Hello everyone,
I am a Cadet Master Sergeant (C/Msgt) in the Civil Air Patrol! If you have any questions about the CAP or in general about like aviation and stuff, ask away! I have my FAA drone and ballooning licenses!
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Hey, welcome to ACC.
First question for you: how exactly do the Cadet Officer ranks work in CAP?
Do most cadets make it to C/2Lt or is it usually the most competent of cadets make it through all the NCO ranks? I’ve heard you guys can get a promotion every other month!
Also compared to the RAFAC, CAP absolutely have much nicer uniforms! 
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Someone I was in cadets with claimed to have hosted a CAP cadet lieutenant colonel on IACE. How high do the cadet ranks go?
So ranks go from cadet Airman Basic (lowest), to cadet Colonel (highest). It takes about 3-6 years to get to cadet Colonel, also known as Spaatz or the Pinnicle.
Yeah, I’ve only been in for about a year and I’m already a C/Msgt! But, I will say, getting to Lieutenant is a bit of a challenge as you have to take 2 tests. One is on 12 chapters of aerospace, and the other is on 12 chapters of Leadership. (We have books) After you get to C/2Lt, there are things called “ghost promotions”. Actually, there is one ghost promotion for NCO’s, and that’s Chief Master Sergeant 2, as there isn’t a stripe gained, but you do get a ribbon. But, as far as officers go, if you just focus and you work really hard you can get to an officer in about 2 years into CAP.
Also yeah, our uniforms are really nice lol. I’ve heard that we may be switching from ABU’s (Airman Battle Uniforms) to OCP’s soon! Idk exactly how it will work, but we’ll figure it out.
Wow, a C/Lt col on IACE?! As you can apply for IACE as a C/Capt, it’s surprising that a C/Lt col would be doing it then, but it is possible if they haven’t gone before
I guess that sort of makes Cdt Col roughly equivalent to our Cadet Warrant Officer, which usually takes 5+ years to achieve.
Out of curiosity, what’s the average rank in the CAP cadets? I understand your promotions are mainly based on passing theory knowledge exams and fitness tests, whereas in the UK we focus on leadership skills for promotion - with academics being recognised under the classification syllabus instead. With that in mind, from what rank do you actually expect cadets to be leaders and taking command of a group of other cadets?
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Average CAP cadet (and US armed forces generally) as I understand it…
(For reference, our cadets almost never receive any form of medal or ribbon - unless you count road marching but you can’t wear those on uniform except on other road marching events)
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Yeah that about sums it up lol
The fact that a small number of cadets got a medal because they took part in the King’s Coronation was massive news here, because it never happens normally. The only other way usually for them to get a medal is to save someone’s life with extreme bravery - it’s happened I believe - for which they can get the George Cross.
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Wow! I know a couple of people who met POTUS at that time, Joe Biden:
guys there’s big news. The CAP Glider program and encampments have been cancelled for now
I hope that those get sorted quickly for you guys. Our gliding program hit the rocks about 10 years ago and has never fully recovered.
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I was about to say the same. Don’t copy anything else from the RAF Air Cadets, whatever you do…
Guys should I send pics from encampment (basic training) staff training?!
Love the enthusiasm but I wouldn’t recommend it without censoring out everyone’s faces. You’ve got to be respectful of people’s privacy online.
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I was planning on doing that anyways
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Then yes please!
Hi @sgt_chopsticks - this sounds really bad, but I don’t see any mention of it on any of CAP’s official news channels, or on the CapTalk forum.
So might it be a localised Wing or state issue? Or a set of temporary restrictions that have already been lifted?
Incidently: do you ever allow Cadets to be members of both CAP and JROTC? And if not, how do you prevent the two different programs from stealing each-others’ Cadets?