CAP Cadets & Seniors Directing Parking Traffic & Providing Security??

[alamrcn]

I hear ya.

I just think that uncommen sense (formerly common sense) would have led the CAP members receiving the request would have read "security" and expected duties like gate watching, car parking, flight line walking, and ... er humm... crowd obediance training. Not, "get yur gun and mount up - the Sheriff needs us!"

I remember as a cadet having to learn [at least] the first four general orders of the sentry at encampment, and the Lead Lab telling us how to man a post - "Advance to be recognised" and all that along with Officer of the Day and such. Being on CQ and Fire Watch during SAREx's was a pretty cool job!

-Ace

[NIN]

Having done all of the above (well, OK, not bag searches and wanding of people)....

I didn't see the original article about CAP in Detroit, but considering that I grew up in Detroit as a cadet, I can tell you that "car parkings" are a very serious funding venue for CAP units in that area.  My old group in the 1980s had a standing deal with the county park for car parkings during the many festivals run over the summer. Each unit got 2-3 car parkings a summer, at about $250 or $500 a weekend (mind you, this was 1982...), and it was merely "Keep people from coming in the back entrance and screwing things up, keep traffic moving, get them parked in orderly rows, and point them the right way toward the exit at the end.."   I got to see Journey once, from the side of the stage, due to that..

Were we exposed to too many people smoking dope and drinking? Yeah, probably.  And I nearly had a Buick take my shins out once.     But on the whole, these were great command and control exercises, super weekend activities, fundraisers for the units, and good direct hands-on leadership time for the cadet officers and NCOs. 

I'm thinking. My old unit did 1-2 Freedom Hill gigs per summer, one or two which were "joint" activities with other squadrons of the group, we did the Warren City Fair, the St. Anne's Sausage Festival (no comment) and that was about it.  That was _all_ the fundraising we did for the entire year.  One long week, and three weekends.

Later, in 1990s, my unit did the so-called "Art & Apples" fair in Rochester, MI, as another fundraiser. Weekend bivouac at the site, during the day we handled parking details for the vendors and volunteers (attendees parked out in the town) and helped with coordinating things, communications, etc.  At night, we had "roving patrols" of cadets in the park that watched for people vandalizing the vendor tents, etc.   At no time were we tasked to do real "security."  If we saw something, we called it in on our radios and the CP called it into the PD.  The police dept's building sat on one side of this park, so the incidence of run-ins were pretty small.   I think we got $1000 or $1200 for that weekend.  Again, a pretty good fundraiser, and the "security" aspect of the event was no more "security" than the standard "crash scene security" that you're taught for SAR/ES.

When I moved to NH, we did parking (strictly "in the lot pointing people to spaces") detail for the NASCAR races at NHIS.  $7 per person per hour is what the squadron got "paid." They did this for all manner of non-profit outfits like sports boosters, boy scouts, etc.  We took 2 van loads of people once (about 25 in all) and our own radios, everybody in civilian clothes with our own vests, wands, flashlights, etc.  The lot supervisor didn't know what to do that she didn't have to do anything but lean on the trunk of her car and smoke cigarettes.   We ran that set of parking lots like a swiss watch and by noon had parked about 5,000 cars.  0530-1330 on one day and 0430 to about 1400 on race day. You do the math ($7/hr x 8 x 25 for the one, and $7/hr x 10 x 25 for the other day), that's a TON of money.   In later years, the racetrack required everybody to be over 16, and now they demand a signed contract with performance/non-performance clauses (that our previous wing commander wouldn't sign), so we actually do this detail as a subset of the boy scouts (who call us when they have less numbers than they expect... they give us the $7/hr/person, and we help them meet their performance clause) instead of full-up as CAP.

Its a valid way to earn money for your unit.  We just cashed a check for $1,700 for our last trip to the races. And we're doing it again in Sept.

Now, can there be problems? You bet your bippy! 

I was in the parking lot at the Warren City Fair once, about 1991 or 1992, when I heard this gawdawful row from the vendor entrance about 50 yards away. I ran over there to find C/Lt Col Aubrey Pakenas (now Aubrey Heusser) nearly straddling the corner of the front bumper of a mini van, leaning across the hood with her finger pointed in the driver's face shouting "WHEN I TELL YOU TO STOP, IT MEANS STOP, NOT RUN ME OVER!"  Apparently a woman who felt she was entitled to a vendor spot without the appropriate credentials decided that the little girl in that green uniform and the orange vest wasn't really signaling her to stop and that she'd get out of the way with a mini-van bearing down on her.  Well... you gotta know Aubrey.. she wasn't putting up with any of that crap, lemme tell you...   She was bound and determined to be a hood ornament on this woman's car.

So, yeah, you can occasionally have problems.  In 20-some years of doing car parkings, that was probably the worst.  Never saw anybody get hit by a car, never saw anybody get into it physically with a patron.  Now, those NASCAR fans who start drinking at 0500 in the morning....

[RiverAux]

Hmmm, one squadron somewhere in the midwest has been regularly assisting with checking identification, etc. at the entry to an Air Force Base....I forget which one, but it has received publicity and I haven't heard of them being ordered to stop either...