Quick question who do you guys think will be the stand out at graduation for their actions? Remember the chest bumping with Bush a few yrs ago? He got 15 minutes of fame just because he did that.</p>
<p>Haha, one of my NCOs gave the “Why didn’t you drink it last night, when you were supposed to?” speach immediately afterwords. At the time, I knew I could find something to go on, but I didn’t want to use some lame argument to try to redeem myself. I’ve seen some people fail at it, and it just makes them look petty.</p>
<p>Things I learned:
It is good to ask how and why before going off the deep end!
Going from tired, to angry, to embarassed puts you in a bad position for good decision making.
Even bad moments can be turned into good things. (We used this incident as a teaching point/morale booster several times afterwords.)
It’s OK to laugh at yourself sometimes.</p>
<p>While I have some fun horror stories, I have one lesson that I’ve learned as a firstie.</p>
<p>Cadets usually don’t see each other as anything but cadets. What I mean is, to a three degree, I’m a firstie, but I’m also just another cadet. I’m an equal in many senses, even if technically not. With that mindset all 4 years, I was always wary of correcting someone or being the hard@ss because I didn’t want to be mean. I wanted to be another cool cadet that they liked. Having been a firstie for awhile now, I learned just how much respect I got by doing my job and making the hard decisions. As a flight commander, I often passed paperwork and berated my 4 digs when they were screwing up. Instead of getting attitude or getting a vibe that that didn’t like me because I was hard on them, they showed me more respect and trust. They knew I wouldn’t tolerate idiocy. So, they would come and ask my advice on passing a SSS to go out, what to do with a teacher, or how to approach a problem. These are the same people I might have chewed out the day before and written them up. But, they kept their respect and I, in turn, treated them how I would treat my future airmen - respectful and kindly. </p>
<p>As an academic officer, I’ve passed paperwork on people for not getting the necessary materials for their probation to me. In my UCI inspection two days ago, the AOC interviewing me was shocked that I actually took action against the juniors, sophomores, and freshman that didn’t get their work in. That usually doesn’t happen. He was pleased. I receive so much support from the chain of command of those I reprimand who come ask me how to solve the problem.</p>
<p>Bottom line: By holding those under me to the standards, even by having to slam them, I ultimately garnered more respect, more trust, and more support. This was the opposite that I expected but practice makes habit. I am more able to do this from my learning experience and its something I needed to learn before I got those butter bars. I feel more confident that I will be a LT that does the job right and isn’t trying to be buddy-buddy with subordinates. A lesson I know will be invaluable.</p>
). There is a logical reason that the situation seems out of normal? Well, a simple “carry on” will suffice. But it also keeps those under you on their toes because they know they have someone over them who will ask the question “Why?”. </p>