farewelltoforeignshores24
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2014
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- 80
Awesome!
Katie
USNA c/o 2024
Navy Aviation
Katie
USNA c/o 2024
Navy Aviation
Sounds like CGA was rough!
Katie
USNA c/o 2024
Navy Aviation
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.
That's not to bad, and the 2/c summer sounded like a lot of fun! What did you do in the CG?
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.
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.
Yeah, they have summer school. During summer school you could actually take MORE classes. In addition to retaking Calc II, I also took macroeconomics.
Does it last the whole summer? Could you go every year?
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.