Wash-O-Gram
Summer Edition Number 2-03
The Naval Sea Cadet
and Navy League Cadet programs are growing impressively and setting new records
almost daily. But, the growth has proved to be a double edged sword.
The significant growth in the number of cadets and the
shrinking numbers of available military facilities have combined to create
potential training shortfalls. New approaches to training opportunities will
have to be adopted and there will be a serious need for new sources of funds to
cover ever increasing costs related to quality Cadet training.
With the shrinking of Navy League membership numbers
and the stagnant level of federal funding, it is evident that additional sources
of funds must be found. All Headquarters staff have full work platters, so it is
impossible for them to engage in any significant fund raising efforts. Thus I
appeal to each of you to help identify possible sources of corporate, foundation
and other large and smaller funds.
Additionally, the impressive growth in the numbers of Cadets has resulted in a
serious need for additional dedicated adults, officers and instructors, if our
program is to continue to adequately serve our nation's youth.
With a lump in my throat, I humbly thank all who
supported me during the past seven years that I have been part of your national
leadership, and during the 27 previous years when I was liaison for the U. S.
Coast Guard with the Naval Sea Cadet Corps and Navy League.
I have an enormous fondness for NSCC and I'm greatly impressed with the
sacrifices of time, energy and resources that each of you contribute daily …
for the Cadets.
My best wishes to your newly elected Chairman, and my
friend, Harold Learson of Massachusetts. Harold has been active with the Navy
League and Sea Cadet programs for many years and possesses a wealth of
experience and knowledge of the Navy League and Naval Sea Cadet Corps. Most
recently he served as Sea Cadet National President and Navy League National
Director Emeritus. As NSCC's new Chairman, Harold Learson also holds the office
of Navy League National Vice President for Youth. You will be impressed with
Harold's leadership skills and abilities and you will truly be in awe of his
many attributes, including truly being a very pleasant person.
I extend best wishes to the Navy League's new National
President (and immediate past NSCC Board member) Sheila McNeill, and to the new
and continuing members of the Naval Sea Cadet Corps.
Jim Ward
It is for the CADETS!
Two years ago, the Sea
Cadets adopted the mantra "It is for the Cadets" to help adult
leaders, parents, national staff and board of directors to remember the purpose
of the Naval Sea Cadet program.
During the past several years, there have been some
well intended, but frivolous, incidents, that wasted time, money, energy, etc.
and ended up creating animosity and unnecessary dissension.
Most of the incidents involved mere differences of
opinion. Some emotional reactions caused such serious rifts that good productive
adult leaders merely threw up their hands in disgust and, unfortunately. left
the program. Fortunately, the majority of leaders stood up to the test and
continue to volunteer their efforts for the Cadets.
Most of the problems could, and should, be
resolved at the local level, rather than become a national issue.
When differences cannot be accommodated at the local level, it should be
elevated to the Regional Directors' level. In rare instances, it may have to be
moved to the Headquarters Representative level. And in even more rare instances might
involve Headquarters.
In general, items directed to HQ are routinely returned
to the local level for appropriate comment, investigation or action, as
necessary.
Marine
Staff Sgt. Donald C. May, a former League Cadet member of NLCC Training Ship
VA and Sea Cadet member of NSCC America Division in Richmond, Virginia died in
Iraq as a result of injuries suffered this Spring when his tank went off a
bridge into the Euphrates River in Iraq.
He and two other deceased Marines were retrieved from
the tank after it had been pulled from the river.
Sgt. May followed in the footsteps of his parents, who
were both Marines. His father, who was also a tank commander, served two tours
with the Marines earning two purple hearts, a bronze star and a Navy Cross.
Thirty-one year old Sgt. May was married. His wife,
Brenda lives in California, gave birth to a baby boy, their second son, in May.
Next year's Defense
budget (where we get our federal funding) is still somewhat a mystery with
respect to chances of receiving "add-on" funding. The war and defense
post-war activities in Iraq are the obvious controlling factors, and until the
Appropriations Committees sit down and start making line-by-line decisions, we
won't know where we really stand. Their main task (as of today) is their
marching orders to trim$1.6 Billion from the current Defense Budget. While none
of our friends on the Hill intends to portray a "doom and gloom"
scenario, not many have the knowledge or "feel" for the situation that
will let them give us that "warm fuzzy" feeling that we would all like
to have.
This doesn't mean that we don't have a lot of friends
and supporters on the Hill who are working hard on our behalf - we do. I spend
most of my time on the Hill briefing members of the House and Senate and the
professional staffs that run the "key" (to us) Committees and
Subcommittees. I start the year by briefing and updating members of the
Subcommittees that will be doing the work on our request - House and Senate
Armed Services and Appropriations. I then concentrate on members of the
Committees that have NSCC units in their States and Districts. Following that
effort, I have made it my goal this year to brief each Senator and
Representative with NSCC units in their area. This equates to about 94 Senators
and 249 Representatives. In addition, I brief and continuously feed information
to members of various Congressional Caucus's that have a particular interest in
the NSCC.
This year NSCC was extremely fortunate to have been
invited to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee - Defense
Subcommittee on our program. If interested, you can view my statement on the
web:
All witnesses were
afforded the same amounts of time to speak, and my "pitch" for
$2,000,000 followed testimony in support of defense related college and
university research programs in the neighborhood of $13.8 billion. Responses
from the Senators to the NSCC briefing were very positive and they all had
something good to say about it.
For next year, I am exploring a new approach to our
Congressional budget effort. This basically would involve tapping on our good
Congressional relationships by having a large bloc of them sign a "group
letter" to the Secretary of the Navy stating that NSCC is an area of
special interest to Congress and requesting consideration of placing us in the
Defense budget as an authorization, which would almost mean automatic funding
each year. I can't do this without your support though.
During some of my briefings, I hear about letters that
Congressmen and Congresswomen have received from Cadets and our adult
volunteers. They have really made an impression. The "bad news" is
that there have been far too few of them. I have learned in the past 7 months of
"living" on the Hill a lot of things that "work" in
influencing our legislators - and what doesn't. I need as much help from all of
you as I can get, and the following are a few things that will help:
I need lots of these "feel good" stories to have in my "hip-pocket." Particularly ones that might relate to a unit in a particular Congressman's State or District. Please send any good stories that you might have - and/or send them in as they occur. Send an email or drop a note - doesn't have to be formal - any way you can. I guarantee you that these get lots of mileage and really are helpful.
I can't tell you how much easier it is to "sell" our program when I walk into a scheduled briefing and the party to be briefed starts telling me about our program. "We got these nice letters," "the Representative/Senator visited the Unit last month," "we had lunch with some Cadets at a Navy League function," "the Congresswoman went out on the Grayfox," "the Congressman spoke at Boot Camp graduation," etc. The door is opened, and I make a point to walk right in to make sure that our leaders of government are well aware of the fantastic youth that serve in our Navy's finest youth program! Thanks for all of your support, past and future.
The NSCC Scholarship Selection Committee met in
May to determine the recipients of the 2003 scholarships and selected the
following Cadets, who were approved by the NSCC Chairman:
Navy League Carl G. Stockholm Scholarship (one at $2,500, and up to three
subsequent grants):
Chief Petty Officer Craig Robinson of the Arizona
Division (AZ)
Sierra Military Health Services, Inc. Scholarship (one at $2,000):
First recipient: Petty Officer John D. Roberts, America
Division (VA)
Harry and Rose Howell Scholarship (one at $2,000):
Petty Officer Andrea Adams of the Watertown Division
(NY)
LT Allen Groh NSCC Scholarship (one at $1,300):
Petty Officer Ellen Grant of the Nautilus Division (CT)
Lewis A. Kingsley Foundation Scholarships (five at $1,000 each):
Petty Officers Kyle Joynt, Ryan Joynt and CPO William
Couts all of the Gunfighter Squadron (CA)
Petty Officer Elizabeth Frye of the Pasadena Division
(CA)
CPO Julianne Marino of the Dickson Division (NH)
RADM Hamlin B. Tallant, USN Scholarship (one at $1,000):
Petty Officer Stephanie Fite of the Battleship Missouri
Division (MO)
RADM Richard K. Gallagher, USN Scholarship (one at $1,000):
Chief Petty Officer Joanna Bridge of the Atlantic
Seabee Battalion (NH)
Gary V. Young Scholarship (one at $1,000):
Petty Officer Jennifer Ward of the Charette Division
(MD)
Robert and Helen Scharf Hutton Scholarship (one at $1,000):
Petty Officer Richard Wong of the Hancock Squadron (CA)
Family KIA of St. Augustine Scholarship (one at $800):
Petty Officer Douglas Schafer of the Cruiser
Indianapolis Division (IN)
The Selection Committee was chaired by NSCC National Board Vice President Larry
Lynott, Board Member Randy Hollstein and Mr. Michael Schlee, National Security
Director of the National office of the American Legion.
Five Sea Cadets have been selected to receive
2003 scholarships from the Navy League, including twin brothers from California.
The five winners were selected from eleven entries for the Navy League
scholarships.
The Sea Cadet recipients include twins PO1 Ryan Joynt/PO1 Kyle Joynt, of
California, CPO William Couts of California, Cadet Adam Freitag of Virginia and
CPO Christopher Lester of Connecticut.
Note that brother Cadets Kyle and Ryan Joynt
and CPO William Couts are recipients of both Sea Cadet and Navy League
scholarships.
For 2004 planning, college bound Cadets are strongly encouraged to apply for
both the Navy League and Naval Sea Cadet scholarships.
Congratulations to these exceptional Naval Sea Cadets for their outstanding accomplishments:
Bravo Zulu to the dedicated Officers, Instructors and parents for encouraging these special young people to attain this very high level of achievement. While our NSCC Chief Petty Officer rating is not as well known, it is the NSCC equivalent to the Boy Scouts of America EAGLE rank.
Executive Committee:
Board Members:
ESCORT DUTY
All hands know that the success of the Sea Cadet program is dependent upon adult volunteers. Check out the summer training schedule, there's still plenty of opportunity. Critical requirements/shortages continue to be posted on the 1 MC as we progress through summer.
SUMMER TRAINING
Summer training is well underway and we're issuing hundreds of orders every day. The most important thing now is to be familiar with and follow the guidance in the summer training schedule and changes thereto. Information Letter 3-03 refers. You should have and be using Change 1 to the schedule itself (encl (3) to Info Letter 3-03), it was a complete reprint and update of the summer schedule. AND as emphasized in both the basic letter and in Change 1, updates (and the most current information) will be as posted on the Internet Web site. Go to resources.seacadets.org and click on "Current Training Schedule"
SUMMER TRAINING DEPOSITS
A reminder to all
hands; as you well know, each year expenses have risen and so have enrollments,
but federal grant monies have remained the same. That's why deposits were
increased this year and the policy of a higher deposit for cadets doing more
than one training was implemented. Our financial planning for 2003 includes
these changes so they are most important and we are depending on Unit CO's to
ensure adherence.
The increased deposit of $30 for one week trainings
and $60 for two week trainings is easy to understand. The increased deposit for
cadets doing multiple trainings is the one we want to emphasize because we are
depending upon unit CO's ensure it's done as prescribed. It will make a big
difference in our budgeting and it too is really simple. All cadets get at least
one summer training at the $30 or $60 rate. This is what's needed for
advancement, remembering that POLA counts as a TWT for advancement.
Any additional training over the summer of 2003 beyond
that first one is at the higher rate, $90 for one week trainings and $180 for
two week trainings. It is evolution based, not day based. Trainings are as
listed in the summer training schedule (and on the Internet) and having a
training code assigned. If it is otherwise, it is as indicated on the schedule….some
trainings like SCUBA just cost more. Examples:
Just some examples to
help all understand. It's structured so that every cadet gets one training
evolution at the $30 or $60 deposit cost and can advance, anything beyond that
is at the higher rate for all summer training in the 2003 summer training
schedule having a training code assigned.
Please note that USCG training does not have an
assigned training code … follow the guidance in the Summer Training Schedule,
NSCC Info Letter 3-03, and please note that reimbursement for cadet expenses
incurred while training with the USCG is subject to funding availability after
the rest of the training has been paid for (The USCG is generally not expensive,
meals only at reduced rates and pretty closely matches cadet deposit costs
across the rest of the program).
For those who might wonder where the $90 and $180 came from, the average cost to the NSCC for a TWT last year 2002, program wide, was $180. It is based on that, and for 2003 simply represents cadets paying their own way for training beyond program requirement. We've preserved and still offer the opportunity, it's just that the grant isn't enough money to pay for all training that all cadets want.
Unit CO's, please don't let this slip by! We and the program are counting on you !!!!!!
To contribute to the national Sea Cadet program, send checks, in any amount, to:
Naval Sea Cadet Corps
Attn: Executive Director
2300 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22201-3308
July
4 Fourth of July (1776)
15 Public Health Service Anniversary
August
4 Coast Guard 213th Anniversary (1790)
September
1 Labor Day
10 NSCC 41st Anniversary (1962)
11 Second anniversary of World Trade Center and Pentagon attack (2001)
17 Merchant Marine Academy
Anniversary (1943)
October
TBD San Diego, Headquarters Representatives Meeting and San Diego Regional Directors
Meeting
13 228th Navy Anniversary (1775)
Daylight Savings Time ends
Columbus Day
31 Halloween
November
1 Deadline for receipt of Willis E. Reed, Nicholas Brango, Keith Weaver and
Instructor of the Year Award nominations to Regional Directors
1 Deadline Nominations for Promotion Board
10 228th Marine Corps Anniversary (1775)
11 Veterans Day
27 Thanksgiving Day
Hanukkah
December
TBD Washington, DC NSCC Promotion Board meets
7 Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
25 Christmas
January 2004
1 Deadline for receipt of Willis E. Reed, Nicholas Brango, Keith T. Weaver and
Instructor of the Year nominations at NHQ from Regional Directors.
26 Martin Luther King Day
February 2004
14 Valentines Day
16 President's Day
March 2004
17 St. Patrick's Day
April 2004
1 Deadline for receipt of Navy League Scholarship applications
6 Daylight Savings Time begins
15 Deadline for NSCC Scholarship applications at NHQ.
May 2004
1 deadline for Hall of Fame nominations
15 deadline (for Stockholm, NSCC, Kingsley Foundation and Pacific Gas &
Electric and other Sea Cadet Scholarships) for applications to be received at
NHQ
Armed Forces Day
Memorial Day observed
NSCC Scholarship Board meets
June 2004
14 Flag Day (1775)
14 Army Anniversary (1775)
Fathers Day
Navy League National Convention / Sea Cadet Board Meeting,
Copyright © 2003 Naval Sea Cadet
Corps
The WOG is printed under authority of the National Chairman in accordance
with Article 2021.1 of
the NSCC Regulations.
Wash-O-Gram, WOG, NSCC Emblems, and seals are trademarks of the Naval Sea Cadet
Corps protected under Title 36, Section 154106 of the United States Code