Are there to many promotions?

[Rifle Flipper]

I am pretty new to CAP, but there are a couple of things that already annoy me. First of all, why can cadets go all the way to the top, regardless of unit size? It is pointless to have field grade officers in a unit with 20 some-odd cadets. Also, that wouldn't be so bad if the people being promoted actually deserved what they got. Even Senior Airmen should not become NCOs if they do not demonstrate leadership potential. We have a new Staff Sergeant(one of the worst leaders in the unit, he doesnt even care) that was appointed flight sergeant. And we also have 2 Lieutenant Colonels that almost never attend meetings, one of which is ok because he is off at college, but the other one is just lazy. Now I have said my thing, let the hate mail come in, and feel free to post anything about the leadership in your unit, good or bad.

[RFleischman]

CAP is a program that is designed to give cadets (12-21) exposure to leadership. The promotion requirements are standardized throughout the nation in CAPR 52-16 (Ch 2) and is specifically designed so that cadets can come from any unit (small or large) and go all the way through the program. When a cadet becomes and senior officer (or junior for that matter) they're usually expected to participate outside of their own unit, often times helping run the entire group or wing. Your C/SrA problem is because your CO is soft. The two Lt Cols are worthless because they either think they're better than everyone else or again, the unit is soft. There isn't much wrong with the program itself (CAPR 52-16 which governs the cadet program) but unfortunately the local unit often screws it up. For example; here it's pretty damn hard to get a promotion without being a leader and we also have two Lt Cols. One of which is a worthless bitch and is only that high because her old CO has a sexual infatuation with young blonde females (no, seriously), and the other is a guy who (along with our whole unit) gets shit on by the wing every chance they have, is still squared away and at every local meeting.

[crazy bay]

20 people in a CAP unit....

....damn, I wish our unit was that big.

But yeah, like he said, its all about the unit. From the sounds of it your unit is just a bunch of pansies. Ours inst like that. You have to earn your promotions in our unit. We only have like 10 people in our unit. And we have 2 freakin colonels.

[ColeGyreneJROTC]

Couldn't tell you about CAP but in my USMCJROTC unit we try to keep our number of officers and NCOs to an amount where we dont have more cheifs than indians. About 200 of our cadets begin the year as privates, most of those who are coming back for subsequent years are Corporals or Sergeants at the beginning of their second year (we only retain about 25%-35% of our first year cadets). At the beginning of this year I was a Gunnery Sergeant, but right now I am a First Sergeant and because I am supposed to be a cadet officer next year and there are no other spots open for Sergeant Major, I'll jump from First Sergeant to Second Lieutenant at the end of this year. Right now we have just over 400 cadets in my ROTC. We have one Major, one Captain, 4 First Lieutenants, about 10 Second Lieutenants, 4 Sergeant Majors, 10 First Sergeants, 15 Gunnys, 20 Staff Sergeants, and a few Sergeants and Corporals who are 2nd or 3rd year cadets who are demonstrating poor leadership skills, we have about 10 Freshman Lance Corporals, 50 Privates First Class, and more than 100 Privates. Usually by the end of the year we have our correct number of NCOs, SNCOs, and Officers. Some people kiss-ass to get where they are and dont deserve rank, but usually it becomes apparent to the SMI (Senior Marine Instructor) before they fuck stuff up too bad.

-Cole

[Rifle Flipper]

Yeah, Im in MCJROTC as well, and its good to hear other units are doing it right too.

[Lupin1]

in my AFJROTC unit all you need to be an officer is be a 4th year, basically. We do have 4 4th years that aren't officers. Our breakdown goes like this: 1 Lt Col, 2 Majors, 15 Capts, 1 1st Lt, 1 CMSgt, 1 MSgt, 3 Tech Sgts, 16 Staff Sgts, a couple of SrA, about 20 A1cs, about 50 Amn and about 90 AB's. We only get promoted once a year, and EVERYONE gets promoted, so no one moves up through the ranks too fast. Basically, ALL 1st and 2nd years are Airmen, ALL 3rd years are NCOs and all but a few 4th years are officers.

[RFleischman]

you can't compare CAP units to MCJROTC and AFJROTC units. It is like comparing apples and oranges. we run CAP how it is supposed to be run, and you do likewise with your JROTC units. they are too completely different programs, designed for different situations.


To me it seems that unless you are in JROTC for all 4 years you can't go to the top. What if you were in for two years and had to move, and your new school didn't have JROTC it isn't fair to the cadets.

[Lupin1]

Well I was also in Sea Cadets for a few years, so I do know something about youth military organizations outside of JROTC. Plus I know a lot of people in CAP. All I can say is that compared to Sea Cadets cappies get promoted a lot. To get promoted at Sea Cadets you need to complete at least 6 months time in rank, a corraspondance course, and at least 10 days of training.(aka- bootcamp, corpsman school, SEAL school, Petty Officer Leadership Academy, flight school, etc) So most people are only getting promoted once a year unless they can find somewhere to squeeze in a TWT(two week training) during the school year.

[ColeGyreneJROTC]

From what I've seen at interservice competitions, afjrotc, ajrotc, and njrotc, all get decorated and promoted like crazy. The very first competition of this year I saw 3 Navy Commander Cadets, 2 AF Captain Cadets, and a few Army Major Cadets. Even the Army and Air Force first year cadets were decorated out the ass. I've spent 3 years in MCJROTC. I worked my ass of and am one of the higher knotch Cadets. I was just awarded my 7th decoration for getting the highest academic score for my school at the last competition. I'm probably only eligible to recieve one more decoration in my year and a half left in MCJROTC. When I see an Army Cadet whose entire left side of their blouse is sagging because it's covered in ribbons and medals, it makes me think how easy those were for them to get, to have that many and be an officer after 3 years.

[RFleischman]

Well if you don't like CAP than don't join it. How hard is that to understand? I would be doing JROTC too if they offered it in my school, and if i wasn't already in the army. If you don't like getting promotions a lot then JOIN THE REAL MILITARY!

[Lupin1]

damn kid. That was kinda uncalled for. I mean, it's a healthy debate. If all you have to say is "if you don't like it, tough" then don't read the post. I mean, I understand you're defensive of your organization, but defend it with facts and arguments. Dude, you just killed our discussion...

[crazy bay]

hes just frusturated becuase you guys dont understand. It all depends on your unit. Its not the organization. Its also not just a CAP problem. If you read all the other JROTS discussions everyone else has problems just as bad. I read some of them and Im just like; "damn....Im glad CAP isnt like that"

My point is that all the programs are not perfect. They all have issues. And on top of that, every unit has their own problems. Every unit has their own issues. You cant make a system perfect when you cant disciplin people accordingly.

[RFleischman]

amen thanks bro!