While the CAP sounds like fun and provides a valuable service, I've
heard from people who've tried it that there's a lot of military wannabes,
politics, and things that take away the enjoyment. Is this common, or
just the situation at some units?


That's very common. When you spend more time doing useless paperwork and
silly training classes than flying its very discouraging. The actual flying
and SAR mission training is great.