Black Widow Cadet Squadron absolutely dominated 2025. The squadron had been rising in numbers of cadets and achievements. They’ve shown their strengths, so now let’s do a recap and review their 2025 timeline.
Starting off strong in January, the beginning of 2025, the squadron progressed and began to execute their yearly plans. They first started off with obtaining their Rocketry Badges. Rocketry badges are patches that cadets earn when they finish a separate program studied and focused on aerospace.
The process of gaining one is very easy but takes time and dedication. Our cadets worked through classes, learning about the history of rockets and began planning to build their own. In the beginning of the year they had a few 5th week meetings which gave them free time to have fun and connect with each other.
Spring arrived and cadets were given an opportunity to do a STEM project, which they confidently took. Half of the cadets in the unit split off to do the STEM project while others continued their rocketry. The challenge was to build a bridge made out of thin pieces of wood and glue. Cadets began to map out their plans and used teamwork to come up with confident structures.
Cadets also signed up to help NASA with some research on the jet streamed trails that planes leave behind. They researched and studied why and how those gusts of contrails came about. When they submitted their research, NASA had sent them a special thanks for their hard work and kept CAP’s reputation undaunted.
A few weeks went by and their main focus was preparing for the yearly event, encampment. Encampment is a “boot camp” like one week vacation at Wendover UT. The whole squadron trained and strengthened their mindset to be prepared to run a busy schedule. Their main priority was to make sure every cadet knew their common knowledge and that their uniforms were squared away.
When summer began, cadets were still standing strong ready to take on encampment. The heat was blasting and Physical Training was hot. The weather didn’t stop the Widows. They powered through and continued passing their tests. Also because of the good weather, they got to utilize the park to play games and other activities. After their challenging PT meetings, encampment arrived and life longing memories began.
Basic Encampment provides participants with a memorable and rewarding experience. Encampment will be a little different from your standard camp experience. This is way more fun than just swimming in a river and camping with the same old people you know. You get to meet a bunch of other new cadets from different wings and states. It is a life-changing experience!
At first, you’ll be “Oh, I want to go home, I don’t like this,” but trust me, you won’t want to do that. You get to do different things, like getting to know others on your flight, and make lifelong friends. You also get taught how to use your customs and courtesies and begin to make them a habit. Other things you’d be taught are new things that can also come in handy. For instance, don’t let the First Sergeant find your cover on the ground, and if he/she does, just know that they will steal your gear. Throughout the rest of the Encampment, you get to do Activities that you’ll enjoy, and you will wish that it never ended! Though you do have to get up in the morning and do PT before anything else.
At first it will be a little rough getting up early but once you get used to it. Don’t worry,because you will always have cadets in your flight who will have your back, not just your fellow cadets but your flight sergeant, flight commander, and the Encampment Cadre. There is one thing you need to make sure you don’t waste time because if you do that’ll make your team fall behind. It’s not a bad thing it will just show the first Sergeant that your team needs more motivation.
What our goals are for cadets Basic Encampment is to understand how to do drill the right way, how to march, and to make sure we’re are ready to promote when they get back to their home Squadron.There is one thing you need to make sure, It’s that you salute your officers when you pass one or talking. always make sure you stand at attention when an officer walks into the room. Make sure to only address Sergeant’s by their rank and if you make a mistake (make sure you don’t say my bad, say my apologies) show that you are ready to have a flight responsibility! Also stay hydrated because you don’t want to get heat stroke.
After encampment, only 5 days later, began another wing event; Drone Academy. Drone academy is an extreme event that heavily mixes aerospace and emergency services. It was an event that helped you gain your wings, your ground team, and your license to fly a drone. It mostly consisted of classes on how to fly, how to perform search and rescue, and how to perform missions.
After a few days of classes, cadets went on their own mission to carry out a search. There were many opportunities to gain from this event and our cadets that went gained new patches as a reward to display on their uniform.
The summer ended and then came fall. Fall was a productive season. Cadets finished the bridge building, testing their bridge’s strengths. With their bridges they stacked three pound books on top of each other to create a lot of pressure. One team ended up stacking eight before their bridge collapsed and another team stacked ten. Once that challenge was completed, new staff systems were in order. They swapped positions around and created upcoming plans for the oncoming months.
Ending the year off in winter, the squadron hosted a Staff Training day for new NCO’s. The day was filled with planning, lessons, food, and room clearing practice. The event was more laid back compared to actual meetings which gave the staff time to reset for the new season. Since the month had very few weeks, the squadron combined all of the necessary required lessons together. In the first week of December, cadets were given a class on pearl harbor.
They were assigned to direct and act out a skit related to the events that happened in pearl harbor. For PT, cadets did tire flipping with their flights, tug of war, and sharks and minnows. During the last meeting in December, they had special guests visiting. Our special guest was Lt Col. Christianson. She presented awards to our squadron and congratulated us for the squadron’s hard work and dedication.
Lt Col. Tisher also did a character development class on the flood of Kairo. Cadets were challenged to make hard decisions and debate. Afterwards, cadets went down into Cap. Carlisi’s room to explore the science behind mass, and discuss flight academies.
Black Widows conquered this year, and we will conquer the next. More opportunities for our cadets will come, and will be taken. Our community has grown so big this year, and it will grow even bigger next year too. We will evolve more and more, and we will practice perfection until mastered. I hope you all are proud of yourselves for getting through this year strong. You all have done such a great job on everything. Keep up the good work and start the new year strong.
WIDOWS, LEAD!
