Airborne 3 Cancelled

2BoyzMom

5-Year Member
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Just like that......cancelled due to budget cuts:thumbdown:.......a brief phone call a day before he was supposed to leave and now 3 weeks of nothing before Camp Buckner. Supposedly they are trying to find other options for the 500 or so cadets (mostly yuks) that got bumped, but the likelihood of anything meaningful is remote.......

Needless to say DS is devastated and feels he has lost valuable training time. I would have thought this would have been planned out better. I mean if you can't accommodt a a handful of cadets, thats one thing.......but 500??? Someone miscalculated badly.....

Wow:confused:..........
 
So Airborne was cancelled just for USMA cadets, or the Airborne training session was cancelled entirely?

I hope this does not affect my chances of attending Airborne school in the future.
 
So Airborne was cancelled just for USMA cadets, or the Airborne training session was cancelled entirely?

I hope this does not affect my chances of attending Airborne school in the future.

This is from the WP Parent Liasion: "So here is the scoop on Airborne - yes, there were slots lost for the next round of Airborne.
They have been trying to push 500 give/take through each class. Keep in mind the majority of the students are active Army soldiers who have assignments which require them to be airborne qualified or who have airborne school as part of their enlistment contracts.
West Point and ROTC receive a limited number of slots each summer.
Due to cuts in support, they will not be able to accommodate all of the cadets in the next round. There will be some sent hoping for a "walk on" opportunity. (It will be a limited number.)"

So yes, the 3rd session from WP was cancelled. I don't know how it will affect your chances down the road as the cadets that got bumped this summer are going to try and get first slots next summer since it is a graduation requirement.


Ugh...what a mess to say the least:frown: They claim they are going to try and find other training for them but the other sessions are full also. Can any of the moderators shed any more light on the situation??
Thanks.
 
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So yes, the 3rd session from WP was cancelled. I don't know how it will affect your chances down the road as the cadets that got bumped this summer are going to try and get first slots next summer since it is a graduation requirement.

I'm going to get real picky here - but Airborne is not a graduation requirement.
You may not have meant that but it's good to be clear to anyone else that reads that.
The graduation requirement is to complete an IAD (Individual Advanced Development). It can be a PIAD (Physical IAD), MIAD ( Military IAD) or AIAD (Academic IAD).
Airborne and Air Assault are two IADs that you hear most about and they are considered MIADs. There are many other IADs to chose from.
FWIW - Airborne is offered in the regular Army. Some cadets chose to do Airborne then and do an IAD that is unique to cadets that they won't have an opportunity to do once in the regular Army.

Ugh...what a mess to say the least:frown: They claim they are going to try and find other training for them but the other sessions are full also. Can any of the moderators shed any more light on the situation??
Thanks.

I have no more light to shed on this. Sorry.
Here is a link to the WP Parent's FB page where this is being discussed:
http://www.facebook.com/WestPointParents?sk=wall

I can only imagine how very disappointing and frustrating this is to these cadets.
I'm willing to bet that a few old grads could tell stories of assignments/missions that were changed at the last minute for a myriad of reasons.
DS is in a similar situation right now. He is at CTLT and his original assignment was changed when he arrived at his assigned post.
Adjustments are made and you move forward.
I'm sure WP is doing everything they can to reassign them to another IAD.
 
The graduation requirement is to complete an IAD (Individual Advanced Development). It can be a PIAD (Physical IAD), MIAD ( Military IAD) or AIAD (Academic IAD).
Airborne and Air Assault are two IADs that you hear most about and they are considered MIADs. There are many other IADs to chose from.


Excuse me, but can anyone explain to me an example of a PIAD and/or an AIAD? Does it include internships or summer school or such? This is fascinating new information I've never been aware about. Thank you so much!
 
Excuse me, but can anyone explain to me an example of a PIAD and/or an AIAD? Does it include internships or summer school or such? This is fascinating new information I've never been aware about. Thank you so much!

Corps squad athletes often do PIAD. For example, swimmers and divers will train with different coaches for 2-3 weeks. Prior to a semester abroad, a cadet might attend a language school...that would be an example of an AIAD. My cadet has done a PIAD and an AIAD, but his MIAD was cancelled as well. Fortunately, he had a few weeks notice...we are enjoying having him home and do not see it as a waste of time at all. He is getting reaquainted with is golf clubs (golf is often important in the life of an officer, so this is good training as well).
 
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To bad about the cancellation. The training can be taken later- I went as a cadet and I mumbled to myself that I should have done it after graduation. Why?- as a cadet I stayed in the barracks (no AC- 3d floor- GA in August)- ate in the mess hall. Officers stayed in the AC'd BOQ and collected perdiem. I certainly had a blast going to as a cadet- but learning how to jump out of a perfectly good airplane isn't rocket science......

Have your son enjoy the extra 3 weeks off. Go to the beach, hit some golf balls- read a book or 3. He deserves time off- use it.

Signed-

"a 5 jump CHERRY"
 
My son got his call last night at 8:15 PM Eastern. He had been given a heads up from a friend 30 minutes prior to his call. He is disappointed at the lost opportunity, but he is hoping that they "do not put us is something lame, for the next three weeks". If not Airborne then he is good with the time off at home. He was told, "if you do not hear from us by Friday assume you are off until Buckner".

My main thought is that you would think that this decision could have been made earlier, and communication to the impacted cadets could have been more timely. I had taken a day and a half off of work to drive him to WP to get the bus. We were out to dinner wishing him luck over the next 7 weeks, Airborne to Buckner.

Such is life. I learned back at the beginning of this WP process that it is out of our (wife and I) control. That really is a good thing, but it is trying at times.
 
I mean if you can't accommodt a a handful of cadets, thats one thing.......but 500??? Someone miscalculated badly.....

Wow:confused:..........

We only have 500-600 Airborne and 8 classes total. The amount of displaced cadets is actually between 62 and 75.
 
Excuse me, but can anyone explain to me an example of a PIAD and/or an AIAD?


Here's a good description of the 3 types of IADs:

Military Individual Advanced Development (MIAD):
o Air Assault,
o Airborne,
o Pathfinder,
o Mountain Warfare,
o Northern Warfare,
o Special Reaction Team Course,
o Sapper Leader,
o S.E.R.E (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, & Escape) training courses.
o There may be duty at the National Training Center, the Joint Readiness Training Center, or Combat Maneuver Training Center.

Academic Individual Advanced Development (AIAD):
o White House,
o Supreme Court,
o Pentagon,
o National Security Council,
o CIA,
o FBI,
o Homeland Security Agency
o National Security Agency,
o FEMA,
o Capitol Hill
o State Department
o Treasury Department,
o Defense contractor, Wall Street and other AIAD assignments associated with Cadet’s academic major or minor.

Many Cadets complete AIADs in the United States, while other Cadets participate in AIADs overseas including semester's abroad.

Here are a couple of overseas AIADs going on right now through the Civil and Engineering Dept:
http://tinyurl.com/3ghwgh9
http://tinyurl.com/3rwvnz8

Physical Individual Advance Development (PIAD):
PIAD is an intense physical program designed for Cadets with an interest in total fitness. Corps Division I athletes are primarily found in PIAD assignments.
There are some high adventure PIADs such as rock climbing and scuba diving.

Does it include internships or summer school or such?

STAP (Summer Term Academic Program) is summer school. Is can be voluntary or involuntary.

Internships - that would fall under the AIAD category as listed above

This is fascinating new information I've never been aware about. Thank you so much!

West Point offers a lot of cool opportunities to the cadets! :thumb:
 
There are also individual AIAD's that the cadets can apply for. My son and another cadet, also a history major, put together a proposal to spend 2 weeks at the university in Freiberg Germany doing research for their thesis papers. It was approved so West Point paid their expenses for the trip which they went on last summer. The time and money was well spent since he got an A on the thesis.

It seems like cadets are only limited by their imaginations when it comes to finding opportunities for summer.
 
We only have 500-600 Airborne and 8 classes total. The amount of displaced cadets is actually between 62 and 75.

My son has now been sent an email stating that a certain amount of slots have opened up at Airborne 3, but he still is unable to go. So, if your numbers are correct, and let's say 20 get to go to Airborne 3, then that means out of the 1250+- members of 2014, only about 40 will not get to participate in a MIAD? Well that stinks for my son.
 
My son has now been sent an email stating that a certain amount of slots have opened up at Airborne 3, but he still is unable to go. So, if your numbers are correct, and let's say 20 get to go to Airborne 3, then that means out of the 1250+- members of 2014, only about 40 will not get to participate in a MIAD? Well that stinks for my son.

He still has other chances. He doesn't graduate for 3 years. There's time to fix it.
 
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