Academy's cadet trainers prepare for next week's arrival of swabs
By Sean D. Elliot
Publication: The Day
June 24, 2011
On Monday morning next week some 290 cadets-to-be will arrive at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London for Reporting-in Day.
As these "swabs," as they are known during the seven-week training period known as Swab Summer, disembark from the bus in front of Chase Hall, they will be met by shouting cadets from the academy's Class of 2013, their training "Cadre."
photo by Sean D. Elliot/The Day
Second class cadets at the Coast Guard Academy, from left, Lydia Roets, Nikki Corbett,
Freddy Hofschneider and Justin Dougherty, watch Thursday as classmates rehearse their
roles for Reporting-In Day by putting some of their classmates through the morning drill. The
academy's class of 2015 will arrive on Reporting-In Day Monday.
The Cadre members spent Thursday morning rehearsing the first minutes of their interaction with the swabs, the time when they will set the tone for the summer.
Under the watchful eyes of academy senior chief petty officers and company commanders from the Coast Guard Recruit Training Center in Cape May, N.J., the Cadre ordered "swabs" off the bus, formed them up as a company in the courtyard of Chase Hall and marched them into the cadet dormitory for a round of pep talks.
At the end of one session, Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Fredrickson from Cape May told one Cadre member that she would have no voice left two days into the summer.
"You've got to push some air out of your lungs and not just use your voice," he told the members of Charlie Company's Cadre.
Fellow members of the Class of 2013 who are not charged with the day-to-day training played the role of incoming swabs, dressing in civilian clothing and scrambling to follow orders from their classmates.
"It's kind of fun to go back in time," said 2nd Class Cadet Steven Danseglio of his morning, reliving his reporting-in day.
"You tend to forget as time goes on, but it's good to remember where you came from," he said.
Delta Company cadet Lydia Monks, after watching her Golf Company classmates chase a class of "swabs" into Chase Hall, remarked, "Seeing it from the other side just blows my mind."
