What are some of your greatest memories from the Academy?

Following the ABC news article on USMA's horrible security:

"Well the real solution would be doors that work, but until then..." -LTG Caslen
 
LineInTheSand said:
My first post (this one) will be for my first two years of cadet life (as a swab, 4/c cadet and 3/c cadet) and my second post will be the final two years of my cadet life (2/c and 1/c years).

1. Before the Fun -- Before I was an actually cadet, as I started to build it all up in my head. This was before 9/11 or Katrina, so the Coast Guard, at least in Nashville, TN, was a relative unknown. My high school classmates thought it was going to be like the show Baywatch (I WISH!) so I had to learn as much as I could. I watched the old academy videos, did internet searches, found pictures online that I made my desktop background. I saw the Coast Guard Academy as a bright city on the hill. At this point I had turned down the Naval Academy and Merchant Marine Academy, so I was "all in" on CGA.

2. Good Going Mom -- The day before R-day, my mom thought it was a good idea to drive to CGA and check everything out. I was already pretty nervous, didn't really want to eat and had a hard time going to sleep later that night. So there we go, early evening, driving down Bear Drive, the main street the runs past the front of CGA's dorm, Chase Hall and a number of other buildings. My mom slowed to a stop in front of a large group of people in red shirts. After a second "CADRE" was clearly read on the back. I was sure they all saw my face and wanted to kill me. Nice going mom.

3. R-Day -- On R Day we were told we would have five minutes or so to say bye to our parents. We had maybe 30 seconds. I was sure I was going to have a good summer... I barely messed up that first day. HAHA, boy was I wrong.

4. Noisy Lock Boxes -- Every swab had lock boxes. They were big metal boxes we could lock valuables in (over the summer this is where our wallets and drugs would go). Well, my platoon, Yankee-1, screwed up. I'm not sure how. We did something wrong, so we showed up and all of our boxes were stacked in the middle of the p-way (hall way). Out of no where a bunch of other cadre stormed into our pway, kicking down our boxes and getting in our faces. We didn't see that coming.

5. Flag Folding -- We had a motivational flag folding ceremony in our wing area. A red head kid from my platoon was at the center of it. Lucky him! What an honor. The next day he was gone. We had no idea where he went. He quit.

6. EMI - In the fleet it's called "Extra Military Instruction". Most swab summer's called it "Performance Enhancing (or was it Enhancement) Platoon" or "PEP". Because it's usually called PEP, I'll use that here. PEP sucks. Each year there are a number of cadets who either need "motivation" or have attitudes. I'm not sure if I was either, but I went to PEP. Our cadre had a board, and they would check off your name. "Swab LITS, you have three checks for PEP." I was doing great for a long time... and then it all fell apart. I was returning from some place, and double-timing (running) up the ladderwell (stairs) I stopped on the wrong deck (floor) of Chase Hall. I was a little lost, but I ran into a cadre who showed me back to my wing area. As we were walking I saw a cadre I "knew" but had a brain fart and forgot his name. "Good morning sir" I said. "Come on Swab LITS" he said, "You know my name." I just stood there. "I guess you mean 'Good Morning I don't know your name Sir'" So, thinking this was a prompt, I responded with "Good morning I don't know your name sir." Bad move. While our cadre often had us say dumb things, this was not one of those times (much to my regret). "Swab LITS you're going to PEP!" I wanted to cry. Pep, the thing we were all scared of. And here I am being told I have to go. I did. It sucked.

7. "Goodbye" -- Another not so great memory, attached to the PEP memory. In the middle of PEP I was marched through wing areas. Every swab I ran into was told by the group of cadre with me "Swab LITS is going to leave because he can't handle it. He doesn't deserve to be here. Say goodbye to Swab LITS." To which my classmate would of course have to say "Goodbye Swab LITS." It became a blur of "Goodbye Swab LITS" which felt like a scene from a horror flick. The looks from my classmates.... they didn't want to say it, but they had to. They didn't know who I was or why this was happening. I'm sure they were just glad it wasn't them, although we didn't really want to see our classmates treated like this either. This happened the whole way down to the libo van area, where I was told by my cadre to pick the van that would take me to the airport. "Choose your van Swab LITS. You shouldn't be here. You're going home. We'll call your parents. We'll tell them your on your way. We'll tell them how you failed." Well, that broke me down. I was sure there was a different process to get people to leave.... but how could I be sure?

Interestingly enough, years later, after I had left the Coast Guard, I ran into one of my old cadre at CGA. He was a company officer. I had talked to him before, but on this day he told me he regretted what they did, and said that if they tried some of that stuff today, a Court Martial would result.

Did marching around and picking out a van make me a better cadet? No. It messed with my head. For a couple of years I doubted if I really deserved to be there. The next memory didn't help...

8. "Civilian Academy" -- by the same set of cadre I was told I didn't deserve to go to the Coast Guard Academy. For a day or two I had to tape up anything that said "Coast Guard" on my uniform/gym gear. In the place of "Coast Guard" I had to write "Civilian" and when I was asked by anyone why I had all of the Coast Guard references covered up with "Civilian" I was told to say "Because Swab LITS doesn't deserve to go to the Coast Guard Academy."

Now, some of these memories are no fun. But what I realized down the road, cadre are still being trained. Some things they do are great leadership examples. Some really miss the mark.

9. Crap Hat -- As we learned how to wear uniforms, we were introduced to "shirt stays". We wore shirt stays with shorts and gym gear. During a head (bathroom) break, as I sat down, I had to figure out how to deal with the shirt stays running from the bottom of my shirt to my socks. I totally forgot about my cover (hat) which had been tucked into the back of my shorts. As I got up, I looked in the toilet and saw my cover under my latest donation.... yuck.

10. EAGLE -- The Dirty Bird. I was on EAGLE once. There are MANY stories from Eagle, from people sliding on the messdeck (the tables used to be arranged differently, so trays would slide back and forth) to Sea Cadets puking to classmates hooking up. I'll just say, EAGLE was a nice break from Swab Summer. It was still work and it wasn't all fun and games, but it was unique.

11. Chapel -- I'm a Christian. Specifically, I'm United Methodist. I appreciated going to church Sundays. I continued to go after swab summer. The protestant services felt like the United Methodist services I grew up with.

12. First Libo -- The very last weekend of Swab Summer, swabs were allowed to venture, very shortly, outside of CGA. I went to Waterford 9, to see "Road to Perdition." I thought it would be a bad @$$ gangster movie, but it was actually pretty depressing (but very good). Road to Perdition has a special place in my heart.

13. Spirit Missions and 4/c Stuff -- Spirit missions.... do stuff that would get you in trouble, but do it in the name of your company's spirit, and you'll be OK (not always true). I don't remember much from 4/c year. It was a blur of academics and military requirements. We had a fun "drug bust" for the 4/c of Charlie Company, where we searched drugs or contraband in the 2/c rooms. 100th Day was fun (but more fun as a 2/c).

14. Norwich -- I didn't know anything about Norwich University my 4/c year. A number of 4/c were loaded onto buses and sent up to Vermont (or was it New Hampshire.... how cares) to watch the game. They marched to a different beat there. At some point there was a fight between the 4/c from CGA, defending Objee, and the Norwich freshmen. My classmate tore his pants jumping a kid from Norwich... but instead of being yelled at, he was praised. A Norwich father had some pretty nasty things to say on the way out. Apparently the truth (and acceptance rates) alluded him.

15. Sponor Family -- As cadets we could have sponsor families. Sponsor families were people in the New London area willing to take in cadets. It was a safe place to relax, watch a movie, or play on the computer. My sponsor family was great to me and my sponsor brothers and sister.

16. Summer School -- I failed Calc II, but I found out late enough that I went to a 210' cutter for 5 weeks (while most summer school kids did 5 weeks of EAGLE) and then had 5 weeks of summer school. This was our first chance to see the new class. "You're a swab until you see a swab." Sure, we are called 4/c cadets after swab summer, but the saying reflects the transition a cadet makes the first time her/she sees a member of the new class. The moment you realize you're not the lowest cadet (swabs even as 3/c until we saw those new swabs).

17. USCGASSUBA -- Our version of fight club. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy Summer School Underground Boxing Association. We filmed our fights. We had pre and post-fight commentary. We interviewed fighters. And we boxed. My USCGASSUBA career was cut short after my second official fight when I got a concussion mid-fight and kept fighting. Because I needed to pass Calc II and because multiple concussions are bad.... I could fight anymore.

19. Dating -- I had my first "dark siding" experience my 3/c year. Dark siding is what we called dating another cadet. I'm not sure if they still use that. "Dark Siding" and "Academy Goggles" were "offensive" apparently. But I darksided then and then later. Dark siding was good when it was good, and bad when it ended. Because we all lived in the same building, when a relationship ended, there was no escape.

20. Civies -- Well, no civies.... not for my class. But we did pioneer the 3/c libo blazer outfit. By we, I mean a small committee of my classmates.

21. Minis -- 3/c year we got our mini class rings. Small, girly rings? Sure, but they real, and they had our class crests, so it finally got "real."

The change between 4/c year and 3/c was dramatic. But the transition between 3/c and 2/c was much more important. I'll cover my memories for the next two years in another post.
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Honestly [seriously], it sounds like you had a great time and wouldn't want to have gone through it any other way. Thanks for the info -- was a great read.
 
And now for my 2/c and 1/c year memories:

Remember in my first post I had some doubts that I really deserved being a cadet. That doubt was planted in my mind by a number of things that happened during my Swab Summer. That doubt would be removed my final two years.

1. Cape May Company Commanders - Training Center Cape May (TRACEN Cape May) is the Coast Guard's only boot camp. TRACEN Cape May is at the very southern tip of New Jersey. As a side note, my first cutter, USCGC Vigorous was home-ported in Cape May (Vig's homeport has since moved). At the end of 3/c year the Cape May Company Commanders come to CGA for a week to train the soon-to-be 2/c cadets. It's a bit of a return to "swab summer" but with professional cadre. For a week we're treated like swabs, but as the week goes on, the company commanders talk to us about why we do certain things in training. It wasn't fun, but it was great, and by the end of the week you're aware of how important it is to properly train swabs.

2. 2/c Summer - 2/c summer is easily the most fun you'll have at CGA. Yes, there are some un-fun things, such as studying for the "Rules of the Road" tests (Navigation Rules). But this is the summer you head to Aviation Training Center (ATC) Mobile and get a taste for flying helos and planes. We even got hoisted in a basket below a MH-60 Jayhawk. I'd say 99% of us returned from ATC Mobile fully convinced we wanted to be pilots. This is the summer you also get your first real taste of being a leader. I was a second make (swab summer is divided in "makes", the first make covers the first three weeks, the second, the last four weeks), Yankee-3 cadre (Honor Platoon....I had to say). Before we took over we watched, from afar, how the first make did with our platoon. We regularly talked about standouts and the trouble swabs. But the best part of the summer is training new swabs and bonding with your classmates.... not only in your platoon but also within your company (Yankee 3 cadre were very close to Yankee 1 and 2 cadre.... we worked together).

3. Real ownership - As a 2/c we were really a part of the Corps of Cadets, determining the direction the student body was going. Yes, we reported to 1/c cadets who really ran the Corps, but we were the main links between the leadership and the new kids. When we got to the school year, we wanted to see our swabs do well. As 2/c cadets you have a bunch of cadets below you actually watching you to see what you do, and if you hold yourself to the same standards you hold them to. And as 2/c, we also disciplined, but I'll talk more about that later.

4. Dark-siding 2.0 - In my junior year I did a little more dark-siding. It again did not end well, and after that I decided dating at CGA might put me a little too close to the folks I break up with (or break up with me).

5. Civies - We finally got civilian attire as 2/c cadets. We also got slightly more libo. Now I hate buying clothing, but I had a female classmate who loved shopping. As it became clear that I needed more civilian clothing, I gave my classmates $300, said "go buy me whatever you want, here are my sizes... have fun." And she did. She had a lot of fun, told me what went with what. She did a good job.

6. At the end of 2/c year I started dating a classmate's sister. We would end up dating a long time, past my cadet career.

7. 1/c Summer - At the end of 2/c year you find out where you're going to go for 1/c summer training. I got "USCGC ACTIVE" in Port Angeles, WA. I though "Los Angeles!" Nope, Port Angeles, the "happening place" in the Twilight series (this was before those movies). My classmate and I met the cutter in San Diego, got underway a day or two later, hit 25 foot seas the first day out (being in forward berthing on a 210' ship, that motion did not sit well, and we had no sea legs). And we transited to Washington. Ok, to bust your bubble, Port Angeles is NOT cool. But right across the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Victoria, British Columbia is AWESOME. So my classmates and I, bored with PA, headed to Victoria. We went to some clubs including the "Strathcona" with had a dating game, where you could wear a number and if someone was interested, they could leave a note for your number... after which your number would be displayed on a screen and you could retrieve the note. I didn't dance, but someone left my buddy a note, and he called her the next day, with no luck. We were getting on the ferry to head back to PA and he got ahold of her.... yay (people in Victoria were attractive).... but then we found out she was from PA (people in Port Angeles were generally unattractive). We met up with her anyway and went bowling (about the coolest thing to do in PA). It was a good summer though. In port we went to Seattle Mariner games, and checked out Hurricane Ridge in Olympia National Park.

8. Security to T-Pier - A number of crew from USCGC ACTIVE departed for three weeks to attend Boarding Team Member school in Charleston, SC. While one of the junior officers was gone, he let us stay at his house and drive his car. Instead of sleeping on the boat, we slept at his house and drove into work (unless we had duty). The base in Port Angeles is at the end of a long, narrow spit of land. At the end is a single gate. We got to the gate, my friend driving, and pulled up to the gate and pushed a button, told be a remote site to show our military IDs. Not knowing where the camera was (blinded by the security lights), we just held up our cards and rotated them until the gate opened. Later that week, driving to work during the day, my classmate drove through the gate behind another car, without stopping. As we talked to the T-Pier USCGC ACTIVE was moored at, over the bases loud speakers we hear "SECURITY TO T-PIER, SECURITY TO T-PIER" and shortly after were confronted by security for passing through the gate. We told the JO in charge of us, he just laughed and said "well, don't do that again."

9. 1/c year - Firstie year, you're the boss. We took it seriously. But my firstie year, I actually liked CGA and enjoyed returning. I honestly don't have much to talk about from my firstie year. I just remember enjoying my time. I was dating someone from another college, so most weekends I headed to Rhode Island.

10. Bagging - At CGA we have the abilitary to award demerits for poor choices. We called it "bagging." During my 2/c year I had experienced a few "protect bad football players" experience, with 1/c cadets shielding their poor performing teammates from typical 2/c accountability. By my 1/c year I had had enough of it. Now, looking back I regret the way I handled some things, and how I communicated issues I was tackling, with my classmates. It's not that I didn't give warnings, it's that after those warning I gave very little. In reported two cadets for honor offenses. One was voted 9-0 disenrollment, and the other was voted 5-4 disenrollment. Both were retained by the Superintenant. I wasn't looking for honor offenses... it just happened in the course of standing a watch and taking accountability. Two other cadets were put up for honor offense as a result of actions I took. I didn't take that lightly. I don't feel bad about those issues. I do regret my rush to bag without discussing with my classmates (who supervised the cadet being bagged). I burned some bridges with my approach. Yes, cadets thought twice about breaking rules while I was on watch, but I didn't make friends either.

11. The Check - The USCGA Parents' Association donated $50,000 to the academy, in the form of a giant check. One day my best friend asked me to come to Reg. Row (the hallway where Regimental Staff lived) with my camera. I did. In the Regimental Commander's room, the Regimental Commander (six stripes), Regimental Chief of Staff (five stripes), another member of Reg. Staff (four stripes) and my friend (a department head, two stripes) took their shirts off, hiked up their shorts and posed behind the check like they were naked (they weren't). I took the photo. Later I posted it on Facebook, and tagged them (this was in the early days of Facebook and tagging). The Reg. COC asked me to take it down, so I did. Too late. Someone had pulled it down and saved it. The next day in the cadet wardroom the photo was on display, blown up to fit on the side of a giant divider. Smaller copies were available on every-other table. A few days later the check made another appearance with "BOUNCE THAT CHECK" on it. The chants "BOUNCE THAT CHECK" began. The class behind us demanded the Reg. Staff members be masted. The RC talked to the Assistant Commandant and Commandant of Cadets about resigning, but the feedback was straightforward "Look, just don't get naked with your crew in the future. This is not a big deal." said the commander. In CGA's yearbook, Tide Rips, many of the folks involved included the check photo on their firstie photo pages.

12. First Court Martial - My class had the "distinction" of being the class of the first cadet in CGA history to be court martialed. I won't go into the details of the case, or the actors or the events, but I'll just say, it was tough for our class. It was not something we wanted associated with our year.

13. Finals and the PFE - Nothing feels quite so good as passing your final Firstie PFE and finishing final exams (passing). It never feels like it's going to end, but that final semester, you just start checking off things you'll never have to do again.

14. Graduation Week - We got lucky my graduation week. Most of our drills were canceled because of rain, but the day of graduation was perfect. That final week Fristies had "O-Libo", if we didn't have a military obligation, we didn't have to be at CGA. So for a nice chunk of the week we spent time with families and friends. We had a picnic on 5th Deck Roland, where I thought my dad broke my nose racing through bouncy o-course.

15. Graduation - On graduation day, May 17, 2006, the weather was perfect. We marched in the morning, changed, hung out with family, and then prepared for graduation. We set up our ensign shoulder boards and officer covers, marched out on the field, sat in the sun, stood up, sit down, stood up, sit down, stood up, walked, sat, stood, threw our covers in the air, hugged and marched back off the field, and eventually got back to Chase Hall to check out, get our commissons and diplomas (the stuff the give you on stage is blank, the real stuff is nicely protected in flat enevelopes). We grabbed our stuff and left CGA, no longer cadets. I said I liked CGA by my firstie year, so leaving it was bittersweet. It never seemed like we'd graduate, so realizing it actually happened, and that in 30 days I would be reporting to my ship, and that my REAL adult life was starting.... well, it was interesting.

And that was it.
 
farewelltoforeignshores24 said:
That's not to bad, and the 2/c summer sounded like a lot of fun! What did you do in the CG?
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I'm assuming you mean after I graduated, but if you mean during my cadet years, I'd be happy to talk about that too.

Before I get to post-graduation, I'll tell you about my cadet summers on a cutter.

During the summer of 2003, when I wasn't attending summer school and getting knocked out boxing at the gym, I was on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Diligence (WMEC-616), out of Wilmington, NC. Dili is a 210' Reliance class cutter (a Class A model) I HATED it. The ship had a pretty negative culture. The crew was miserable, and the wardroom wasn't much better. I swore I would NEVER go to a 210' again.

During the summer of 2005, I was on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Active (WMEC-618), out of Port Angeles, WA. I LOVED it. The "Lil' Tough Guy" is a 210' (another Class A model) embraced the cadets. The crew was happy. The wardroom was close. My dad's half-brother 9I guess my half-uncle?) had actually been stationed on Active as a Damage Controlman. Some of the guys on the ship still remembered him. After the experience I decided a 210' would be high on my dream sheet for my first cutter.

When I graduated in 2006 I went to the U.S. Coast Guard Vigorous (WMEC-627), out of Cape May, NJ. Vig is a 210' cutter, of the Class B variety. Our sister ship in Cape May was the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dependable (WMEC-626). At some point between 2006 and 2008 Vig went into a LONG yard period. The Vig crew did a patrol on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC-615). Reliance is the first in its class, the oldest 210' cutter (and a Class A).

My time on Vig was a lot of ups and downs. I covered that in a thread about the first year of a junior officer. We did a lot of alien migrant interdiction operations (AMIO), which was mostly dealing with Cubans, but now and then Haitians, "down south". We had a few search and rescue (SAR) cases. "Up north" we were mostly doing fisheries patrols, which is basically conducting law enforcement boardings of commercial fishing vessels.

I was the communications officer on Vigorous. My guys managed the classified material, communications, navigations, electronics and internet. I was also the public affairs officer. I attended the Coast Guard Public Affairs Course at the Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Ft. George G. Meade for my collateral duty public affairs training.

While Vig was in the yard I also spent a month at the Coast Guard's Senate Liaison Office.

In 2008, I rotated out, and went to the Office of Public Affairs at Coast Guard Headquarters. I was the liaison with the Department of Defense for community relations programs. The oldest DOD outreach program allowed me to travel to areas of responsibility for NORTHCOM (ha! I know....), SOUTHCOM (LOVED Colombia) and EUCOM (Greece has the best food). We also played with SOCOM. I was also the liaison for the Coast Guard with veterans groups like the VFW and American Legion.

In 2009 I attended the Public Affairs Qualification Course (PAQC) at DINFOS. This is the course all military public affairs officers in the U.S. go through. It's a good, 2.5 month rigorous course. In a class of 60, there is only one Coastie.... me. But I loved it, and I still keep in touch with my DINFOS classmates.

In 2010 I deployed in April to the National Incident Command in Washington, D.C., as a public affairs officer for the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. The next month I was sent to the Unified Area Command in Robert, La. and New Orleans as the creative services unit leader, within external affairs. I've never been a part of something so "hot" and in the public eye. My guys and gals managed all of the official content associated with the spill. Press releases, media availabilities, FAQs, fact sheets, updates, schedules for press briefings, etc.... the website we managed this content on had between 2.5 and 4 million DAILY visits. YIKES! It was intense. I don't think I've ever been a part of something (as far as public affairs is concerned) that was that "real".

In 2011 I separated from the Coast Guard.
 
LineInTheSand said:
I'm assuming you mean after I graduated, but if you mean during my cadet years, I'd be happy to talk about that too.


During the summer of 2003, when I wasn't attending summer school and getting knocked out boxing at the gym.
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They have summer school now? If you failed a course back in the day, you took it again in the following yr(your schedule was not lighten up this meant extra work and effort). Summertime was for specific training at CG units away from the Academy.
 
cga82 said:
They have summer school now? If you failed a course back in the day, you took it again in the following yr(your schedule was not lighten up this meant extra work and effort). Summertime was for specific training at CG units away from the Academy.
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Yeah, they have summer school. During summer school you could actually take MORE classes. In addition to retaking Calc II, I also took macroeconomics.
 
cga82 said:
Does it last the whole summer? Could you go every year?
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It's five weeks, only 3/c summer. It replaces one of the 5 week training periods. You still have the other 5 week training period.

This was 2003 though it could have changed since then.
 
LineInTheSand said:
It's five weeks, only 3/c summer. It replaces one of the 5 week training periods. You still have the other 5 week training period.

This was 2003 though it could have changed since then.
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Still the same as of 2013. They usually made it mandatory for you to do Eagle though and missed out on a real unit 3/c summer as a result.
 
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