Is it ethical to buy a copy of the Running Light and memorize beforehand??

[LineInTheSand]

100% agree.

My classmates who attended NAPS we able to help some of us who were new to the whole "climate". Just because you know everything you need to know (and you likely won't, reciting the mission for your parents is far more comfortable than belting it out with 3 cadre in your face).

The Running Light is available to the general population. It changes from year to year, but the general idea remains.

I bought the Running Light ahead of time, looked through it, tried to memorized a few parts and then forgot everything except the first few lines of the mission.

Seven years later, I still know how the Cow Is and what the Mission is.

 

[flieger83]

100% agree.

My classmates who attended NAPS we able to help some of us who were new to the whole "climate". Just because you know everything you need to know (and you likely won't, reciting the mission for your parents is far more comfortable than belting it out with 3 cadre in your face).

The Running Light is available to the general population. It changes from year to year, but the general idea remains.

I bought the Running Light ahead of time, looked through it, tried to memorized a few parts and then forgot everything except the first few lines of the mission.

Seven years later, I still know how the Cow Is and what the Mission is.

This is something that is asked on ALL the forums here and the answers really are the same.

And FYI...it's 27 years now...

Ask ANY USAFA grad what Major General John M. Schofield's graduation address to the graduating class of 1879 at West Point is and they'll roll their eyes, say something...er...well, it probably WON'T be PC, and then they'll start reciting...

Tradition...

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

 

[officer]

The pilot for the commercial airline who took delta, echo, and foxtrot to the Eagle a few weeks ago apparently was a Coastie. He was kind enough to make an announcement recognizing the swabs and then later came back to ask the swabs "How's the Cow"?

 

[BruceRTalbot]

My daughter received and older copy from a friend..., WOW you have to have suppppppppper dupppppper vision to read it! LOL.. I saw them at the CGX when I was there.. 26.00 per book! yipes! LOL

she has glanced over it, but has not memorized it

I realized how old I am when I bought my own copy of "The Running Light" last year on R-Day so I could read up on and understand what our cadet was going to have to memorize, only to learn on the plane ride back home that the type was so tiny I could not read any of it. I had avoided reading glasses up to that point but bought a pair of readers at O'Hare when we landed. Time to pass the torch to the next generation.

 

[shellz]

The pilot for the commercial airline who took delta, echo, and foxtrot to the Eagle a few weeks ago apparently was a Coastie. He was kind enough to make an announcement recognizing the swabs and then later came back to ask the swabs "How's the Cow"?

Similar thing happened when we took our swab to CGA last summer. The pilot on Southwest was a USNA grad. He let my son sit at the controls, chatted about careers, etc....very cool. Then, when we were about to land he made the announcement that onboard was one of America's best and brightest, headed for USCGA. A nice round of applause and I was a blubbering mess. Son was just shell shocked at it all. We were quite the pair.

 

[Mongo]

There are many things that separate an Academy grad from his ROTC and OCS brethren. One of the most significant is the ability to perform under extreme pressure. Another is the ability to multi task. To be able to memorize totally irrelevant disjointed information when one has hundreds of better things to do and then be able to regurgitate it on demand while under, what is perceived at the time, as being, extreme pressure, will, most definitely, prove helpful in the future. It may even save your life or that of your shipmates around you. I doubt if it is unethical to memorize beforehand but you are definitely ‘cheating’ yourself out of one of the truly great things that any SA has to offer you.

 

[LineInTheSand]

but you are definitely ‘cheating’ yourself out of one of the truly great things that any SA has to offer you.

Not true. You will have the opportunity to manage yourself in the Coast Guard, and in many ways receive far more responsibility than you might in the other four services early in your career. You take the initiative to begin early, no problem. If you think the fact that you know the mission prior to reporting will in some way rob the cadre of their "ammo", you're dead wrong, they'll find other ways. If that were true, then the prep school kids wouldn't really need to go through that training again. "Smarter, not Harder". Something that applies more to your career than your time at the Academy.

Knowing "indoc" is not one the the "truly great things that any SA has to offer you", or at least that's true for CGA. No matter what you know once you get there, they will find ways to push you much further than you thought you could be pushed.

Buy it and learn what's in it, or don't. It's all about your own initiative. If you want to just go with the flow, then I can recommend three academies that you can get "lost in the numbers", but if you want to "chart your course", then I would recommend CGA, and I would recommend showing initiative early and often, throughout your career.

 

[Mongo]

Not true. You will have the opportunity to manage yourself in the Coast Guard, and in many ways receive far more responsibility than you might in the other four services early in your career.

LOL. Maybe aviation more than surface. Things do tend to move a little faster and getting bit in the butt can hurt a whole lot harder and maybe only after totally divorcing myself from the military and seeing how the 'real world' works. I would go so far as to say that memorizing and responding under pressure was the single greatest long-term attribute which I brought from the academy. Do with it what you will.

 

[LineInTheSand]

So in summary....no it is not unethical to purchase a Running Light prior to reporting to the Coast Guard Academy.

 

[marciemi]

Ask ANY USAFA grad what Major General John M. Schofield's graduation address to the graduating class of 1879 at West Point is and they'll roll their eyes, say something...er...well, it probably WON'T be PC, and then they'll start reciting...

I would hope any USMA grad could do the same!

I realized how old I am when I bought my own copy of "The Running Light" last year on R-Day so I could read up on and understand what our cadet was going to have to memorize, only to learn on the plane ride back home that the type was so tiny I could not read any of it. I had avoided reading glasses up to that point but bought a pair of readers at O'Hare when we landed. Time to pass the torch to the next generation.

Agree completely - we won a copy of Contrails (AF version) through a Webguy contest - got it in the mail, looked at it and said "Wow - evidently we're no longer the target audience for these books!" (As both my husband and I squinted at it trying to see what the heck it said!).