How important is rank at Culver?

When I was an upper camper not too long ago (96-98) I must admit I thought a great deal about rank.

I remember the night before I left for my plebe summer at Culver talking with my cousin about how things were going to be at camp. Unsurprisingly, our predictions centered largely around "getting rank" and then being able to boss people around and wear medals on our uniforms (we had no idea that rank is simply given when you return to camp as opposed to something you earn at the time though we found out soon enough to our horror ).

My plebe summer, whether I was cleaning my room, polishing my shoes, competing in an athletic event, or trying to get to class on time, in the back of my mind there was always that goal of earning a good rank at the end of the summer. It was a large motivator for me. The same was true of my second and first class summers as well, even more so actually as I was then vying for actual positions in the company. For example my second summer at Culver I wanted to be FPO quite badly and did everything and anything I could think of to try and impress the counselors enough to give me a shot at the position.

For me Rank was a big part of my thinking during a camp, AND a bit part of why I came back to camp all three summers. I wanted another crack at the the system and I suppose had always left at the end of the previous summers fairly pleased with how I’d done that summer rankwise.

Anyway, Rank is the topic of the week. We’ve got a new Poll up on the front page and a new thread in Main Guard where we can discuss this out. Here’s what I would like to hear from everyone out there:

1) How important was rank in your decisions to either come back or not come back to camp?

2) How central was rank to your Culver experience?

All other comments on the topic are of course welcomed!

The thread is HERE.

Last week’s discussion about uniform wear conitnues…with some great arguments being made both for and against stricter uniform policy enforcement. The poll so far after a week was 57/43 in favor of stricter enforcement. Could change though. You’re all welcome to vote ever after the week is up, Just click on the "Poll Archive" link.