Prospective Senior Member with some questions!

[CACowboy]

Hey everyone, I just have a few questions for any Senior Members here coming from a prospective SM..

I'm looking to join my local Senior squadron and get involved with CAP. I've been reading up both on the official CAP site and here for some time now, getting an idea of what you guys do and are involved in, and I think it's awesome. First question is, what do Senior Members (on non-cadet squadrons) actually do and on what basis? I know the basic missions and activities you guys do, but what can I expect to be doing when I start going to meetings and getting more involved? I'd love to be involved in SAR, and especially Counter-Narcotic missions/activities (most of my buddies have gotten sucked into the drug world and it's something I feel strongly about). And how often do you meet for functions aside from the weekly meetings? I plan to drop in on my first meeting this coming Monday to get acquainted with all-things CAP, but I'd love some input beforehand!

Next question, I know about the "CAP-distinctive" uniforms for SM's, but can BDU's be worn to most functions, including meetings? I don't know about anyone else but I personally feel most comfortable in them, but I don't want to be informal or something.

Any other advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated! Looking forward to getting to know you all on here too!

[Garibaldi]

Hey everyone, I just have a few questions for any Senior Members here coming from a prospective SM..

RUN AWAY!!! Just kidding. Welcome to CAP and CAPTalk.

I'm looking to join my local Senior squadron and get involved with CAP. I've been reading up both on the official CAP site and here for some time now, getting an idea of what you guys do and are involved in, and I think it's awesome. First question is, what do Senior Members (on non-cadet squadrons) actually do and on what basis? I know the basic missions and activities you guys do, but what can I expect to be doing when I start going to meetings and getting more involved? I'd love to be involved in SAR, and especially Counter-Narcotic missions/activities (most of my buddies have gotten sucked into the drug world and it's something I feel strongly about). And how often do you meet for functions aside from the weekly meetings? I plan to drop in on my first meeting this coming Monday to get acquainted with all-things CAP, but I'd love some input beforehand!

Senior squadrons are a different animal. We have senior, cadet and composite squadrons pretty much everywhere. Having been in all three types, I can tell you that senior squadrons don't do much at the meetings, at least in my experience. We basically planned activities...well, let me back up a bit. We SUPPORTED the various units in our group, and in order to fulfill the requirements of the three missions (cadet programs, ES, and aerospace ed) we planned a multitude of activities for both cadets and senior units throughout the year. At our meetings we did various administrative tasks, mainly promotions, duty assignments, and whatnot. We were basically concerned with our support functions. Your senior unit may have different tasking and outlook, especially if you have an airplane or access to one. You may find yourself immersed in a lot of training in addition to admin functions if they are that into it. Most hard-core training is done on the weekends, though.

Next question, I know about the "CAP-distinctive" uniforms for SM's, but can BDU's be worn to most functions, including meetings? I don't know about anyone else but I personally feel most comfortable in them, but I don't want to be informal or something.

As long as you conform to height and weight standards, you can wear BDUs to most functions or meetings where it would be impractical to wear blues or grey/whites. Your unit commander should announce what uniform to wear for the next week. Usually, and again this is my experience, blues are worn the first meeting of the month, then either the polo/grey trousers or BDUs for the rest of the month.

Any other advice/suggestions are greatly appreciated! Looking forward to getting to know you all on here too!

Again...RUN AWAY!!!!

[CACowboy]

Hey hey, the only "running away" you need to do is for those god-awful posts that start with those terrifying letters 'ACU'   

Anyways, thanks for the info! So would it be better to look into a cadet-involved squadron then, if I want to be involved in the missions/functions like what I mentioned? I'm not looking to fly anything, but I'm definitely interested in being an observer/scanner. What does ground team do exactly, ground support for pilot/scanners?

[Garibaldi]

Hey hey, the only "running away" you need to do is for those god-awful posts that start with those terrifying letters 'ACU'   

Anyways, thanks for the info! So would it be better to look into a cadet-involved squadron then, if I want to be involved in the missions/functions like what I mentioned? I'm not looking to fly anything, but I'm definitely interested in being an observer/scanner. What does ground team do exactly, ground support for pilot/scanners?

It's really up to you what you want to do. If there is a nearby cadet or composite squadron then look into it but don't go far out of your way for a two hour meeting once a week. You can easily do scanner/mission observer in any unit that has access to a plane. If supporting cadets and molding them into "dynamic Americans and aerospace leaders" interests you, then yeah, but they do about as much mission related things as a senior unit.

Ground teams can act independently of an aircraft and vice versa; in fact, a lot of missions wind up being aircrew only or ground team only. Obviously, if an aircrew locates an area where there might be a crash, they can't land and check it out, so that's where a ground team comes in. Simplistically speaking, if you REALLY want to get into Emergency Services, I'd recommend cross training. That way you get a better understanding of the whole mission, which is what I'm trying to get done in our unit. Most of our pilots don't want to pound the ground but in order to get them to understand that what looks easy from the air really isn't going to be a picnic on foot, they need that two-dimensional perspective. Then there's all kinds of tasking from Homeland Security and DEA and occasionally Border Patrol, but that is all done from the air and is passive only; we just report things for the most part.

[Private Investigator]

Next question, I know about the "CAP-distinctive" uniforms for SM's, but can BDU's be worn to most functions, including meetings? I don't know about anyone else but I personally feel most comfortable in them, but I don't want to be informal or something.

Go to three meetings and actually go to diffeent Squadrons and see what you like. The Senior Squadrons tend to have a plane and the majority is pilots. The Senior Squadrons I have been in and visited you never see BDUs. The majority will be in polo shirts and gray slacks and a few will be in USAF blues.

In most places in CA the units tend to be close enough to compare them. Like SQ "A" meets weekly and have an agenda for each meeting. SQ "B" may meet weekly and the first meeting of the month may have the safety brief and a aerospace topic and the other meetings is just socializing and talking about $100 hamburgers. SQ "C" may only meet once a month for an hour. So each unit varies greatly and you will have to see where you fit best.

The most important thing is having fun.