Summer wave of CTLT

You may remember that, as a second lieutenant, I hosted an ROTC cadet as part of the Cadet Troop Leader Training (CTLT). [August 2009] That didn't go so well -- I didn't even know my own job, let alone what the cadet was supposed to do.

Then, as an XO last year, I sponsored a West Point cadet. [June 2012] That went a lot better.

Well, this week, a number of CTLT cadets will be arriving. As a captain, I won't be sponsoring anyone, but with the lead person having been in Thailand for two weeks in June and now on leave, it's up to me to fill in a lot of the blanks. Even now, there's still a question as to where some of them will be living.

Not everyone is excited to receive them; neither will all the cadets be happy with their assignments. As I've learned since 2009, the cadets are interested in figuring out which branch they want, the Army wants them to learn about platoon leadership (and therefore doesn't care which unit they go to), and the commanders just want to keep the cadets from breaking their stuff.

In a sense, this resembles the problem companies have with summer interns, with a few differences. The nice thing about private sector summer interns is you get free labor and they can't really complain about what they do. Don't like making copies? Well, sorry to hear that, but realistically, that's what you'll be doing at your first job, so get used to it.

But consider what it would be like to get a summer intern that you neither need nor want, and can't hold accountable. That's what cadets are to some commanders. They're here for three weeks, but are supposed to do a job that takes a few months to settle into.

And as recently shown in the aftermath of the Asiana plane crash, unpaid temporary workers can really mess things up for you.
[News Source][Youtube Source] (The news source talks about the role of the intern.)

So good luck out there, cadets! Try not to mess things up too badly!