September 1996

For the NJW ES Community

Vol 2 No. 3

Operation Bluelight 96

Northeast Region members are once again invited by New Jersey Wing to support National Guard and Reserve Joint Training. Operation Bluelight will involve the assault on an "Embassy" by rebel forces in a "small foreign country". CAP will provide communications for the mission management staff, safety and weather networks on for the three day weekend exercise.

CAP will also roleplay as members of the "Host Country Police" and "Host Country Air Force" and as civilians. The "police" and civilians will interact with the troops in the "evacuation of the Embassy staff." Two SAR sorties will be flown to locate a helicopter that was "shot down" so that special forces can evacuate the occupants to safety.

Blue Light Special

Some members have complained about supposed abuses of blue lights on vehicles. Only three specific instances have been brought to the attention of the Emergency Services department in the past two years. One, the installation of lights larger than permitted on one member's vehicle, and two cases of the use of blue lights by members who both misused them and were not qualified to be issued authorizations on behalf of CAP. (The individuals are members of a local ambulance squad.)

Blue lights provide a useful and desirable function. They enhance safety when it is necessary to stop near a roadway, when a vehicle may be required to stop and back during a search, and assures passers by that search teams are on an official mission and not miscreants. They are useful in night air to ground coordination as an excellent device to spot the location of the ground team.

A policy letter on the use of vehicular flashing lights has been issued to help deliniate the times when blue light use is desirable and authorized. Blue lights are not permitted on CAP corporate vehicles under NJ State law. If you want to participate, it is time to get qualified. Without training, CAP members are limited in value on a mission.

ES Department Staff Changes

Captain Teri Clinch has moved to Tinker AFB. Her assistance this summer and for the past two years has been invaluable. You have Teri to thank for processing your mission reimbursements, and furthering training in the Wing. A great big thank you to Teri. We will all miss you and wish you the best in OK Wing.

The ES department is still needs a Disaster Preparedness Officer. This job requires interfacing with the Office of Emergency Management at the State and County levels to work out new Memorandums of Understanding and to get us new missions. It takes a person who likes to work with people in the Emergency Management field and can present the CAP story well. This job would ideally be filled with someone who can spend some time in the window of Monday-Friday 9-5, since then is when these folks normally work.

The ES department also needs additional help in processing missions and CAPF-101 cards. It takes some training to effectively do this job, so unfortunately coming in for a "one shot" assist can't work too well. If you know of anyone who is a whiz at math, or can memorize CAPF50-15 who would like to join the ES team, please let them know that we need the help.

Applications for both positions should be forwarded to NJW/CS LtCol. Alex for processing.

NASAR Team Membership

CAP members who hold any advanced specialty CAPF-101 card are eligible for Team membership in the National Association for Search And Rescue. The team membership dues are $25, and should be sent with a letter to:

Training

The Emergency Services Academy has been busy with both an advanced and basic GSAR school this summer. Commanders for the 1997 year have been assigned, 1st Lt Maneely for Spring School, 1st Lt Strupczewski for Basic Summer School and 1st Lt George Cheever for Advanced School and announcements are getting out WAAY in advance this year.

There is a new Tracking School - to be held as a series of weekends, designed so that students come back until they have achieved tracking competency, and gain the rating of tracker. The school uses the techniques of indian tracking, merged with specialized techniques taken from Army Ranger School. The Commander of this school is C/LtCol Jess Hamilton. Jess has demonstrated an amazing level of competency in both the art of tracking and in the ability to teach the skills. He has authored a booklet on the subject that will be used as a text for the course.

Mission Coordinators and Mission Staff

New Jersey Wing continues to have a shortfall in qualified mission coordinators. Please encourage anyone who has an interest in mission management to pursue taking up training for this job. As a prerequesite it requires that the candidate be qualified in both air crew specialties and ground specialties to train.

New Video Equipment

National HQ has developed a system to transmit still pictures from a video camera over hundreds of miles from an aircraft to a mission base using regular CAP radios. We have requested that NJ Wing be put early on the list for distribution of the equipment.