The Wisconsin Basic School provides a high-caliber first-year encampment experience to cadets. The Basic School is required for all first-year attendees. Basic School students are organized into flights. Each flight is lead by a two-person leadership team which is made of experienced CAP cadets who have previously graduated from encampment. Additionally, each flight has an adult leader attached to it who provides mentoring and guidance to the cadet leadership team.
Flights are made of first year students and are intentionally designed to ensure a mix of ages, squadrons, genders. Siblings from the same family will not be assigned to the same flight. Flights live together in dorms (though genders are separated into separate buildings) and will train, eat, work, and experience together.
Basic School students follow a curriculum established by the United States Air Force’s Holm Center, that is supplemented by experiential and hands-on learning experiences. The focus of the Basic School is experiencing Air Force life up close and in person.