Does anyone have any experience with the Civil Air Patrol Noncommissioned Officer Program for Senior Members and former military members?

We are slowly increasing the amount of NCO's in CAP. Unfortunately, a lot of commanders are not familiar with the value of NCO's, or what they can contribute to their squadron. I'm currently a Group Commander with 5 squadrons in my command. I emphasize to them that if they get a new senior member that was an NCO, encourage them to go the NCO route. The new members that were NCOs have the option to stay NCO or go the officer route. We are beginning to utilize them and their leadership skills and education to help educate the cadets. One commander tried to argue with me about using them to help educate the cadets (and senior members) with their leadership skills. He didn't see the need. I told him that any commander that doesn't utilize NCOs, is doing a disservice to the cadets, the NCO and the members of the squadron. I know quite a few members that have gone the officer route, served a term as squadron commander, and then converted from officer to NCO. I know this year, we had about 10 NCO's serving in various capacities at the recent week-long encampment.

There is literally no real difference between being an Officer or NCO in CAP, beyond what you wear on your shirt and a few different paperwork things that would be different. It was something brought on by some grumpy former NCOs who didn't want to "wear rank they didn't earn" so it was brought back, but really serves no actual purpose. If you're going to volunteer, just go the Officer route. Source: I've been a CAP Professional Development Officer, who was asked to be one of the first to switch to the NCO side, and I eventually switched Wings and went back to the Officer side because it was just a waste of time tbh. Plus, if you ever wanted to be in a Command position, you'd have to switch to the Officer side anyway.