[FedCom] CAP mission

[John Mayson]

My opinion of the CAP was "corrected" a number of years ago.

In the mid-80's, when I was in high school, I was in a cadet squadron
in Florida.  I hated it.  I wanted to learn to fly and play with
radios.  When I took my first test for my first stripe apparently I
failed it miserably.  The senior member pulled me aside and asked,
"Are you retarded?  You got some learnin' problems?"  I assured him I
was a straight-A student in AP classes.  Long story short, he used the
wrong answer key.  He wondered why I had more answers that he had on
his answer key.  I had gotten a 100%.  His son and his son's best
friend started the same time I did in the early fall.  When we got
back from Christmas break his son was suddenly a warrant officer and
his friend a master sergeant.  The friend reminded me of Castro.  He
had beard (yeah, a teenager not old enough to drive had a Fidel
beard), had his fatigues unbuttoned halfway down his chest, wore white
tennis shoes, and all we ever did was calisthenics under the watchful
eye of those two cadets.  The last thing the senior member said to me
was his response to me asking about flying and radios.  "I ain't got
nuthin' for you!"

I had made a remark, perhaps on this list, years later saying if I
were president the first thing I'd do is disband the CAP.  In my mind
it was full of cowboys and rednecks.  I have since learned the CAP
does perform a valuable service to our country and they do it for
free.  Yes, the USAF gives them a budget, but if it weren't for the
volunteers of all ages it wouldn't exist.

I have no idea what their post-9/11 mission is.  I do think them
encrypting is a little over the top, but the APCO-25 I believe is
mandated (is it APCO-25 or narrowband that is actually mandated?).

John

-- 
John Mayson <john at mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA