Mikenike

A Dream 7 years in the making, nearly crushed in less than three hours

I had a dream, seven years ago. It was not like Jesus' dreams, nor was it like Dr. King's, it wasn't even the demigods of Greek and Roman times type dreams. It was my own goal, one that I've held onto for 7 years now. I almost lost that dream last night. My dream was to be in CAP, or Civil Air Patrol. I went to my first meeting (official meeting, I had been to many in Houston's Thunderbird Squadron when my dad was apart of that squadron), and my first impressions were good, until the briefings. For anyone who knows an inkling about CAP's Louisiana Wing, they know the name Jude Porrier. He is CO of our local squadron and he is the long-winded, loves to hear himself talk type of guy. My dad (this was WAY back when) was actually apart of the squadron and him and Col. Porrier didn't get along too well. He was the type to do 3 hour briefings for stuff that should take under 30 minutes. He's also the type to have an idea but no true plan. So, I get to the meeting, and the 8 of the cadets at the meeting, 1 1stSGT, 1 double diamond(Cadet Col), and the rest senior airman or below. We, or those not at the promotion board, go to the drill pad, we had a member who was on her second meeting, myself on the first meeting. They did basic inspection, and procceded to teach the new female member basic drill. Two guys chatted with me, and asked basic questions and what not. Fast forward 20 minutes, and we were back in the briefing room. Col. Porrier was about to give one of his famous 3 hour Christmas safety speeches. But first he went over his letter to LA Wing on our goals and plans for this year, it was a thing that should have taken 10 minutes, but it took 45. His three hour speech, from what I heard from the cadets, this type of long briefing is super common. So about halfway into his 6 slide powerpoint, about 20:30 military time. My dad had had enough, he is patient, typically, but both of us had enough. It was almost 1 1/2 hours after he concluded his first spiel. He looped back to things he deemed "important" in this filibusting powerpoint during that speech. My dad apologized for this saying that he didn't realize that Porrier was still like that. He continued saying that he was sorry for dragging me through that. I told him it was alright, and that he couldn'tve done anything about it beforeh-hand, and I procceded to tell him what the cadets told me before we went back in. I felt bad for the cadets more than me, that Cadet Lt. Col. must've had to deal with that for years. Well, I went home that night, not wanting to go back, not with him micromanaging the cadets. So, my mother and father talked it over, and reached a conclusion. If they could get him to agree to hand over operations to my dad, a former Cadet CO, later a Senior Captain, we would all pour in the effort and time needed to make the squadron better. And they said, that I could stay in the squadron, and help out. Anyway, at the end of the night, a seven year dream, since I was 7, was almost crushed, in less time then getting to Eeloo without timewarp.