Need Advice

[TEAM SURGE]

I have been planning a weekend survival training in my home town. For all CAP cadets. I have been working on my Ops plan for a while, and I am stuck! I need your advice on what should be taught at an activity like this.

So I have.

-Proper Fire Building
-Proper Shelter Building
-Radio communication
-Clean water techniques.

If you have any ideas please be in contact. Give me opinions and ideas!

All thoughts are welcome

[Stonewall]

See the attached operations order.

Also, here is a schedule that I used in the past for a winter survival weekend:

Sat, 27 Dec 03
0900  Sign-in, briefing (safety, equipment, food, physical demands), assign teams to Team Leaders
0930  Show down inspection (team leaders to conduct this, observed by staff)
1015  Movement to Training Area
1045  Drop off at landfill for road march to TA-9 Command Post (Zager/ M. McIntosh)
1130  Set up tents (led by Team Leaders, observed by staff)
1200  Chow
1230  Land navigation course (Culpepper, led by Team Leaders)
1430  Survival shelter class (Batten)
1630  Fire building class (M. McIntosh)
1730  Chow
1830  Pre-SAR Inspection (conducted by TL's, observed by staff)
1900  Night land navigation (Bowden, led by Team Leaders)
2100  Refit, prep for next day's operation (Team Leaders to conduct, observed by Zager/ M. McIntosh)
2130  AAR, R&R, Fire (Zager/ M. McIntosh)
2300  Lights out, fire guard (radio watch) initiated at 30-minute intervals (Zager)

Sun, 28 Dec 03
0700  PT Formation, light calisthenics (M. McIntosh)
0730  Chow (Zager)
0800  Optional non-denominational religious services (Ch. [Lt Col] Hoffmann)
0830  Round Robin tasks (Land Navigation [2-person teams]/ Missing Person Search/ Electronic Search)
          ~ Chow to be eaten in the field, time to be determined by Team Leaders
          ~ Senior staff will be assigned a single evolution for the duration
1430  Refit, prepare for movement (Team Leaders to conduct, observed by Zager/ M. McIntosh)
1500  Movement to T8 training site for shelter set-up (fire and chow to take place)
1800  Movement back to T9 training site (individual teams depart separately)
1900  Refit
1930  AAR, R&R, Fire (Zager/ M. McIntosh)
2230  Lights out, fire guard (radio watch) initiated at 30-minute intervals (Zager)

Mon, 29 Dec 03
0700  PT Formation, light calisthenics (Zager)
0730  Chow (M. McIntosh)
0815  Gear class (Bowden)
0915  Clear TA, everything gets taken down (Zager)
1015  Road march to pick up point (M. McIntosh)
1100  Movement to Davison AAF Bldg 3123 (Bowden/ Culpepper)
1130  WINTEX AAR
1200  Release

[PlaneFlyr]

The first thing I'd do is review the member's SQTR's for UDF, GT3, etc. to see what tasks the majority of them need.  That will give you  a good starting point, while minimizing redundancy.

If you have anyone working toward higher ratings, especially GTL, make sure to have them plan and run a lot of the activities to reinforce the leadership aspect (and to make your life a bit easier so it's not all on you).

I always try to include good survival skills during any overnight activity.  Campsite selection and setup, firebuilding methods, teach about acquiring and preparing food/water.  Some of the items are SQTR requirements, but I try to teach extra material too.  

I also try to do a few night-specific training activities: night navigation, celestial navigation, etc.

Don't forget to contact wing HQ to get a mission number for the event.  I've seen many local units, holding a local activity fail to do this.  Usually they aren't seeking funding, so they don't think it's worth the effort.  But if someone gets injured, having an assigned mission number will ensure they have proper insurance coverage.  

[SJFedor]

I have been planning a weekend survival training in my home town. For all CAP cadets. I have been working on my Ops plan for a while, and I am stuck! I need your advice on what should be taught at an activity like this.

So I have.

-Proper Fire Building
-Proper Shelter Building
-Radio communication
-Clean water techniques.

If you have any ideas please be in contact. Give me opinions and ideas!

All thoughts are welcome

I'd also highly recommend having a Paramedic or other experienced pre-hospital medical professional come out and give a briefing on wilderness first aid/self aid.

But like what Planeflyr said, try to tailor the needs of your people to the training you're holding. That way, they can get the most out of it.

[Angus]

I have been planning a weekend survival training in my home town. For all CAP cadets. I have been working on my Ops plan for a while, and I am stuck! I need your advice on what should be taught at an activity like this.

So I have.

-Proper Fire Building
-Proper Shelter Building
-Radio communication
-Clean water techniques.

If you have any ideas please be in contact. Give me opinions and ideas!

All thoughts are welcome

I'd also highly recommend having a Paramedic or other experienced pre-hospital medical professional come out and give a briefing on wilderness first aid/self aid.

But like what Planeflyr said, try to tailor the needs of your people to the training you're holding. That way, they can get the most out of it.

While that's a good idea, I'd even have that person come out either day one right at the top or have them do that class before you get there.

[Major Lord]

Its very important to determine what kind of "survival" training you intend to offer. Are you talking about Wilderness Survival, Cold Weather survival, Disaster Recovery,  E & E (don't even think about it!) or survival specifically related to Air and Ground team wilderness survival? If your plan is to make it about how to handle a mission gone bad, your above criteria is pretty fair. Add signalling and you are about there. Field hygiene sounds stupid, but people die on wilderness activities because they won't use, to put it delicately, the "bathroom" . I am sure many people who have staffed encampments will have seen the Cadets who are away from home for the first time, and won't shower or use public toilets.....they self-destruct rapidly.

With the CAWG Cadet Survival Course, we chose to focus on creating the mindset for survival, rather than focus on the specific wilderness skills traditionally taught in the survival training.  There is so muct to say about survival as a whole, that we have a hard time keeping the medical people from turning it into 10 days of wilderness medicine and basic first aid. The problem in these courses is not what to include, s much as what to exclude given the time limitations of your course.

Make double dog sure that your OPLAN includes extensive safety information, including how you will handle emergencies, safety briefing,  local emergency medical faciltities and contact info, parental contacts, and make sure you have the Wing Safety guys phone on your speed dial to report boo-boo's and owies before they hit the local news! ( "CAP cadets seriously burned in Marshmellow/ chocolate incident! Film at 11:00!) Find a safety officer, not one of the bedwetter types if you follow me here.....

Good luck, be safe, have fun, and don't drink untreated water in the field.

Major Lord
CAWG Cadet Survival School
Chief Tactical Officer

[TEAM SURGE]

I am thinkin maybe some E & E

[TEAM SURGE]

Thanks for the replies so far. I have wrote this down. I have talked to one of my teachers who is going to help train with his navigation systems.

For the food. Would you have the cadets bring their own food or try to supply it? I would make this activity free, if I have to supply food, I may have to charge. What would you say?

I need to find my old password to get on my GES SQRT's. I still need quite a bit of stuff to be qualified for ground team.

[notaNCO forever]

 It's much easier to have everyone bring their own food. If you have all the proper things to be able to prepare the food an clean up it might be worth providing the food.

[Stonewall]

For the food. Would you have the cadets bring their own food or try to supply it? I would make this activity free, if I have to supply food, I may have to charge. What would you say?

I am trying to teach this lesson right now.  BRING YOUR OWN FOOD!  You can create a logistical and financial nightmare by trying to supply and charge for food.

This is ground team training, ground team members bring their own food.  Let them start figuring out what works best from the start.  You set the standard of having food available and they'll start expecting it.

A cadet in my squadron is planning an GT weekend that takes place in a couple of weeks and he's charging money for food.  Now, instead of concentrating on training, he'll be distracted and delayed trying to worry about feeding people. 

[jimmydeanno]

The great thing about the survival training is that if they run out of their own food you can give them a rock and a stick and tell them to find their food

[chiles]

Don't forget medical mitigation. All it means is identifying ways to prevent and reduce the effect of common illness and injuries. No need to start making an effort to reduce your sunburn and dehydration until you are actually sunburnt and dehydrated! I have a course written if you want to use it.

[gistek]

Have them bring their own food. This will give them experience with what works and what doesn't work for the 72 hour pack.

One recommendation I have is for the "hot meal" have them bring a pop-top canned meal. Pop the top a little to let the steam out and set the cans in the coal fire to heat while the campsite is being prepped for night. Once the cans are hot, use gloves to remove them and open the tops the rest of the way to eat.

I also recommend having cadets bring disposable utensils. Yes, they're a pack-in-pack-out item, but it's a lot better health wise than what most cadets think "washing dishes" means.

You can also bring food that they can buy if they find they didn't bring enough or something's gone wrong (spilled, burned, etc) with what they brought. This will help them learn to plan what to bring. Same goes for other camping items. It's generally better to charge at least a little for these items than just give them away.

Also, look at the level of campers you're working with. Make sure the total neophytes are assigned more experienced mentors ahead of the camp out to help them make sure they have the basics.

[TEAM SURGE]

Don't forget medical mitigation. All it means is identifying ways to prevent and reduce the effect of common illness and injuries. No need to start making an effort to reduce your sunburn and dehydration until you are actually sunburnt and dehydrated! I have a course written if you want to use it.

I would like to use that. Thanks!

[PlaneFlyr]

I always make people bring their own food.   But I usually will bring a couple extra MRE's so the newby who inevitably forgets that he needs to eat while packing doesn't go hungry. 

Depending on how deep you want to get with survival training, you could set up some snares/traps early in the training, and check on them occasionally.  You might just get lucky and catch some fresh meat.  It'd be a good lesson on both catching and preparing the food.  (Make sure: 1) you know how to do this, 2) that you aren't violating some law by doing this without a hunting/trapping permit (check with a legal officer for this) and 3) that you take down all of your traps/snares before you leave). 

[Angus]

Right now I wouldn't focus on using the MRE's as a lot of them have been recalled because of the Peanut Butter.  In the mean time I'd use the ready made meals from stores such as the rice, tuna, and prepackaged chicken that is already cooked.

[TEAM SURGE]

Well on the packing list I will put three days worth of food, for the field.

Canned Food(With pull top)
MRE's
Other ready to eat meals.