20 cadets from the Overlake squadron of the Civil Air Patrol came to the line in Redmond, WA this past weekend. While the forecast was frightfully wet and cold, all managed both days. Saturday was cold and wet - Sunday it didn't start to rain until the drive home.
With cadets age 13-18 and some with 0 firearms experience; the gauntlet was thrown down. I'm proud to saw the NW contingent answered the call. Tionico dusted off his hat from a fair hiatus and IIT's Yankee Terrier and Hubble both made the trip down I5 to help out. GTEngineer had the target line well in hand and handled all of the range hosting requirements. With 13 loaner rifles packed into the HHR - Flipper and I finished out the crew.
COI went out the window about 10a Saturday and we never saw it again. With persistence we hammered the fundamentals into those young minds. Group sizes shrank, confidence grew and heritage was shared. Impassioned history presentations took hold and the cadets quickly learned why we do what we do. Instructors were in the dirt (mud) all weekend long coaching, encouraging, celebrating and occasional commanding (they are cadets after all).
Sunday morning ended with a pair of AQT's with some high 180's to low 200's. Alas, they would have to come back to a regular Appleseed to earn their patches. The afternoon was dedicated to the (uniform approved) NRA Winchester medal system. After a day and a half of looking at 1" squares at 82' those 1 7/8" targets at 50' looked huge. All but 4 managed to earn an NRA award - some went up 2 or 3 ranks including one Sharpshooter.
One particular cadet was working on his first bar with irons. He had brought all of his targets that had earned him his sharpshooter rank and none were over the requisite 40/50 points he needed for his bar. This weekend he earned 9 out of the 10 needed to get that bar - clearly he learned something this weekend.
Thanks to all who contributed to make this weekend happen - NW instructors donating their time, money and equipment. Interlake Sporting Association for the use of the range, CAP staff for handling logistics and investing in these young lives. Huzzah to all!
A few pictures I took: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1kbZBZu91DooCu7J8
Our next CAP event is in Olympia in August. See you on the line.
What an exceptional group of young people. All were very attentive and responsive. Braved the rain and incredible improvement was shown by all. Huzzah cadets! :F