Poor PIO work on oil spill mission

[RiverAux]

I've got to say that I'm disappointed with CAP's public information operations in regards to the Gulf oil spill.  Other than the daily statistical update (which is a very good practice), very few press releases have gone out (or if they have gone out, very few were submitted to NHQ and placed on the CAPVolunteer page).  My news alerts have caught very few CAP oil spill articles, another sign of very little PAO work.   

Are we repeating our mistakes of Katrina and operating a major mission with no coordinated PIO effort?  We're talking about over 600 hours of flying here - it doesn't get much bigger than that for CAP. 

What is happening at the state level?  A quick review of the web sites for the affected Wings found very little oil spill news.  LA Wing has a notice about daily flights and a link that media can use to find out more info (kudos).  MS and FL Wings each have one press release from early May and Alabama and Texas don't seem to have anything.  Southeast and Southwest regions have nothing obvious.  Anything over at CAP-USAF's place at the Holm Center?  Nope. 

We are apparently running multiple mission bases (again like Katrina) and I wonder how many have a PIO working at them?   

We're talking about a multi-region mission with potential national prominence and this is all we're doing? 

Granted, we're a tiny little part of what is going on, but I'm sure that CAP members from the impacted states are coming from all over their states and press releases should be going out in their hometowns when they leave and when they come back.  TV crews should be at the airports watching them fly away.  A PIO at the base should be sending back releases to their home towns while they're  there. 

And, of course, as always I despair of CAP being mentioned in a future history of the AF response to this disaster.  Do we have any historians working on this mission?   Conducting historical interviews with participants? 

I'm sure that there are PIOs around the country that would jump at the chance to spend some time down at these bases working on these issues.  Has a call gone out for PIO assistance?  They obviously need it. 

Sorry for the rant, but this is an opportunity that only comes along every once in a while and we appear to be letting it go to waste. 



http://www.capvolunteernow.com/highprofile_missions//gulf_oil_response/

[Al Sayre]

Unfortunately,  they are very limited by the customer(s) as to what they can put out.  It's a  source of frustration for all of us.

[Smithsonia]

^^^^^^
What?
There is an opsec issue and their trying to keep the Gulf Oil spill out of the news? Well, that's working good too!!!

[Al Sayre]

CAP is not the IC on this mission.  ALL press releases must go through the CAP IC, Mission IC, Mission PIO, Joint Information Center, etc. etc. for approval before it can be released.  Our press releases are very low on the priority list, so with all the vetting by the customers, not a lot gets out.

[Smithsonia]

Here's the PIO issue in a tar ball.
1. Keeping information out of view means - it looks like nothing is being done and insipid rumor replaces facts.
2. All good works, every fish and duck cleaned, every photo of dirty boom picked up , every sweaty yellow suited beach cleaner, every thing and everybody: Should be made available to the media (or at least a representative telling the individual story about what is being done here and now). WHY? BECAUSE IT MAKES MOMENTUM FOR YOUR (OUR) (THE MISSION's) SIDE OF THE STORY. And that crowds out the complaining, suffering, hard case, poor response stories.
3. In a large unwieldy complicated story like this. Important public information goes first. Which beaches will cause oily residue, which fishing grounds are closed, which are open, where the oil is going, when will the next attempt be to plug the well, how much oil is leaking today. For the most part that is NEED TO KNOW public information.
4. But second and right behind the NEED TO KNOW... is the WANT to know information. Who will defend the beach? How will they defend the wildlife? How long it takes to clean a pelican? AND who is keeping track of the spill drift... Oh that might be CAPs story.

To all PIOs, ICs, JIC staff.
Pull your heads out of the holes and get on the story. OR watch the story get on you. Yick! Yick! Yick!

This is Public Information 101. I can tell you from working in crisis management for 30 years, 43 years in the media, and on the Exxon Valdez story for 18 weeks... this is the way to go. Be proactive. Be honest. Do good work. Otherwise lies grow faster than the oil drifts.

[RiverAux]

CAP is not the IC on this mission.  ALL press releases must go through the CAP IC, Mission IC, Mission PIO, Joint Information Center, etc. etc. for approval before it can be released.  Our press releases are very low on the priority list, so with all the vetting by the customers, not a lot gets out.

Al, thats understood, but what it illustrates is that the process is messed up bad.  This needs to be a high priority for CAP to get straightened out.  Is there a JIC?  Are CAP members there?  Someone needs to be working this issue hard.  Your comments reinforce my view that we learned nothing from Katrina, another massively missed public affairs opportunity. 

[Smithsonia]

Here's a near perfect Oil Spill Process snap shot. CAP can do the same... of course once approved by the IC.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10375350.stm

Think of these kinds of journalistic pieces more CSI and less Law and Order. Giving people a behind the scenes look and
providing confidence that the job can be done - it supplants the natural daily anxiety. The concept is called story-forming.

It is a thing that we should do more of...

[coudano]

on the other hand the pi in fosset was pretty high strung...
no PI is better than bad PI...

[Smithsonia]

FEMA External Affairs/Coast Guard and CAP are set up for short events. Hurricanes are 2 week events. Tornadoes are 3days, Snow storms are a week, earthquakes are a week, etc. This is more like a war. This is more like a political campaign. This rolls out daily. The days roll on for months. The energy and attention exhausts ICs, staffs, and PIOs.

So instead of getting public need to know advisories exclusively. You need to work on yellow, red, and blue stories.

Yellow is the daily advisory about topical operations and Public Information. It's day to day information.
Red is vital like the capping of the well. There's a hurricane coming. Somebody got killed. Timely on-target and big news.
Blue is straight backgrounders. Process and coverage of the hard working - get it done boys and girls. It is character driven. It has people cussing and celebrating. People sweating and working hard. It is Ernie Pyle type reporting.

You need to do all three. You need to keep a score board. You need this PIO ops board to move stories from Yellow to Blue. When a red hits you need people who can pick up the slack and join in that item. It isn't actually all that tough to manage if you know what you are doing.

CNN's Anderson Cooper is going off on the lack of transparency and lack of communication professionalism right now. There is a better way to do it.

To do this the other way there must be confidence in the PIO staff. SO they know your work and trust your judgement. This is yet another reason to cross train and teach advanced skills.
This is another reason that we should work with FEMA, Coast Guard, State Emergency Directors. Also tribal knowlege is important. Find retired people who struggled through the same type incident and pick their brains dry.

Another thing is to stay fresh and keep yourself in control or you'll get McChrsytal-ed.....

Right now people are getting coverage for every hair brained idea that they bring to the IC and get no response. So it looks like there is a solution and the team isn't paying attention.

The other thing - if you get bad coverage one day. You have another story in the chamber ready to go. You will have good days and bad days. You must get on the field and be ready to play everyday.

[RiverAux]

Smithsonia is batting it out of the park on this one....

Here is an interesting perspective on Joint Information Center operations for this event that may or may not have some bearing on the lack of CAP PIO work: http://cgblog.org/2010/06/12/will-icsnims-have-to-be-rewritten-after-deepwater-horizon/

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Speaking as the director of public affairs and marketing for Florida Wing, let me say these things.

-- There are a lot of hoops any media release must jump through before it can be released. Local units must get any and all releases cleared first through my staff, then through SER/A6PA, then HQ CAP/PA. And from there, First Air Force, the Joint Information Center at Mobile and higher government authority may be/are involved. So timeliness can be an issue.

-- We're all supposed to "stay in our lanes," and we are. Releases of national interest are going to come from Maxwell AFB. My scope is whatever's within the state of Florida, and to help with releases from subordinate units. We are getting local releases approved. One, from Marco Island Sr Sq, wound up across the Internet thanks to the Fort Myers News-Press. But our perview is only what our jurisdictions are, and that's that.

-- Florida Wing is doing tasking for both the Unified Command at Mobile, Ala., and for the State of Florida, the latter of which is separate and unrelated from the federal incident command. On the face of it, if it's not part of the unified command, you'd think we can clear it ourselves, but it doesn't work that way. SER/A6PA was set up as the clearinghouse for all oil-spill incident information until the additional layers of authority were brought to bear.

Does all this mean that the CAP story isn't getting out? Depends on your point of view. The local stories are being approved. Stories of wider interest may be delayed because of workload up the food chain, and depending on how quick news organizations want to act, we might be out of luck. Them's the breaks, folks. We've promised a 24-hour response time for everything we get from subordinate units, and that's all we can promise. Everyone else is working as expediently as they can.

The nice thing is that media inquiries and releases that have no relation to the ongoing oil spill disaster are being handled as usual, and we can still crank out that stuff. So can you, wherever you are.

This disaster is a long way from being over. It could be the better part of a year before things are under control, depending on where the water carries the oil and how much oil makes land and where. Florida has the most coastline threatened here, and as CAP's largest wing, we'll be up to the task.

Salute smartly and execute professionally, folks.

[SarDragon]

The Unified Command site.

Has some interesting commentary.

[RiverAux]

Buckey, thanks for the information.

I would say that I'm not quite as concerned about national level CAP releases -- with a situation like this and considering what we're doing, I think we're looking more at the sort of special interest stories that Smithsonia discusses ("Blue" level) stuff.  I think maybe one or two of those a week would probably be sufficient and since timing of those isn't critical, a 24-hr approval process isn't any big deal. 

Local press coverage is where the money is at with a mission like this, though occasional bits in big news media are also great. 

Regarding the local releases....are they not being submitted to VolunteerNow or has NHQ made a decision to just not publish many of them?   Or do the few on the website actually represent the entire sum of the PIO work for this mission and just not much is being done?  For example, there are only two FL Wing releases on VolunteerNow. 

[Smithsonia]

^^^^^^
My posts were not made to disparage the CAP PIOs although that is part of this thread. Only to indicate a niche that is underserved by FEMA/Coast Guard/State Agencies. We should be cross trained to fall in and plug the gaps.

There are numerous people in CAP with superior experience and excellent skills. Like some of our former military and airline pilots who come to a Unified Command mission with trusted ability... we have PIOs who can do the same.

So while not specifically about CAP/PIOs-PAOs, my post is a call for a better, integrated, cross-trained, trustworthy, best practices system. There will be a next time. We should be ready, next time.

[BillB]

Buckeye.....Florida media is very aggressive. You'll find that many TV stations will find out if CAP is taking part in an activity and will send their own staff. For example the local TV station plans on covering the local Squadrons color guard when they return from National Color Guard Competition. They also have plans to cover the Wing Encampment opening day activities including an interview with a senior command line member who has local ties. Followed by generic video of the final Pass-in-Review. To date there is no CAP PAO connection.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Buckeye.....Florida media is very aggressive. You'll find that many TV stations will find out if CAP is taking part in an activity and will send their own staff. For example the local TV station plans on covering the local Squadrons color guard when they return from National Color Guard Competition. They also have plans to cover the Wing Encampment opening day activities including an interview with a senior command line member who has local ties. Followed by generic video of the final Pass-in-Review. To date there is no CAP PAO connection.

So who's the CAP contact? PM me, please -- I'd like to know more.

And yes, I know Florida media is aggressive -- I've been one of them, and I still can't get the ink out of my veins!

[RiverAux]

I would like to commend Florida Wing for the special page they've added to their web site on the oil spill response .  The only addition I might suggest would be to post some links to the FL Wing releases that have already gone out so there are a few specifics beyond the general information there.

I particularly like the link allowing folks to email the FL wing base staff for the mission.  Great idea. 

http://flwg.us/deepwater.aspx

If this page was there when I started this thread, I must have missed it and apologize for lumping FL Wing with the Wings that haven't done much.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

River, we've had that up since the first week of May, if not before. Thanks.

[RiverAux]

Decent local tv news story.  http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12814571

Points out how useless the CAP seal is on the golf shirt in so far as public affairs go.  Too much stuff that is too small to show up well on camera.  CAP command patch would be better and would be more consistent with our other markings. 

[davidsinn]

Decent local tv news story.  http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12814571

Points out how useless the CAP seal is on the golf shirt in so far as public affairs go.  Too much stuff that is too small to show up well on camera.  CAP command patch would be better and would be more consistent with our other markings.

How about the good old triprop? You know the original one we've had for 70 years?

[RiverAux]

The one on the command patch?  Sure.  No need to come up with another version. 

[bosshawk]

Can you imagine how boring it would be to have everyone wear the same emblem(the Command Patch)?  That would keep National from confusing the entire country with the multiple patches and seals that grace our uniforms and allow people to identify us at a glance.  It also would reduce the income from Vanguard sales and would probably reduce the number of people who work at Hq, trying to induce hysteria among the population.

[RiverAux]

Apparently the mission is winding down.  FL Wing had a nice article with one of the better "plane and people" photos I have seen (if you leave out the fact that every Lt. Col. in the picture has at least one uniform issue). 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Please don't use that article as any indicator, River. In a nutshell, it's inaccurate, the writer botched the story, the crew wasn't briefed beforehand, and the crew was totally out of uniform.

The mission totals are impressive. Since the State of Florida gave us the call, we've worked both the state and federal missions, and it's just amazing the flight hours, the man-hours, the number of sorties and photos, and the fuel bill. We had a bunch of aircrew people, but we had a bunch on the ground, too, who kept 'em flying and told the world about it. Final totals on the state mission are forthcoming, as well as (hopefully) more accurate totals from the federal mission.

[RiverAux]

Please don't use that article as any indicator, River. In a nutshell, it's inaccurate, the writer botched the story, the crew wasn't briefed beforehand, and the crew was totally out of uniform.

Actually didn't have any issues with the article itself - some issue with the photo.  But even the uniform issues were minor enough that the quality of the photos probably made up for them. 

The mission totals are impressive.

Certainly don't dispute that at all.  But the fact that the PIO work overall was weak is the problem -- I've seen routine airplane search missions get better and more wide-spread press coverage. 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

River, information for routine aircraft searches doesn't jump through nearly as many hoops as information on the oil spill response. Approvals for releases in Florida had to route through FLWG/PA, and we fired them off to SER/A6PA, who sent them on to CAP/PM, and the Joint Information Center at Mobile had to see everything, and we were told that at one point, the White House became involved.

Any media request we had automatically set off this approval chain, too. If a TV station wanted to fly, we had to clear it through everyone but Dick Cheney.

And any squadron that wanted to put a release out or talk to local media had to go through us and up the chain, too. Anyone who didn't (and this one wasn't approved, nor did it get our help) was taking a risk.

So if you wonder why we were tight-lipped, you now know. What we could say was carefully controlled -- what we could say was only what our part was, and any broader questions had to go up the approval chain.

[RiverAux]

So if you wonder why we were tight-lipped, you now know. What we could say was carefully controlled -- what we could say was only what our part was, and any broader questions had to go up the approval chain.

Perhaps these sorts of restrictions absolve some of the low-level PIOs of some responsibility, but as we discussed earlier in the thread there were very few, if any, time sensitive issues involved in this mission and even if it took 2 days to get a release approved, that would be just fine.  All I can look at is the results -- whatever the system was, it did not produce much in the way of real results for CAP. 

Since so little appeared to have actually gotten out of that process it leads me to believe that there weren't actually very many PIOs trying to get something into the process in the first place.  I could be wrong and maybe there were floods of stories submitted through this process.  But, if that is the case, it would appear that most of them got canned somewhere along the way.  What happened to them?  If stories were bottled up and never released, that is a major procedural issue that needs to be addressed. 

I have yet to hear of any PIOs actually being assigned out in the field for this mission producing any material.  Were there PIOs appointed for this mission as would be required by regulation?  From what I can tell, it seems like when some random CAP public affairs officer felt like writing a story they did it rather than making it someone's responsibility to ensure that stories were being produced on a regular basis.

And going back to the "process"....it looks like it needs some major improvements.  Region PAOs and CAP NHQ should not be in the loop at all, unless they have actually been appointed to be the PIO for that particular mission.  We don't make mission PIOs get approval for releases from their Wing PAO because they are a mission function.  Region PAO is adminstrative only.  You just can't have people involved in the process unless they are actually assigned full-time to the mission.  It is unacceptable for a release to be sitting around in people's email system waiting for them to get back from work or whatever they're up to.  This is MISSION public affairs.   Are releases just supposed to sit around waiting all weekend for the NHQ staff to come back to work on Monday? 

Here is how it should go on a major mission where we are being told to route our stuff through a JIC
Mission PIO -- guy working on the ground at the local mission base writes release
Local CAP IC --- Approves release
Joint Information Center -- Approves release
Mission PIO - distributes release out to local media, sends to Wing PAOs of those wings other than theirs that have sent people to the mission base.  Those Wing PAOs distribute release as appropriate in their state.
Mission PIO - sends copy of approved and distributed release to NHQ. 

When there are multiple mission bases and the mission is such that it is absolutely critical that CAP coordinate its message, there perhaps could be a overall Mission PIO but they would need to be on the job full time.  There main duty would be to try to generate regional and national media coverage of CAP's actions.  They would not be involved in the release approval process except in those rare cases where the mission is senstive enough that close coordination involving the message is important.  If they can't do it some day, then that duty needs to be passed to someone else so that there is always someone avaialble. 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

I don't know where you're sitting, River, but here's what I can tell you:

1. Florida Wing was involved in TWO missions -- one for the State of Florida, and the other for the Unified Command in Mobile, Ala., once the UC was stood up. We were flying for the state before the feds got started.

2. Florida Wing had two PIOs involved at wing level, and screened releases from subordinate units. Some of the releases that made it to print included stories from Marco Island, Charlotte County, Fernandina Beach and Ocala. There's a new one tonight that we shipped to CAP/PM that NHQ released instead of sending it back to us about the FLWG chaplain's involvement at the ICP at Mobile. We had releases and we worked within the framework we were given. Stories weren't bottled up, though there were subordinate-unit PAs who complained about being edited (frankly, they need to get over it, too -- everyone gets edited).

3. Wing PAs from across Southeast Region were on a conference call with the CAP/PM folks early on, after the wing PAs expressed frustration at what they could and couldn't say, and the rapidity of the approval process. We were told at that time that the approval process extended beyond National Headquarters, and included First Air Force, the Joint Information Center at Mobile, and later on, apparently, the White House.

4. The SER/CC and staff decreed that all public information would be coordinated through Mobile, including the FLWG mission for the state, which fell outside the federal mission. We saluted and executed. SER/A6PA had someone on site at Mobile all through the response, and we worked closely with them.

We followed procedure. We followed ICS, and any deviance from ICS came from way up the food chain. It's not that we didn't try, but instead that there were things we couldn't talk about. The frustration that CAP couldn't talk up its participation is felt, especially when our crews flew the bulk of the sorties, by far, and Florida Wing's aircrews exemplified the organization with professionalism across the board.

Information was tightly controlled. This oil spill had political and international ramifications, and message control was so tight, we had a time getting stories out locally. We did what we could with what we had. Unless you were here, you might not know that, though....

[BillB]

When I was Florida Wing PAO, we had a similar mision that required approval of news releases by outside agencies. In this case it was the UD Navy. All news releases from Squadrons had to go through FLWG PAO then to the Navy for release. I'd guess that less than 1/4 of the releases from Squadrons got the Navy approval. The releases that were sent out by the Navy had been edited by the FLWG PAO staff and again by the Navy. (amazing the number of misspellings nd grammaer errors). The Navy however did give credit for the releases and CAP was mentioned throughout.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

We didn't/don't have to worry too much about higher headquarters and other agencies bogarting our releases, though the one that was sent from CAP/PM about the oil spill response chaplaincy was sent their way for approval by... Florida Wing's public affairs and marketing directorate!

But the approvals and the filtering gets a little cumbersome, and it puts some folks off. There's no problem as long as everyone "stays in their lane" and only speaks to the things they know.

[RiverAux]

We didn't/don't have to worry too much about higher headquarters and other agencies bogarting our releases, though the one that was sent from CAP/PM about the oil spill response chaplaincy was sent their way for approval by... Florida Wing's public affairs and marketing directorate!

An excellent article by the way. 

[Robborsari]

The frustration that CAP couldn't talk up its participation is felt, especially when our crews flew the bulk of the sorties, by far, and Florida Wing's aircrews exemplified the organization with professionalism across the board.

I agree with everything you have said except the one sentence.  We (CAP) did not fly the bulk of the sorties at all.  I think we averaged %10 to %15 percent of the sorties on a given day.  There was a huge effort that was not well publicised on the part of the airforce, the national guard, the coast guard, the coast guard aux, the navy, several privately contracted firms, several state fish and wildlife agencies (including CA), and probably others I have missed.  We were a significant contributor to the air effort but in no way the largest. 

All of the wings involved did an excellent job and the vast majority of the crews did exemplify the ideal of the unpaid professional.  In any operation this large there will be less than stellar moments and we all had our share  

I think everyone involved did their level best to do the mission and make sure that we made a good impression on the customer and the media.   I think we did as good a job as anyone on making sure people knew we were there helping without overstating our involvement.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Uh, have you seen the totals? Maybe news doesn't travel to Tennessee as fast as it does to Florida? 

From First Air Force and the Coast Guard, 6 July-13 August:

Total missions flown: 416 planned, 371 actual
CAP missions flown: 185 planned, 181 flown
(Next highest total: RC-26 platform, 73 planned, 63 flown)

Imagery reported
Total images: 45953
CAP images: 39475
(Next highest: RC-26, 2873 images)

Hours reported
Total: 987.55 hours
CAP: 425.75 hours
(Next highest: RC-26, 210.2 hours)

Percentages by platform
CAP: 43%
(Next highest: RC-26, 21%)

And those are just the FEDERAL numbers, which as yet are incomplete (Florida's flight hours on the federal mission alone are 504). Florida's state-mission numbers were impressive, too. Let me toot Florida Wing's horn a little here on the state totals, then on the overall Florida Wing contribution.

Florida mission photo total: More than 43,000
Florida mission aircraft flight hours: 356 (on 129 sorties)
Florida mission man-hours (aircrew and ground): 4,309 (1,842 by aircrew members)

State and federal missions combined:

Total man hours: 10,586 (5,960 mission base and 4,626 aircrew)
Total flight hours: 860
Total mission sorties: 341

So yes, when you look at the data, CAP was the largest. And when you look at Florida Wing's totals, you know we were there when we were needed. And isn't that what CAP's all about?

[Robborsari]

I have not seen those totals and they do not match up at all with what I saw in the weeks that I worked in the air ops office.   I don't know where you got those numbers.  Can you post a link?  The RC-26 flew way less than the NOAA and USCG Casa for instance.  There was also an ANG C130 that flew the whole thing twice a day.  If you are looking for hour totals by platform I would expect the Casa to come out on top if not the P-3 although there was only one of those.

CAP total hours for the federal mission is currently 1874.6.  I don't know where those numbers came from but if they are as short on everyone else as they are on us it does not paint a very realistic picture.

Don't get me wrong.  Everyone did a great job and lots of hard work.  There is plenty to be proud of and I am certainly proud to be a part of this organization.  I don't want us to start overstating our role to the point that someone (non  cap) who was there calls bull$#!t.  That would not make us look good at all.  We did a very professional job and were right in the middle of it on an equal footing with everyone else who spent long hours flying low in the heat and working at the ICP.   

Florida did their share as did MS, AL, LA, TN, GA, NC and GLR.  There are also plenty of dings to go around in the AAR and we need to be realistic about that and try to improve as well.   In the immortal words of Han Solo, "Great kid, don't get cocky"

[RiverAux]

While the last few posts are a little off-topic, I can use them to bring us back on topic .... CAP still has a Gulf Oil Spill response web page up http://www.capvolunteernow.com/highprofile_missions//gulf_oil_response/ and it has mission hours posted on it, but it hasn't been updated since 20 August.  Just shows a lack of attention to detail.  They started to do the job, but aren't keeping it up.  And in this case the onus falls squarly on NHQ.  Apparently they wanted tight control over PIO work on this mission and failed to follow through.  The data block was consistently a week or more out of date since they put it up.

Incidentally, I wouldn't believe those man-hour totals on that web page.  Maybe things are different for this mission, but our ICs have been told to only report aircrew man-hours to AFRCC.   Since CAP has no way of actually collecting man-hour information any such figures are extremely suspect.

[Robborsari]

While the last few posts are a little off-topic, I can use them to bring us back on topic .... CAP still has a Gulf Oil Spill response web page up http://www.capvolunteernow.com/highprofile_missions//gulf_oil_response/ and it has mission hours posted on it, but it hasn't been updated since 20 August.  Just shows a lack of attention to detail.  They started to do the job, but aren't keeping it up.  And in this case the onus falls squarly on NHQ.  Apparently they wanted tight control over PIO work on this mission and failed to follow through.  The data block was consistently a week or more out of date since they put it up.

Incidentally, I wouldn't believe those man-hour totals on that web page.  Maybe things are different for this mission, but our ICs have been told to only report aircrew man-hours to AFRCC.   Since CAP has no way of actually collecting man-hour information any such figures are extremely suspect.

You are right.  We took the number of people on the 211 and averaged the length of the day.  Some worked shorter and some worked more.  It is a very rough estimate but not total fiction.  We did include staff and aircrew. 

Back on topic   I agree that we did not do very well at making the information available to the membership at large.  There were a lot of hoops to jump through on this one but we could have put more effort into it.  Something else for the AAR.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Based on Florida's numbers for the federal mission, there's some catching up to do on the Mobile count, and definitely some rethinking.

Well, that is, unless Florida Wing flew the vast majority of flights on this mission. And that'd be weird (even though half of Southeast Region is in Florida Wing), because this oil spill was in Louisiana's and Alabama's back yards, we have CAP wings in those states, and surely people in those two states know how to fly airplanes. Right? Never mind the other wings that got involved.

The criticisms I've heard on the CAP tallies out of Mobile are that we're underreporting non-flight hours and that mission base personnel not physically showing up at Mobile are being hosed (and that would include me, a PIO on both missions who worked from here on Florida's Gulf coast).

Robborsari, there's no link. The file I have is a PowerPoint presentation generated together by the USCG and First Air Force, and while those totals aren't the most recent, they appear to show a darned good trend that CAP did a whole heck of a lot of flying on this thing. Unless there was an violently dramatic shift in aircraft use after that report was generated, these percentages should generally still track. I would dare say that your accounting is anecdotal, since 1AF and USCG would have a 40,000-foot view of things and would be in a better position to know.

We need to ensure we're not downplaying our role here. CAP provides value, and just because we're not paid people, it doesn't mean we can't play along with those who are. (Forget the inferiority complex, unless you truly don't know what you're doing, and if that's the case, who the he## paperwhipped your SQTRs?)

As for information given to the membership, again, we have been under constraints that only allowed us to speak for ourselves, and only after prior review -- that last part, the prior review, is seemingly hard for people in CAP to get their heads around. And that prior review didn't stop at HQ CAP/PM and SER/A6PA. It went to Washington, D.C., and messages there were tightly controlled. Read between the lines, folks.

MODIFIED: Let me add something here. The tally of man-hours, flight hours, photos taken, etc., help tell the story of our deployment to support the Unified Command and the Florida state missions. We made a huge contribution here. This is part of our story, even part of our history. We need to ensure we're accurate with the totals, and we need to make sure we play this up. A correct tally is vital to public information efforts, and to public affairs and marketing initiatives, as well as for government affairs folks.

[RiverAux]

I've got to say that I'm more than a little surprised that the latest Volunteer has an article praising CAP's public affairs work on this mission. 

Getting a few nice stories in the national media isn't anything to be sneezed at, especially when CAP was such a minor part of a such a huge operation and those involved deserve credit for that.

But, the overall CAP PIO effort was incredibly weak and while to some extent I accept the arguments above that it isn't all our fault due restrictions imposed by outside agencies, here is my recap of the main problems:

Issues entirely under CAP control
1.  Failure of NHQ to maintain current information on its website about the mission.  They made a start, but didn't really follow through very well.
2.  Failure of most Wings and the region involved to promote CAP involvement through their own web sites.
3.  Failure to assign a full-time PIO to this mission.  Apparently we decided to depend on local PAOs to write articles when they felt like it and given our general lack of PAOs in the first place this resulted in not many articles getting in the pipeline.  PIOs from around the country could have been routed in for a week or two so that we were putting out some sort of news on a regular basis.  Earlier we were told that there was a SE Region public affairs guy at the Mobile ICP, but he/she apparently didn't actually produce much. 
4.  Failure to take advantage of this opportunity for local public affairs.  Every unit that sent any resources or participated in any way should have had at least one local tv or newspaper story about it (Local CAP unit responds to DWH).  As far as I can tell, this didn't happen.  A full time PIO could have written these cookie cutter stories and got them out in a prompt manner.  This, by far, was the biggest failure. 

Failures not entirely the fault of CAP
1.  Apparently the system for approving releases was incredibly complex as might be expected for such a huge mission.  However, this is no excuse for the lack of CAP releases.  This mission was going on for months and even if it took a week to get a release approved, thats not a big deal.  Because we depended entirely on local PAOs rather than an assigned PIO we just didn't get many releases in the system in the first place. 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

River:

-- Yes, there was an assigned PIO from CAP at Mobile, a member of the HQ SER public affairs directorate. Again, information was controlled, and not by CAP. Say what you want, but it's not like we wanted to clamp a lid on things.
-- Additionally, on the Florida state mission, there were two PIOs assigned. We promoted the crap out of it until HQ SER said the state mission's public information needed to dovetail into the federal mission's work. The State of Florida wanted us to put information out, and the state wanted our images out there for CAP's and the state's benefit, as well as to promote "government in the sunshine."
-- Florida Wing set up a Deepwater Horizon section on its website. As a clampdown grew tighter, that site was neglected. Again, don't blame us for the control sought by higher-ups. We wanted to beat that like a drum.
-- Individual squadrons were encouraged to promote their involvement, as long as releases were cleared up the chain of command and through the JIC, 1AF and official Washington. That happened, but not enough. And frankly, that doesn't have to be a PIO duty -- a squadron PA can do it just fine. And to be fair, the folks at HQ CAP/PM aren't PIOs and they were filtering/approving everything.

It's unfair to give our people a bad rap here. The back story's much more complicated.

Robborsari: I haven't forgotten to send you that file. I apologize. Things have been crazy here outside CAP.

[RiverAux]

As I noted earlier in the thread, FL was one of the few Wings that was at least trying.   

Nevertheless, this mission was an abject failure from the point of view of public affairs with blame going both to CAP (at all levels) and to the rest of the DWH public information structure as well.  Plenty of blame to go around. 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

There definitely were things that could have been done better, but hindsight's always 20/20. I have a feeling there wasn't any after-action discussion, though there should be.

To be fair, this was a high-profile mission that involved a lot of resources and a lot of coordination. There were a lot of hands involved, and a lot of opportunities to screw things up as a result. There were a lot of things done right -- Florida Wing's aviators, supporters and staff didn't miss a beat through the whole thing, supporting two missions and covering the majority of affected shoreline -- and a great story to tell, though it will only leak out a little at a time.

Selfishly, I'm a little dismayed at the Volunteer stories, because as the largest affected wing (Florida Wing could be its own region, yes, but we had a huge amount of coastline), we were imbalanced against other wings involved in the response. But we were one team, working together with a common goal, even with the silliness bureaucracy threw in the way!

[Larry Mangum]

There definitely were things that could have been done better, but hindsight's always 20/20. I have a feeling there wasn't any after-action discussion, though there should be.

To be fair, this was a high-profile mission that involved a lot of resources and a lot of coordination. There were a lot of hands involved, and a lot of opportunities to screw things up as a result. There were a lot of things done right -- Florida Wing's aviators, supporters and staff didn't miss a beat through the whole thing, supporting two missions and covering the majority of affected shoreline -- and a great story to tell, though it will only leak out a little at a time.

Selfishly, I'm a little dismayed at the Volunteer stories, because as the largest affected wing (Florida Wing could be its own region, yes, but we had a huge amount of coastline), we were imbalanced against other wings involved in the response. But we were one team, working together with a common goal, even with the silliness bureaucracy threw in the way!

An AAR was just completed at Maxwell.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Any chance we'll see the AAR report? I mean, it's not like we can't take something away from it. Or call attention to places where the higher-ups didn't see things the way our folks did. I know no one's mentioned an AAR to me....

[RiverAux]

I am 100% for AARs, but to be useful they need to be made available to everyone.  If this AAR was specific to the public affairs portion of the mission, I'm surprised that Buckeye wasn't involved in it.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Even if the AAR wasn't specific to public affairs, PA should be in the loop. Then again, it's possible that this talk is premature -- a copy of the AAR may well be on its way to me.

[Larry Mangum]

PA was represented at the AAR.

[RiverAux]

PA was represented at the AAR.

Evidently not very well if Buckeye wasn't involved. 

[Larry Mangum]

PA was represented at the AAR.

Evidently not very well if Buckeye wasn't involved.

That would depend upon what level it was conducted at. Each wing involved should have had an AAR, covering its own resposne to the mission.  Then the regions involved and then an AAR by national looking at the over all handling of the mission. That is what happend at Maxwell, national looked at the over all picture with the Air Force.

[RiverAux]

If they did an AAR without asking the regions or Wings about their experiences they just didn't do an AAR.  Keep in mind there is no CAP regulation or even official recommendation that an AAR be done after any mission (though there should be). 

[Larry Mangum]

River Aux, how do you know that they did not do so. I know for a fact that the SER CC and SER DOS were participants at the AAR. In fact it is my understanding that the conference room was completely full and that additional people participated using a conference bridge. 

Please do a little bit of research before accusing people of incompetence.

[Al Sayre]

The AAR is being presented at the SER Ops Conference at Tyndall at the end of the month.

[RiverAux]

River Aux, how do you know that they did not do so. I know for a fact that the SER CC and SER DOS were participants at the AAR. In fact it is my understanding that the conference room was completely full and that additional people participated using a conference bridge. 

Please do a little bit of research before accusing people of incompetence.

Well I know that they didn't ask him for his comments because he said so several posts ago.  Please do a little more reading before accusing someone of not doing their research. 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Of course, SER/CC and SER/DOS were involved. The SER/CC was CAP's head honcho for the operation.

From a purely PA standpoint, I hope that if there was a dearth of PA representation, that at least a representative of SER/A6PA was involved. Since the AAR will be presented at Tyndall, I'm sure copies will start weaving their way into Florida Wing (they should -- Tyndall's in Florida, isn't it?).

I doubt the report will make its way to the general membership without redaction, so don't everyone get their hopes up.

[BillB]

Tyndall is closer to BOTH Alabama Wing HQ and Georgia Wing HQ than to Florida Wing HQ.

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Tyndall is closer to BOTH Alabama Wing HQ and Georgia Wing HQ than to Florida Wing HQ.

Pretty much the whole state of Florida is closer to wing headquarters for both Alabama and Georgia. Florida Wing's headquarters is outside Miami for some ungodly reason (it used to be on MacDill AFB in Tampa, which is central to the entire state).

[JeffDG]

Tyndall is closer to BOTH Alabama Wing HQ and Georgia Wing HQ than to Florida Wing HQ.

Pretty much the whole state of Florida is closer to wing headquarters for both Alabama and Georgia. Florida Wing's headquarters is outside Miami for some ungodly reason (it used to be on MacDill AFB in Tampa, which is central to the entire state).

So, FLWG HQ is closer to Cuba than most of the state then?

[Spaceman3750]

Tyndall is closer to BOTH Alabama Wing HQ and Georgia Wing HQ than to Florida Wing HQ.

Pretty much the whole state of Florida is closer to wing headquarters for both Alabama and Georgia. Florida Wing's headquarters is outside Miami for some ungodly reason (it used to be on MacDill AFB in Tampa, which is central to the entire state).

So, FLWG HQ is closer to Cuba than most of the state then?

Looks like it...


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5478916/Florida%20HQ.tiff

[BuckeyeDEJ]

It's roughly equidistant, by air, to Orlando and Cuba. It's closer to Cuba than it is to Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Pensacola. As driving distances go, a 1950s Dodge truck on floats will get from Cuba to Miami faster than I can drive from the Tampa Bay area there.

Our wing headquarters, then, is indeed closer to Cuba than it is to at least half the state. I assure you, though, that it's no conspiracy.

[SARJunkie]

Isnt it in Cuba?  lol   Well Miami might as well be Cuba....hahaha