USAFA C4C Flight Chief role?

Godandcountry

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Just received a letter from our son who recently completed cadet basic training (BCT) and will be accepted into the cadet wing on Acceptance Day (Tuesday). Apparently he thrived in / through BCT.

In the letter, he related that during BCT he was named Flight Chief and that it's a responsibility that carries into the academic year. Does anyone know what a C4C flight chief does?

What other C4C leadership positions are there?

Aside from the opportunity and honor of leading and serving his fellow C4C's - is the Flight Chief role a time drain to be concerned about?

We have heard there has been high attrition rate in recent years for under class leadership (leaving prior to C2C year).

Very interested in understanding the down side of this leadership opportunity out of the gate before or while getting a handle on his own transition to military and academic life.

We're not worried, just totally uninformed at this point. Thank you!


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Congrats to you and your son! That is awesome news! I'm sorry I don't have any info on the leadership opportunity. My son is Class of 2019 also, so I am still learning about alot of these things.
 
How much a flight chief does is really up to the training officer and staff of each squadron. Essentially, they're used as a point of contact for the upperclass cadets to interact with the 4-degrees. They'll probably have some responsibilities like accountability at training sessions or communicating information between the classes. It's a pretty good leadership opportunity and one of the few real ones you can get that first year. I would not be particularly concerned about the time commitment for this job.

As a side note, some squadrons like to rotate flight chiefs on a semi-regular basis to allow more cadets to have the opportunity to lead. So the most he would be flight chief for is a semester, but some squadrons rotate once a month. Congrats to you and your son, let me know if I can shed any more light on this.
 
Flight leader is a rotational position during the school year. They serve more or less as a point of contact in the chain of command. No down side timewise as there are few responsibilities.

Remember that USAFA is a leadership laboratory for the cadets. They will all lead in some capacity. Your C4C may run courses out in Jacks Valley or even be a 'greeter' on I-Day just two years from now. However, right now they need to learn to follow military protocols and procedures. They need to learn to live the drill before they teach it.

Four class system over-simplified:

C4C - Imposed discipline to self-discipline.

C3C - Mentor to C4Cs

C2C - Standards enforcer

C1C - Command Leadership

CC, Pima, Fleiger, and Fencer please correct me if I got that wrong.
 
"Dad"

That's a simplistic description but pretty accurate.

You're pretty much spot-on!

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
In a photo taken by his sponsor today (A Day) my DS put up a plate under his name with the job title "Training Airman". In my day there were no formal jobs for doolies. Is this the same as flight chief?
 
In a photo taken by his sponsor today (A Day) my DS put up a plate under his name with the job title "Training Airman". In my day there were no formal jobs for doolies. Is this the same as flight chief?

I have no idea. Consider asking your DS and sharing his response. I'm very curious about the answer.
 
My DS was flight chief last year at the end of BCT for maybe the first quarter of the year. Because of timing, it often meant it was his responsibility to make sure all of the freshmen knew about all of the beatings, meetings, etc when their emails weren't all up and running properly and they didn't all have each others' cell phone numbers, etc. It was a pain for him, running around to find everyone several evenings a week.
Then he was asked to rank all the freshmen in his squadron to help the upper classmen choose his replacement. He put the kids who were Fall I/C athletes at the bottom of the list to respect their time, but who did they pick? Yup. A football player.
 
"I have no idea. Consider asking your DS and sharing his response. I'm very curious about the answer."

I did he's clueless so far lol. Just knows he's it and has a placard under his name by his room door. :) I will pass on info when it reaches me.
 
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