December 1996 For the NJW ES Community Vol 2 No. 4


Dates to Remember

15 Dec 96 Train the Trainer 0900 WHQ

4 Jan 97 ARC 1st Aid 0900 WHQ

5 Jan ARC CPR for Prof Rescuer

11-12 Jan Responding to Emergencies

19 Jan ES Academy Meeting 1000 WHQ

3 Feb Tabletop SAREX & MC Meeting WHQ

9 Feb GSAR Staff Review Bd. 1100 WHQ

2 Mar GSAR Staff Meeting - @ Conf.

16 Mar SAREX - Millville Apt.

22 Mar GSAR Staff Meeting

4-6 Apr Spring GSAR#1 - Ft Dix

11-13 Apr Spring GSAR#2 - Ft. Dix

25-27 Apr Spring GSAR#3 - Ft Dix

10,11 May Spring GSAR Makeup

16-18 May Tracking School - Wharton Forest

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Qualification StatisticsActiveTrainees
Mission Coordinators82
Mission Pilots261
Observers637
Ground Leaders502
Ground Members116?
Information222
General ES328 -

These numbers represent the great work that is being done in the field. Even with our substantial expansion in membership, we are maintaining about 33% ES qualification, and about 50% of the active membership. This year has seen outstanding growth in the number of qualified ground team leaders and members. We have held steady on the number of pilots, and a small increase in the number of observers.

We still need Mission Coordinators in a big way. Please encourage anyone interested in mission management to pursue taking up training for these jobs. A prerequisite for Mission Coordinator is that the candidate is qualified in both air crew and ground specialties.

Mission Statistics Jan 1996 to date

AFRCC Missions
Overdue A/C -2
ELT/EPIRB - 98
Lost Person - 1
State/County Missions -
Oil Fire - 1
Oil Spill - 2
Lost Person - 1
Blizzard - 1
SAREX and GSAR - 7
Red Cross Missions - 2
Military Support - 2

This is believed to be an all time record.

Operation Bluelight 96

Forty-nine CAP members from New Jersey and Pennsylvania Wings assisted more than twenty units from all branches of the Military Reserve and National Guard in the Joint Training exercise OPERATION BLUELIGHT 96. The exercise began on Friday 1 November 1996 and continued through Sunday 3 November.

BLUELIGHT is one of two annual exercises brought together by the Joint Training Task Force 1 (JTTF1) to prepare our reserve and guard forces using joint exercises to provide low cost, high fidelity training that simulates likely mission scenarios.

BLUELIGHT 96 focused upon the defense and evacuation of an "Embassy" on Fort Dix, a convoy of the evacuees through the countryside to a safe house, helicopter evacuation, and medical treatment of the casualties. Additional training in search and rescue, reconnaissance, base and perimeter security, assault, infiltration, and air cover was conducted at the Air Force's Warren Grove Range.

CAP provided communications for the JTTF1 controllers or referees, "Embassy" Radio, a safety network, and for the Naval Weather unit.

New Alert Plan

A new alert plan has been approved and published. Hopefully, the new plan will have ironed out a few quirks in getting the word out to everyone in a large mission. The plan will improve the span of control for Group Commanders now that there are three groups. To summarize, for small missions mission pilots and ground team leaders will be contacted directly to form crews. For larger missions, the Group commanders will alert the unit commanders, who will alert their units. The Wing Chief of Staff is responsible for alerting wing staff members. There are copies of the plan for all commanders, MC's, MP's, and GTL's today. Please pick up enough for your people.

ES Training Plan

New Jersey Wing has also developed and approved a training plan. The plan establishes the ES Academy as a permanent wing activity. It places the responsibility for ES initial qualification training on the Academy, and places the responsibility for OJT and preparatory training on the units. Copies of the training plan are available for commanders.

ES Department Staff Changes

Cadet Captain Laura MacAllister has joined the Emergency Services department on an additional duty basis. She will be helping with processing of mission reports and reimbursements, and will be assisting with the monumental conversion in Comm. from ROP to ROA cards.

Congratulations to Search and Rescue Officer Karen Maneely on her promotion to Captain.

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

Applications for positions on wing staff should be forwarded to NJW/CS LtCol. Alex for processing.

NASAR Team Membership

NASAR is changing its membership grades. NJ Wing will provide membership in NASAR for all Mission Coordinators, and Mission Pilots who are active and current. CAP members who hold any advanced specialty CAPF-101 card are also eligible for membership in the National Association for Search and Rescue. Send $5 with a note requesting to be on the list to LtCol Schober by 1 February.

Training

The Emergency Services Academy has been busy on plans for the spring, summer and advanced GSAR schools.

Commanders for the 1997 year have been assigned, 1st Lt. Strupczewski will command Spring School, with the able assistance of Capt. Maneely. 1st Lt. George Cheever will command Advanced School Announcements for spring school will be mailed right after Christmas.

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.

World Wide Web

ES department will have updates on the New Jersey Wing web page at:

"http://www.tsa.net/cap"