Got my first opportunity to see the Corps in person since probably 2007 or so (at least) on Saturday. Overall looked pretty good, I thought. A few things stood out, for discussion -

1) There is probably as much relevant combat experience in the Corps as in the Commandant's office (no offense to Aggie509th).

2) There are millions of cords. What on earth do they all mean? What is the red-white-blue one?

3) The Corps is still terrible at marching. I'm an anti-D&C guy, as someone who wore civilian clothes on active duty for over 2 years, but still... wow.

4) The Corps looks big. I hope it is sustainable.

quote:

---

2) There are millions of cords. What on earth do they all mean?

---

Yeah, it's getting a little ridiculous. The term "Mexican General" comes to mind.

quote:

---

There are millions of cords. What on earth do they all mean? What is the red-white-blue one?

---

Leadership wants everyone to feel special.

quote:

---

quote:

---

2) There are millions of cords. What on earth do they all mean?

---

Yeah, it's getting a little ridiculous. The term "Mexican General" comes to mind.

---

Careful,
You say that and some people may start throwing racial slurs at the commandant again

To look at the Corps of Cadets and see the proliferation of cords makes me think it's like the NDSM or the basic training ribbon. The cords for everyone mentality diminishes the Moore, Hochmuth, Jouine, FDT, and RV cords (which are the only ones I remember).

Scruffy-

Didn't even think about that. Was just a term we used back in the Commandant's and my day to refer to someone with an excessive amount of ribbons, patches, medals and cords.

Seems like there was also RQ for Ribbon (strange) and GPQ for Grade Point (strange)

cords worn/won in 1986-87

1) Ross Volunteer
2) Fish Drill team
3) Parsons
4) Hochmuth
5) General Moore
6) Joline (SIC?)

Here's the list of the unit cords:

quote:

---

The following Unit Awards are awarded a citation cord and may be worn by all members of that unit during the academic year following the awarding of the Unit Award:
1. The General George F. Moore Award for the Outstanding Unit
2. The George P. F. Jouine Award for Scholastic Achievement
3. The Major General Bruno A. Hochmuth Award for Military Achievement.
4. The Taylor Gillespie Award for the Most Improved Unit
5. The J.J. Sanchez Award for Recruiting and Retention
6. The Commandant’s Award for University Activity
7. The Robert M. Gates Public Service Award

---

Looks like they got rid of a few as well:

quote:

---

The following cords are no longer authorized as of 11 August 2013:
1. Buchanan Award for outstanding academic achievement by a technical company
2. Corps Commander Cord
3. Singing Cadets/Women’s Chorus/Century Singers Cord
4. Corps Center Guard Cord
5. Color Guard Cord
6. Arnold Air Society Cord
7. Cadet Leadership Committee Cord
8. Eagle Post Cord
9. Darling Recruiting Company Cord (Active DRC members wear a Recruiter Replacement Badge)
10. Bonfire “Red pot” Cord
11. Rudder’s Rangers Commander Cord

---

https://cadets.tamu.edu/Documents/PPG%202013-2014.pdf

[This message has been edited by mickeyrig06sq3 (edited 10/28/2013 6:57p).]

quote:

---

The following cords are no longer authorized as of 11 August 2013:
1. Buchanan Award for outstanding academic achievement by a technical company
2. Corps Commander Cord
3. Singing Cadets/Women’s Chorus/Century Singers Cord
4. Corps Center Guard Cord
5. Color Guard Cord
6. Arnold Air Society Cord
7. Cadet Leadership Committee Cord
8. Eagle Post Cord
9. Darling Recruiting Company Cord (Active DRC members wear a Recruiter Replacement Badge)
10. Bonfire “Red pot” Cord
11. Rudder’s Rangers Commander Cord

---

Those are/were all all after my time. They had more cords than there are t-shirts events on sorority row.

quote:

---

The following cords are no longer authorized as of 11 August 2013:
1. Buchanan Award for outstanding academic achievement by a technical company
2. Corps Commander Cord
3. Singing Cadets/Women’s Chorus/Century Singers Cord
4. Corps Center Guard Cord
5. Color Guard Cord
6. Arnold Air Society Cord
7. Cadet Leadership Committee Cord
8. Eagle Post Cord
9. Darling Recruiting Company Cord (Active DRC members wear a Recruiter Replacement Badge)
10. Bonfire “Red pot” Cord
11. Rudder’s Rangers Commander Cord

---

Thanks. I have never heard of most of those, but good for them for trimming them down

Cords got a bit ridiculous when I was there. Some were just outright ugly. I am glad they cut down on some of them.

"We have a cord, you get a cord." should not be the basis on whether you signed up for a corps extra-curricular.

Glad they got rid of some of the cords. I can't imagine how bad it would look if all those cords were still authorized. Believe it or not, while I was a 5th year, I saw some cadets wearing two cords - one was the infantry cord and the other was usually a unit citation cord or RV cord. I don't know for how long that remained authorized, or if it was ever authorized.

I agree with you about the Corps sucking at marching. I'm confident that the Corps is getting worse at marching every year. Even the outfits that take drill seriously aren't that good at it. But my opinion of what is good drill may be a bit skewed.

I remember one time we won the march-in and we didn't even practice. We thought it hilarious.

quote:

---

There is probably as much relevant combat experience in the Corps as in the Commandant's office (no offense to Aggie509th).

---

No offense at all. This is a great thing for the Corps. Some of the combat vets go to D Co while others will go back to their old units, which I think is outstanding. Their experiential knowledge is of great value to their outfit.

quote:

---

The Corps is still terrible at marching. I'm an anti-D&C guy, as someone who wore civilian clothes on active duty for over 2 years, but still... wow.

---

I have to disagree. They have made vast improvements in the six years I have been a CTO (and I am not trying to take credit for the improvement). The number of outfits who take this seriously has increased drastically. More commanders and 1SGs are taking a hard look at the weekly score sheets in order to find areas to improve. So, I think "terrible" is a bit severe there tango...maybe "not great" would be more in order. I will say individuals are more on their game when they enter Kyle Field versus Joe Routt and Houston streets...because of all of the distractions...and they know they are not being graded at that time.

quote:

---

The number of outfits who take this seriously has increased drastically.

---

Those commandants of the 90's and early 21st century were pathetic to allow this type of apathy in the corps

quote:

---

The Corps looks big. I hope it is sustainable.

---

The goal is 2600...we are getting there.

I have also seen quite a few 11B Cords,CIBs and Combat Patches too.

If I remember correctly, roughly 2600 is the amount of people the quad can house 2 to a room if all 12 dorms are open.
Each dorm can house about 240ish cadets; which is why the last few years with ~2400 cadets they've had to triple up in some cases.

Said goal cannot be attained until the quad is no longer under renovations. As is, renovations will be another ~9 years. I've heard two things that may impact that: 1) the new 3000 bed dorm is built on west campus and one of the commons dorms is moved there so some of the corps can live in the commons and more than one quad dorm can be done at a time; 2) the new 3000 bed dorm is built and it becomes mandatory all freshmen live on campus.
Both have come from Sharp's mouth so I don't know what will actually happen.

Also, supposedly in 2015 the commons will finally be renovated. Still not sure if they will try to keep part of the crap-hole open and go in parts or just go full demolition and rebuild.

Unfortunately the corps list out on a good time to renovate the dorms several years ago before they grew and needed all of dorms 1, 2, and 3.

I like the ideas the commandant has for improving the corps and the professionalism, and would like to see the corps grow; I just think it's going to be a rough march this late in the game.

quote:

---

and they know they are not being graded at that time.

---

Down side is that this is really where the Corps is "reviewed" by a majority of the Aggies. No one really watches the march in from inside the stadium.

quote:

---

I remember one time we won the march-in and we didn't even practice. We thought it hilarious.

---

With a 3x3 block y'all should have won every week.

quote:

---

Down side is that this is really where the Corps is "reviewed" by a majority of the Aggies. No one really watches the march in from inside the stadium.

---

Exactly. They look sloppy along Joe Routte. And seeing the column movements make me cringe.

It was bigger than 3x3 THANKS!

We had at least 4X4. Sometimes all of our guys were present and had almost 4X6!!!

You should know of all people there are at least 4 columns. So...myeh.

We had other priorities, marching was not one of them.

The number of cords may be going down but the number of green tabs are skyrocketing out of control! They used to be reserved for CO's; now, it seems anyone in a leadership position no matter the class status can wear one. For example, I have seen such tags on the "leader" of a color guard (Fish) and a squad leader (Pisshead). Go figure.

We have to make sure everyone feels special.

quote:

---

The number of cords may be going down but the number of green tabs are skyrocketing out of control! They used to be reserved for CO's; now, it seems anyone in a leadership position no matter the class status can wear one. For example, I have seen such tags on the "leader" of a color guard (Fish) and a squad leader (Pisshead). Go figure.

---

So much fail

I saw the Green Tabs. It is very confusing. I was told it was for people involved down the direct chain of command.

I felt dumb going up to a cadet thinking he was the K-1 CO and then getting, "No I am (insert position here)."

The green tabs are borrowed from the Army. In the Army (back when we wore green Class As) every leader wore green tabs. It identifies who is a leader, and who is not. It was never commanders only in the Army, from whom the Corps got the idea.

It is small, but it goes a long way to bring leaders and leader development to the front. For four years in the Corps, separated by four years gone (so totally different groups of people), I was astounded by "leaders" hiding in formation/etc when it was time to exercise real leadership. I was also astounded by career self-orbiting planets stepping in and countering leader advice simply because they were juniors/seniors or whatever. I wore green tabs on my Class As as a specialist (E4) in the regiment, because i was a team leader. Even though I was providing leadership to the tabless *****es before I was officially TL, when I put on the green tabs I was held in much different esteem by both the boys and the SL/PSG/PL.

If the Corps is to be the leader development program it fancies itself as, it needs to be able to determine the leaders from the strap-hangers. Passing out green tabs is a small step in the right direction to begin discerning those who are from those who aren't.

[This message has been edited by Tango Mike (edited 11/18/2013 10:17a).]

I was always partial to the Hochmuth chord. Looks the best, and is awarded for actually doing well at corps activities.

quote:

---

Passing out green tabs is a small step in the right direction to begin discerning those who are from those who aren't.

---

Isn't this why cadets wear rank? I remember when I was a zip, I was a platoon commander, meaning I wore 3 moons. The CO wore a diamond. Non leadership guys wore 2.

Green tabs are dumb.

quote:

---

quote:

---

Passing out green tabs is a small step in the right direction to begin discerning those who are from those who aren't.

---

Isn't this why cadets wear rank? I remember when I was a zip, I was a platoon commander, meaning I wore 3 moons. The CO wore a diamond. Non leadership guys wore 2.

Green tabs are dumb.

---

All sophomores wear CPL rank. Not all are leaders.

All E4's in the Army wear SPC. Not all are leaders.

Outfit "athletics sgt" wears SSG rank, but he's not a leader

Company XO in the Army is a 1LT, but it's not a leadership position.

It's not really that hard to grasp.

[This message has been edited by Tango mike (edited 11/18/2013 6:16p).]

Every cadet is a leader so everyone should have green tabs!

quote:

---

The green tabs are borrowed from the Army.

---

Give it back.

White belts getting to relaxed in both behavior and hair length. Pissheads are soft.

The corps in general is soft. Ord '05

quote:

---

All sophomores wear CPL rank. Not all are leaders.

---

When did this change? All pissheads were leaders during my time. Seems like a dandy way to say "yeah, you aren't going to have a future" before a guy even has a chance to prove himself.

If I could go back in time... I'd try to have the longest hair in the corps.

If/When I'm the commandant, its back to old army. The commandant is retired anyway...what's the worst that can happen, ask you to leave??