how to make a sarex more exciting

[swya]

what are some of your suggestions to make a sarex(any position) seem more fun than it already is

[lordmonar]

Well James....that's the thing.  SAREX's (and by extension SAR'S) are not supposed to be fun...they are jobs.  There are ways to pass the time when you are waiting for something to happen (and you found a couple of them on the last SAREX  ) but the job itself is what is important.  Anyone not at the mission base to work (or train) is not needed.

[swya]

yeah that's true i did set up a game with finding stuff with compasses  but sarex' can be very fun so thats why i want to hear some suggestions

[DNall]

The scenerio is a big deal.

Make it real... We're in a coastal region, I'm working on a local one that involves a hurricane disaster response & SaR profile. That's mobile ops center running in the woods w/ no services whatever from Fri night to Sun afternoon. Mobile base comms off generators, GTs doing GTM1 & 2 skills, including having to actually resupply, aircrews over the top doing direct coordination. Make it more than run of the mill.

Involve other folks... We're going to run joint ICS ops w/ county EMA (& lots of county resources), may grow it a bit to include some other fun agencies - nothing like working an ELT under a CG helo, or aircrew to LE on the ground... plus it builds relationships & demonstrates our capabilities to people that might have some use for us at some point.

Be prepared... if you've been to something like the AFRCC SMC course or some of the more advanced stuff, well design a highly advanced tabletop excercise & seriously push your staff. Some of the pieces on the game board will be real operating out in the SAREX & some will be imaginary (color code & keep track). Toss em in the frying pan & see what comes out.

Practice isn't any good if you don't learn & get better from it, make it hard. Seperate the training out as if it were  breakout session of a conference.

I'm not going to be doing this, but maybe change staffs up too. We've seen that in situations much smaller than Katrina where we had to chang eout not just ICs but critical staff & all the way down ticket to bringing resources in & out mid-stream. There's a process to that at each level, which if practiced goes a lot faster & smoother during the real deal so you don't have as much down time or transition. Maybe that's too much, I don't know, like I said I'm not actually going to do that in my event. Don't hold back though, look at your resources, look at what's around town, & aim high (had to toss that in there).

[brasda91]

what are some of your suggestions to make a sarex(any position) seem more fun than it already is

I think it's awesome that you're having fun.  Know as much as you can about all of the functions of a SAREX.  Then you won't be confussed as what is happening, which might lead to discouragement, therefore leading to not participating.

[Pylon]

what are some of your suggestions to make a sarex(any position) seem more fun than it already is

Provide free coffee and donuts.  Go heavy on the coffee. 

[SAR-EMT1]

what are some of your suggestions to make a sarex(any position) seem more fun than it already is

Provide free coffee and donuts.  Go heavy on the coffee. 

AMEN!

[floridacyclist]

These kids seemed pretty excited. We found some real weak areas in our training simply because most of our past scenarios consisted of looking for little yellow boxes hidden in the woods (or the occassional geocaches without the GPS), so while coming up on a real airplane was a bit of a surprise, they were floored when they found the injured victims. Pics at the bottom of the link.

http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=1398.0

[JohnKachenmeister]

We did an unfunded SAREX as a joint bivouac with another unit.  We used a disaster response and rescue scenarior that involved making a river crossing, and culminated with calling in a civilian medical helicopter.  Took a little coordination, but it was worth it.  Not only from the training aspect, but the helicopter attracted attention and a crowd, and some young teenagers saw other young teens in BDU working a training mission.

The other unit acqured two recruits out of it.

We also identified a problem with the dispatching of medical helicopters that we need to stay aware of.  We called the location in degrees and MINUTES.  Their dispatcher relayed it in degrees, and DECIMALS.

Good thing we learned this in training.  Mistakes don't count if you learn from them.

[A.Member]

what are some of your suggestions to make a sarex(any position) seem more fun than it already is

Provide free coffee and donuts.  Go heavy on the coffee. 

No, that's just how we make the waist lines on our members even bigger. 

As was mentioned earlier, a SAR(EX) are not necessarily supposed to be "exciting".   It is work...and rather unglamorous work at times. 

However, I suppose if we wanted more excitement, we could fly Decathlons rather than the 172/182 and do our searches inverted as well as integrating other aerobatics into the pattern.  We could also buzz the ground teams.   Of course, none of that would make us more effective at what we do and may even land you in some hot water with the feds...but it would be more exciting. 

[Matt]

what are some of your suggestions to make a sarex(any position) seem more fun than it already is

Provide free coffee and donuts.  Go heavy on the coffee. 

Remember... coffee is also better known as, and probably better referred to as:

Happiness in a mug
Lifeline energy
Sunshine
Life Juice

[SAR-EMT1]

Id have to say Ive never heard COFFEE called "sunshine" before. Orange Juice yeah...but coffee?   I will readily agree though, that a hot mug brings a smile to my face.

[SKYKING607]

Variety of exercises!

(missing aircraft, overdue boat, damage assessment, lost hunter, missing child, etc.).

Other agencies?

ARC, Salvation Army Canteen, local Municipal Disaster Council, AF MARS, County Sheriff SAR.

Vary locations.

Plains, hills, mountains, desert (if possible).

[CLB]

For some strange reason that I nor anyone else can explain when we have a wing wide SAREX, in the afternoon you can usually count on it turning into a REDCAP. 

Mighty convenient that we're all assembled.  Found an ELT within 20 minutes of AFRCC calling once. 

[IceNine]

I ran into this problem a while back and I found that the best way to make sarex's "fun" is to keep people thinking.  I find that a form of organized chaos is the best way to work it, one fun little trick is to have 2 completely un-related sar tasks that could be related to throw off the searchers a little...for instance an ELT Report close to an overdue aircraft flight path.  The other thing is keep testing your workers/searchers by adding more elements as time goes on, dont spend 3 days on only ELT searches (unless you have newbie searchers), mix it up a little.  good luck and happy hunting!

[escadet91]

i think that ya sar (ex's) shouldn't be fun but make you think about what is going on like have one of the cadets (wonder) off and make a senario of it have another senior member not to far away so evey thing stays safe and say like his ankle is broken or something make a twist on it.Have the cadets think on there feet with the senior members giving guidence

[desert rat]

If we don't make the training fun for the cadets, most will never take part in it.  If cadets don't participate in the ES end of CAP then we have a split organization.  We may as well separate the cadets off into an ROTC and then make one of CAP's mission be to support the ROTC programs with flight training etc.

I look at James asking this question as a serious issue.  What can we do to make the ES training more fun for cadets?  For many cadets it is a chase to get the GTM badge and thats it.  For those that want to participate in ES missions we coud do things that will give them a sense of purpose, pride, professionalism, and a feeling of accomplishment.  Crowd control at events, escorts for groups, water and land survival training, first aid training with hands on days (mock casualties), red cross shelter training, etc.

Many of the senior members see cadets as a pain on ES functions.   Perhaps ground tream training should be done seperate from the SAREX the flight crews do.. Sure there would be times working together, but other times it could be apart from each other.