National Convention Notes

[UWONGO2]

Fortunate enough to attend the national conference, I figured I'd throw my notes here for those that can't make it. Warning, these are rough notes, hopefully the abuse to the English language isn't too egregious.

Board of Governors Chairperson
Said to think of them as a school board or city council. Working on oversight and "corporate level" vision planning. Added an IG to the BOG. Working on emeritus program to increase the number of SMEs available. Encouraged people to apply but warned it's very competitive.

CAP/CC
Welcome to incoming wing commanders, the most challenging yet rewording position in CAP. Thanks to outgoing wing commanders, a few misty eyes from them while they were recognized for attending their last command council meeting.

A bit of an explanation on why there will be a closed session with the command council and the BOG to discuss some sensitive topics that command council input is needed.

Push for networking for those that can't attend close sessions.

CAP/COO
140 days as COO. Thank you to national staff 150 paid, 250 volunteers. Working hard to support the command council and CAP.

CAP-USAF/CC
1993-1998 was a cadet, TNWG. Did everything he possibly could in CAP, encampments, NCSA, biovacs, flight scholarship, couldn't get enough. Heartfelt thank you to CAP leaders for what CAP did for him. Been with CAP-USAF for two months, took over command last week. Hoping to pay back to CAP for what CAP provided him.

AF/A1MR Mr. John Fedrigo   Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs
Retired security forces, current pilot, possible future CAP volunteer. Worked with CAP for the past 9 years from the MR office, visiting encampments, dining outs, conferences, flight academies. Really enjoys interaction with seniors and cadets. Sings CAP's praises at the pentagon at every opportunity. Gave the BOG the recruiting doom-and-gloom speech yesterday that he gave the command council last year where he asked for CAP's help in recruiting.

Shortly after joining MR, saw the AF re-write Air Force doctrine to include CAP as part of the total force. Congressional gold medal to CAP, hearing amazing stories from CAP members and their families. Chief of Staff's office started CAP encampment assistance program, using AF funds to support encampment (CAP then matched). Ended up overnight with $1 million to support cadets. AF expanded funding for wings program. AF then started leaning on CAP to get more involved in AF missions like the RPA chase mission. CAP covered a gap that the AF has zero capability to solve. Talked yesterday with BOG about test program in Grand Forks to have RPA pilots fly with CAP to gain airborne experience, talking about expanding that program. Countless other accomplishes of units across the nation over his past 9 years, heartfelt thank you to an "amazing organization". "Wow, I did not know what CAP was doing. I wish I would have known what they do far earlier." Works hard now to make sure as many people at the pentagon know about CAP as possible. Is retiring, will be joining as a volunteer. "I'm your biggest fan."

CAP/DO
Short time as DO, never a dull moment. New deputy for the past month, Terry Mcaffery. Reviewed historical view of flying hours by mission number. Increase in o-flights, fuel price increases is crunching the o-flight budget though. Onboarding is going well, 55% become CAP VFR, 97% are still members. Return to flight success, 86% returned to CAP VFR status, 97% are still members.

For FY23 - VFR pilot is trending up. Mission pilot is trending down.

VIRB getting replaced with GoPros. More effective for our customers. 5 year replacement cycle.

FLIR - 4 installed along the border. Push to get 10 more systems installed in the next few months. Useful life of 10-12 years. Hard decisions on where to deploy those systems. Start replacing some existing systems over the next few years.

Areonet - push from AF, also to be used with the sensor balls. Provided an example of three aircraft being able to provide coverage to Puerto Rico and USVI for live video/audio links from air & ground back to FEMA.

UAS - Need to purchase of the "blue list". Some are $20K-$30K. Wingtra latest addition. Flight is entirely pre-programmed. One per region.

Geospatial - One of CAP's biggest successes of late. Go-to resource for FEMA, recent HI fires as example. Any member can participate, including overseas units. All training is virtual, teams are virtual, no cost to CAP to perform these missions. Showed a photo of President Biden on AF1 looking at products created by the GIS team of the HI fires.

Ops Eval FY23 - Actually measures what the wings are doing, evaluating the missions the wing normally peforms. FY24 ops eval memo just recently signed. Each year has "emphasis wings" which receive the most evaluation, non-emphasis wings still get evaluated as well.

CFI development - Funding provided through Air Force Rated Diversity Initiative with FY21 & FY22 funds. Target was 14 in CY22, finished with 16 (14 powered & 2 glider). Expecting 40+ by Jan 24. They've been helping at flight academies already. Funding moved to CAP's baseline.

Cadet Wings - CAP instruction $6,344 (141 days) vs FBO instruction $16,635 (175 days). 255 total graduates. 58- CAP, 162 - FBO, 17 - Commercial in residence, 18 - AFTA. Asking for support with aircraft from the commanders.

Rated Preparation Program (RPP) - 2 sessions a year, 60 Air Force members. 288 officers, 102 enlisted so far. 6 hours in sim, 6 hours in the plane. Air Force program to help AF officers & enlisted who tested to low to get into pilot program, aftwards 69% success rate to get them selected. Columbus is the next location, looking for airplanes and vehicles.

RPA Escort - Two locations currently running this mission, other units have been approached. Warned the commanders about over-promising when it comes to this mission. Requires training, aircraft, and time commitments.

55 lives saved, fewest saves in last 10 years. No real reason, just how the year worked out. Mission count is still high.

Operation Plus Lift - met their year goal.

AF person jumped up during Q&A to tout RPA escort mission that went well in Tennessee that wasn't previously mentioned. Put the entire mission together in 30 days after the Army's plan to use their helicopters fell through when their fleet was grounded.

VAWG person asked about logistics for sUAS - no plan currently for logistics support for the aircraft, such as additional batteries, spare parts, etc. DO promised to talk with sUAS team about making the logistics tail better. Just ask for batteries as needed. Ask for props as needed, will look at allowing small stock pile of parts so missions don't stop due to battery issues, broken parts, etc.

Brig Gen Richard Dickens, Deputy Commander, First Air Force, Air Forces North and Air Forces Space
His boss coming tomorrow to hand out an award. Thank you to the volunteers, always blown away by the amazing passion of the people. Thanked the CAP-USAF team for helping make a strong program and monitoring the grant. Got to hear from a couple of cadets during the BOG meeting, really enjoys hear cadet stories, making a stronger America. From perspective of 1AF, the auxiliary missions have an unbelievable impact. 1AF talks about being ready for America's worst day, CAP is ready for their community's worst day. More than 80% of 1AF daily air tasking orders are flown by CAP. Any time there is a crisis anywhere, the first thing the 4 star asks is how can CAP help with this.

Mission Awards (one award per region)
SAR award - NYWG, NCWG, KYWG, ALWG, KSWG, AZWG, MTWG, AKWG
Disaster Relief award - CTWG, VAWG, KYWG, FLWG, KSWG, LAWG, WYWG, HIWG
Homeland Defense Award - PAWG, SCWG, WIWG, PRWG, SDWG, AZWG, COWG, NVWG
Aerospace Award - PAWG, VAWG, MIWG, FLWG, MNWG, AZWG, UTWG, CAWG
Cadet Programs Award - MEWG, VAWG, MIWG, PRWG, SDWG, LAWG, UTWG, WAWG

[etodd]

RPA Escort - Two locations currently running this mission, other units have been approached. Warned the commanders about over-promising when it comes to this mission. Requires training, aircraft, and time commitments.

I had the pleasure to fly the Syracuse Reaper mission several years ago. I was just there for one week but the program lasted 3 or more years. And yes, it was someone's full time job to schedule crews from all over the country to keep that mission going. Airfare, hotels for each crew to stay a week. Local regions cannot support it long term. It took crews from across the country. These missions are a big project.

[FlyingPig]

Any idea what FLIR systems they are using on the planes? Ive flown airplanes and helicopters extensively with FLIR in surveillance ops.  Id be curious what CAPs training program looks like.  Along with that, Ive flown the border with CAP rather extensively as well as with LE.  I remember back to what we had as a training program and Im curious how CAP is running things?

[etodd]

Any idea what FLIR systems they are using on the planes? Ive flown airplanes and helicopters extensively with FLIR in surveillance ops.  Id be curious what CAPs training program looks like.  Along with that, Ive flown the border with CAP rather extensively as well as with LE.  I remember back to what we had as a training program and Im curious how CAP is running things?

Only four now and hoping to add only ten more. So I don't expect a training program for all ES Seniors. If you happen to be in a Squadron that gets one, you'll get training for it and expect to be ready to jump when needed. So, like the cell phone program, its a very limited number of members. Don't market it to newcomers as if everyone gets to fly with Flir systems.

CAP gets more and more splintered.  Different areas have different needs. No cookie cutter solutions for all squadrons and wings. Its a good thing. Move toward even more autonomy for Wings. Let them do what works best in their areas.

[FlyingPig]

I was more just curious what model of FLIR and if they have a formal training program.

[NIN]

I was more just curious what model of FLIR and if they have a formal training program.

Not yet.

[OldGuy]

I saw almost nothing in any press. Where was the PAO staff?

[etodd]

I saw almost nothing in any press. Where was the PAO staff?

PAOs can send out a multitude of Press Releases. Its up to media to decide if they want to use it. CAP Convention is  soft news. Back page stuff when space allows.

[Holding Pattern]

I saw almost nothing in any press. Where was the PAO staff?

PAOs can send out a multitude of Press Releases. Its up to media to decide if they want to use it. CAP Convention is  soft news. Back page stuff when space allows.

There didn't seem to be any notable PAO presence that I saw.

[CrayonEater]

Was anything mentioned about the National Cadet Competition going away?

[SARDOC]

Was anything mentioned about the National Cadet Competition going away?

It wasn't mentioned at the National Conference, there was discussion at the CSAG level about it, but I think that's where they made the decision to not continue the National Cadet Competition.  The Region Competitions are going to be the top level moving forward.