For the un-initiated, NESA stands for the National Emergency Services Academy, a two-week CAP activity hosted in Indiana. NESA currently includes 3 sets of courses,
NGSAR,
MBSS and
MAS.
NGSAR is the most well-known (and oldest of the 3 schools) and has 3 sections, Basic GSAR, Advanced GSAR, and the Team Leader Course. If you want to get your GTM-* in the shortest time possible check out one of the weeks of Basic GSAR.
MBSS was added in 1999 and focuses on mission management and the Incident Command System (ICS). Like the GSAR schools, MBSS has basic and advanced courses. Typically, you need to attend the basic course before applying for the advanced course, unless you have prior experience. I attended MBSS in 2000 and learned a lot about ICS, since my CAP was slowly converting to it and my wing hadn't picked it up, yet. Definitely a course to attend if you want to work in a mission base. Note: this has been renamed to the Incident Command System School, but it hasn't really caught on, yet. ;)
Well, honestly, I don't know much about MAS since their classes and activities don't take place around the rest of NESA. But, if you want to learn from some of the best Mission Pilots and Observers in CAP, consider attending MAS. (Note, there are only two courses, Mission Pilot Track, and Mission Observer Track)
Any apply for NESA 2005? (or care to correct any mis-facts in my post? ;) )
cost and other info are at http://www.homestead.com/ngsar/airsar.html for MAS... there's an email link for the MAS Commandant. I'd email him and ask how long he'll accept applications.
NGSAR is known for accepting applications pretty late, but I dunno about MAS. It's worth a try.