Finding time to write is a difficult task - especially when one first starts this kind of project. I am not a writer by nature so I have to teach myself and remember that I am working on this.
A lot has happened since January - we held our annual awards ceremony and banquet. A resounding success - for the cadets anyway. At least a half dozen dignitaries attended and spoke at the ceremony. USCG Region 13 Commander, Admiral Taylor presented, several skippers from various commands in the area presented, including Naval Station Everett. A lot of work but the cadets found it worthwhile.
The Seattle Council of the Navy League also help their annual awards ceremony in January. This was for the different commands that the council supports - including the USS Nimitz, Naval Station Everett, Kitsap-Bangor, USCG Base Seattle and others. I was also present to award one of my cadets a Cadet of the Year Award. Now this was a bit intimidating - I left the Navy in 1984 as a Petty Officer 3rd...now 30 years later I am having dinner with Admirals (2), Captains, Commanders, Command Master Chiefs all dressed up. And I spoke first...oh wow!
In February we spent the day aboard the USS Nimitz courtesy of a Blue Angel Alum, Chief Knopp a current Chief aboard her. Also another a USNSCC alum AN Duncan from Florida helped coordinate this - the cadets had a great time.
Then on Sunday at the drill - Chief Cerrillo, USN (Ret) came aboard the drill deck and led PT for the cadets. This is big because Chief is retired Seal so his PT was a bit more intense than a normal cadet PT. The cadets loved it though.
In March we helped at Jim Creek Recreation Facility for the Navy getting it ready for the summer months. Cleaned up storm debris, put things back together and had a great time.
For April we spent it on the drill deck cleaning, painting, and finalizing details for the new uniforms. Routine and mundane but productive. We also received some great news. The CO of the USS Nimitz has allowed some of our cadets to participate in a Tiger Cruise between Everett and San Fransisco at the end of May. We have 13 or 14 cadets going with two adult escorts -alas not me. Work is conflicting. Oh well...
Hopefully pics will be coming soon.
For now I am signing off. Fair winds and following seas
LTJG Russell & PO3 Russell
My son and I
17 April 2012
31 January 2012
I realized that it is not necessarily obvious - this program, the US Naval Cadet Corps as a whole and locally the Blue Angels Squadron are a volunteer program. Meaning all the hours and time and heartache, as well as the many many blessings are unpaid. As a matter of fact there is a lot that comes out of our own pockets to help the program run. It is worth it - I'll tell a story about a cadet later in this post. But first I want to mention and talk about the other volunteers in this unit. With out them this thing wont run...
If you are not familiar with a Sea Cadet unit it is set up very much like a US Navy command - albeit with teenagers as the sailors. The adult leadership is set up along the same lines - a Commanding Officer and an Executive Officer. We also have an Ops Officer, a Training Officer and an Admin/Finance Officer. Each person brings their own strengths and expertise to help the unit run.
Our Finance Officer works in an accounting firm and she handles the money. Our training officer works in a trucking company and manages their offices and paperwork - she keeps all of that in line. Quite a task. Our Ops Officer position is vacant at the moment, but we hope to fill that soon. Now the Executive Officer - this guy is nominally number 2 in the unit, but in reality it is his work and commitment that makes the unit go. Actually it is all the adult volunteers - but being a quasi Navy command that we teach the kids about there has to be a chain of command - it works.
There is also a chain of command within the cadets themselves - these billets are earned for the most part - that it the idea of the program. We give the kids an opportunity to lead and to be led after teaching them leadership. I will go into a little more detail about the cadets in later posts. But if you know how the US Navy is set up you will quickly pick up how a sea cadet unit is structured.
I mentioned earlier that I staffed a recruit training. What that means is that I volunteered to help out at a ten day recruit training that was scheduled late December 2010 down in San Luis Obispo, CA. I figured I would be put in an office somewhere to help with paperwork, maybe help teach a class or two. What actually happened the COTC (Commanding Officer, Training Contingent) assigned me as a Division Officer for Bravo Company. I didn't know what I was in for...I will preface it by saying that the only thing that I ever found more difficult than staffing as a DIVO was my own boot camp for the US Navy nearly 30 years earlier. I ended u sleeping in the same barracks as the cadets, waking before them - hitting the rack after them and on my feet nearly every waking minute in between. Now I am not in the best shape of my life but I could not very well lead sitting on my behind - I felt it important to be an example. So I did...
Being DIVO for Bravo Company had a thousand little rewards, I met a lot of great kids, I watched them struggle, I watched them try and I watched them push themselves. I even helped out one or two. Specifically one cadet I will call 'Mike' (not his real name) I got to help. Like most cadets this Mike's first time away from home, other than family, for any amount of time, in a very harsh environment. Everyone is yelling, PT is brutal, no sleep, tons of studying and standing in line for everything. Mike was struggling - one of my cadet leaders came to me a mentioned that he was worried about him - he was crying and saying he wanted to quit and go home. I pulled Mike aside and talked with him - he did want to quit, he hated it there, he didn't even know why he was there - that his mom made him even though he didn't want to go. Mike shed a tear or two while we were talking.
I talked with him for a good 15 minutes, getting him to calm down, emphasizing the benefits of sticking to it, the feelings of accomplishment, of overcoming and learning about oneself. And what it costs to quit. In its various forms - from no refunds (it costs $200 to go + travel), to what a quitter is, to how he would feel about himself if he quit. That first talk worked - he agreed to keep trying. He fell back in with his shipmates. This was the second day - I would have a similar talk with Mike several more times, I enlisted the help of some of the cadet leadership - his peers. It was quite an effort to get him to stay, some heartache, a bit of stress, some pushing. But Mike did finish - he wasn't the top of his class, didn't excel at any of the requirements - the written tests, the PT, the marching - but he was adequate. Enough to pass.
On graduation day - he participated in the ceremonies along with his shipmates. One particular one - the cadets wore a cover (a ball cap) that had the word recruit in large bold letters. The ceremony involved speeches and atta boys and recognition for exemplary cadets. And - exchanging the recruit cover for a Sea Cadet Cover. This is done by the COTC with a few words to each cadet personally. Mike was tearing up as the COTC came around and exchanged his cover. You could see the pride in his eyes and his chest puff out just a bit. After graduation he brought his mom over before they left and he shook my hand and thanked me for helping him and introduced me to his mom.
It is that kind of effect that I see that makes all of this worth the work. It is pretty awesome!
If you are not familiar with a Sea Cadet unit it is set up very much like a US Navy command - albeit with teenagers as the sailors. The adult leadership is set up along the same lines - a Commanding Officer and an Executive Officer. We also have an Ops Officer, a Training Officer and an Admin/Finance Officer. Each person brings their own strengths and expertise to help the unit run.
Our Finance Officer works in an accounting firm and she handles the money. Our training officer works in a trucking company and manages their offices and paperwork - she keeps all of that in line. Quite a task. Our Ops Officer position is vacant at the moment, but we hope to fill that soon. Now the Executive Officer - this guy is nominally number 2 in the unit, but in reality it is his work and commitment that makes the unit go. Actually it is all the adult volunteers - but being a quasi Navy command that we teach the kids about there has to be a chain of command - it works.
There is also a chain of command within the cadets themselves - these billets are earned for the most part - that it the idea of the program. We give the kids an opportunity to lead and to be led after teaching them leadership. I will go into a little more detail about the cadets in later posts. But if you know how the US Navy is set up you will quickly pick up how a sea cadet unit is structured.
I mentioned earlier that I staffed a recruit training. What that means is that I volunteered to help out at a ten day recruit training that was scheduled late December 2010 down in San Luis Obispo, CA. I figured I would be put in an office somewhere to help with paperwork, maybe help teach a class or two. What actually happened the COTC (Commanding Officer, Training Contingent) assigned me as a Division Officer for Bravo Company. I didn't know what I was in for...I will preface it by saying that the only thing that I ever found more difficult than staffing as a DIVO was my own boot camp for the US Navy nearly 30 years earlier. I ended u sleeping in the same barracks as the cadets, waking before them - hitting the rack after them and on my feet nearly every waking minute in between. Now I am not in the best shape of my life but I could not very well lead sitting on my behind - I felt it important to be an example. So I did...
Being DIVO for Bravo Company had a thousand little rewards, I met a lot of great kids, I watched them struggle, I watched them try and I watched them push themselves. I even helped out one or two. Specifically one cadet I will call 'Mike' (not his real name) I got to help. Like most cadets this Mike's first time away from home, other than family, for any amount of time, in a very harsh environment. Everyone is yelling, PT is brutal, no sleep, tons of studying and standing in line for everything. Mike was struggling - one of my cadet leaders came to me a mentioned that he was worried about him - he was crying and saying he wanted to quit and go home. I pulled Mike aside and talked with him - he did want to quit, he hated it there, he didn't even know why he was there - that his mom made him even though he didn't want to go. Mike shed a tear or two while we were talking.
I talked with him for a good 15 minutes, getting him to calm down, emphasizing the benefits of sticking to it, the feelings of accomplishment, of overcoming and learning about oneself. And what it costs to quit. In its various forms - from no refunds (it costs $200 to go + travel), to what a quitter is, to how he would feel about himself if he quit. That first talk worked - he agreed to keep trying. He fell back in with his shipmates. This was the second day - I would have a similar talk with Mike several more times, I enlisted the help of some of the cadet leadership - his peers. It was quite an effort to get him to stay, some heartache, a bit of stress, some pushing. But Mike did finish - he wasn't the top of his class, didn't excel at any of the requirements - the written tests, the PT, the marching - but he was adequate. Enough to pass.
On graduation day - he participated in the ceremonies along with his shipmates. One particular one - the cadets wore a cover (a ball cap) that had the word recruit in large bold letters. The ceremony involved speeches and atta boys and recognition for exemplary cadets. And - exchanging the recruit cover for a Sea Cadet Cover. This is done by the COTC with a few words to each cadet personally. Mike was tearing up as the COTC came around and exchanged his cover. You could see the pride in his eyes and his chest puff out just a bit. After graduation he brought his mom over before they left and he shook my hand and thanked me for helping him and introduced me to his mom.
It is that kind of effect that I see that makes all of this worth the work. It is pretty awesome!
29 January 2012
Welcome
On 25-Sept-11 I was blessed by being allowed to become the Commanding Officer of a Sea Cadet unit called the Blue Angels Squadron of the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps. We are the Seattle, WA unit based at the US Coast Guard Base, Seattle. It has only been 127 days and it has been quite an adventure.
I thought I would share what I have seen, heard, been a part of and some of the challenges that a brand new Commanding Officer of a sea cadet unit face.
A little about me...
My son and I (we are in the above pic) have been a part of the Sea Cadet program since late summer 2008 when we stumbled across the program and he wanted to join. I have been helping out in one form or another since. Some of my "official" positions or billets include Training Officer and Executive Officer, I have been an escort officer for a recruit training and a seamanship training, I have helped set up and run local training events and activities for the cadets.
This is some of the hardest work I have done and it is probably the best thing I have been a part of.
I hope to entertain, enlighten and that you might enjoy some of my ramblings.
I thought I would share what I have seen, heard, been a part of and some of the challenges that a brand new Commanding Officer of a sea cadet unit face.
A little about me...
My son and I (we are in the above pic) have been a part of the Sea Cadet program since late summer 2008 when we stumbled across the program and he wanted to join. I have been helping out in one form or another since. Some of my "official" positions or billets include Training Officer and Executive Officer, I have been an escort officer for a recruit training and a seamanship training, I have helped set up and run local training events and activities for the cadets.
This is some of the hardest work I have done and it is probably the best thing I have been a part of.
I hope to entertain, enlighten and that you might enjoy some of my ramblings.
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