Yes Sir!

This summer we went to an airshow and there was a ton of teenagers dressed up in army clothes.  They were enforcing foot traffic and keeping people away from planes and runways.  They were marching around with their camelbaks, basically looking super cool.

these are not real airman, they’re 12-21 year old kids.

We stumbled up to their booth and found out that they were not the army but the civil air patrol.  Dave asked lots of questions, the kids got tons of shwag.  We found out that you only need to be 12 to join.  I jokingly asked McKayla if she wanted to do it.  She said, “I guess”.

That was enough for Dave, who loves everything that has any remote possibility that you may have a slight chance of being in the air.  He found the local CAP unit, contacted the head honcho and found out all of the information.

Our girl scout troop has disintegrated and with all of my other commitments I’m not ready to resurrect it from the ashes.  We decided that McKayla needed to be involved in some kind of leadership building activity.

She wasn’t terribly fond of the act of getting in the car and going to the meetings, but once there she had a great time.  After the 5 week introductory period, she begged us to let her join.  Last week she got her uniforms.  This week she dressed up in her blues.

There’s lots of things she’s learning.

Things like:

• in order to be a great leader, you have to be a great follower.
• you should really iron your shirt and polish your shoes before an inspection.
• how to put her hair in a bun.
• It’s not called an “about now”, it’s an “about face”.  And it’s rather frowned upon if after you turn around, you lift up your hands and get your ‘Michael Jackson groove on’ (her words, not mine).
• it feels good to work hard and make rank.  She’s already earned her wings.  Of course, she ‘s not working too hard because she can’t remember what the wings are for, or for that matter, how to achieve the next rank.
• BDU stands for Battle Dress Uniform because “if someone makes fun of how you look, you’re ready to do battle!”

Most importantly, she’s learning respect, loyalty and leadership.  Plus, there are lots of fun things like riding in a big helicopter, learning to shoot, learning search and rescue stuff, going to boot camp.

Not to mention, the possibility of going to a ball.  A ball, where the boy to girl ratio would be significantly in her favor.  Of course, it’s military style.  They have to train for the ball.  They have to take dancing lessons and etiquette lessons.

It should be a fun year.  I’m pretty sure, CAPs is kicking Girl Scouts ass.