Hi there everyone! I am a totally blind 2lt in CAP. Here's an article I wrote for my website honorguardbugler.com
Most people have never heard of the word auxiliarist. They then ask what we are and what do we do for the military? I then proceed to tell them that we're uniformed unarmed volunteers for either the Coast Guard for Air Force. We contribute a lot to these services, but we much different from active duty or reserve. I was recently talking to a fellow blind auxiliarist about these differences. He is trying to change all this, and this angers me so much! First of all, auxiliarists are all unpaid volunteers. Sure we add a lot, but there will always be certain things we can not do. This guy is trying to get auxiliarists treated just like active duty and reserve meaning same requirements and privileges. I think this is extremely outrageous! There is a reason for auxiliary components of the military to exist. Number one, they are there for people that want to serve their country, but can not commit to regular military life such as combat for what ever reason. Number two, if we change this, then you might as well go active duty or reserve. Now don't get me wrong readers, if I could see, I would enlist right now, but this is not possible. This guy wants disabled auxiliarists to be treated like everyone else. In some instances this is great, but for others, not practical. What really makes me angry is that he thinks active duty should salute auxiliarists. We are not active duty or reserve, and we should always be lower ranking than them. When you start this kind of thinking, there is a huge problem that needs to be solved right now. Auxiliarists will never be held to the same standards because we are unpaid volunteers. People won't want to serve if they are being forced to do things and not be paid. What else bothers me is when people put down other auxiliaries. This guy thinks CAP is fake. Well think about this! Does saving lives during a search and rescue mission sound fake to you? Or allowing Cadets to experience their first solo flight and learning military values? I don't think so. People like this guy need to get their heads out of their ass and get real! When people ask what exactly an auxiliarist is, I tell them we are all volunteer unarmed considered civilian in a combat sense. When you start considering auxiliarists completely military, that's just asking for someone to be mistaken for active duty or reserve and get shipped off to combat untrained or we'd have active duty saluting auxiliarists who haven't been through near what regular military have. We do great things and serve our country well, but there needs to be a well drawn out line before things just go too far. I used to think that it would be great for blind people to serve active duty or reserve, but then they would say, well if you let blind in then you should let all disabled join. We'd have some major problems with our nation's security. I believe all three components have their purpose and we all have a place to serve. That's just my views.