ALERTING !

[oak2007]

I found the alerting methods in California to be somewhat inadequate . The last mission alert was sent out by the IC via email and text at 0500, that if you your cell phone is set up to receive redcap messages . A phone call was made at 0700 to the IC stating the we had a crew ready to go. We were told that the mission was turned over to the Sheriffs Office when no one responded. Did the IC think of picking up a phone!. What is the point of a Wing/Group Alert roster Is this the common practice in other Wing?

[Short Field]

Just finished two separate AFRCC missions today.  We use the WMU pager alert system and a follow-up e-mail to all members to input their available into the IMU.   This works well with one key addition:  You call the squadron commanders and have them get a crew together for the first launch of the day.  The IC also should call and get a OSC and PSC to show up as well.  About the time the IC is starting to open up mission base, he should have crews and OSC/PSC arriving to prepare to launch.   First missions are normally fairly easy to plan.  Once mission base is operational, you can then start planning the rest of the day's activities and check the IMU for people to call in.   The key is phone calls to get a quick launch for the first missions.   We had an aircrew and aircraft ready to launch 1.5 hours after the IC was notificed by AFRCC.   

Relying on computers and pagers doesn't work because not everyone lives on the computer and carries their cell phone with them everywhere they go.  We also saw a few alert pages that didn't reach people for almost an hour after it was sent.

[Eclipse]

Checking...yes, its 2008, the only people who carry email and computers around are the ones who are considered ES assets.  The rest sit home waiting for the phone to ring and complaining no one called them.

Text pages / email alerts are the standard tools in many wings and work just fine.

The vast majority of ELT missions do not involve a mission base, or anything more than an IC and the field assets.

The last mission alert was sent out by the IC via email and text at 0500...A phone call was made at 0700 to the IC stating the we had a crew ready to go.

If a text was sent at five, why did the crew wait until 7 to call in?

[mikeylikey]

I whole heartedly believe in using the phone to alert people. 

PAWG had a mission last night that went out wholly by email for the first three hours.  After no positive responses, I get a call at 3AM asking if I checked my email, and if I was willing to show up at 6AM this morning for it. 

Ya......I may be up until 1AM playing on the computer, but email is checked maybe twice a day, once at work and once in the evening.  Thats about it. 

[arajca]

Here's a good twist...

We use NotifyAll for paging. When I signed up, I was told I could only put my email address in. Appearantly, so were alot of other members. So, when no one is responding to emails sent at O-too-early, the manager of the system decided to stop accepting sign-ups. Now that I have a text account set-up, I can't get signed up to get alerts! And I still hear complaints about no one responding. Go figure.

[Eclipse]

For clarity - my Wing uses both text / alpha paging and email simultaneously.

That covers those with regular cel phones, smartphones / iphones, etc., and regular email.

Rarely does anyone complain about not knowing about the missions.

Also, an increasing number of people only have cel phones, no landlines, so for them its the same device making noise, and if they are not answering the text page, they aren't answering the phone.

[Short Field]

I get a loud beep when I receive a text message.  Not real effective at waking me up in the middle of the night or even hearing it if the phone is in another room (I sleep the sleep of the innocent  ). 

Pagers and text messages are good,  but they are one-way communications with zero feedback - which is not the definition of communications.  A phone call that doesn't get answered (going to voice mail doesn't count) tells the caller they need to call someone else to get what they need.  And I have never gotten woken up by a email. 

By the time I got to mission base today for the second incident, I had two aircrew members ready to go and waiting for us.   Just FYI, our mission base is where the aircraft are located and supports six squadrons.

[JC004]

PAWG has a text messaging system, but it is only an awareness thing and not full activation.  It is a joint thing with PA SAR Council.  It is a thing for certain people, just for them to be aware of possible impending missions, mostly.  It's not wonderfully planned out, in my opinion.  I offered to develop a better way of doing it with a little PHP action, but they weren't interested.  Much like a lot of things I offer to build.  Oh well.

[M.S.]

you have missions in your area?      

cool.  i thought it was a CAP myth for a while...

[wingnut]

what if an alert went out and no one responded

It has happened many times in California, result the mission is turned over to the Sheriff Department.

[JohnKachenmeister]

what if an alert went out and no one responded

It has happened many times in California, result the mission is turned over to the Sheriff Department.

How can you tell the difference?

In CA the CAP dresses like deputy sheriffs.

[AlphaSigOU]

I guess some of us are expecting to live the life of the once-prevalent 'SAC-trained killer' sitting in the alert facility waiting for either the alert horn to go off of the words "FOR THE ALERT FORCE, FOR THE ALERT FORCE... KLAXON! KLAXON! KLAXON!" in the CAP SAR/DR world so we can fire up the 172/182/206/Airvan and bore holes through the sky looking for a downed aircraft. (Or the ground-pounders piling into a CAP van like a SWAT team called to action. The cadinks would eat that up!  ) The sad reality is that it's nowhere near that scenario.

While I'm a qualified MS/MO (among other ES specialties) I happen to live a little too far away from the squadron HQ (about 30 minutes) for me to take part in a crew, unless other squadron members that live closer are unavailable. Centralized alert resource response in Texas Wing is very limited, except for alerting officers to notify ICs to take a mission. Only when the ICs get an ICP set up will the rest of the raggedy masses get called up. By the time we're up and running  we've lost a lot of time.

I wouldn't mind seeing a rotating on-call list of ES personnel based on availability, but again, that's pie-in-the-sky.

[KyCAP]

This is a national level communications infrastructure issue in my thinking.   

I have been trying to work with the Ky NG and one of the larger cities in KY to "borrow" access to their alerting software.   But purchasing changes and security requirements have been tough to navigate...

NHQ could use a tool like Microsoft Speech Server http://www.microsoft.com/speech/speech2007/default.mspx to build a system around e-services data for the bulk of our work..

OR..
There are commercial alerting packages....
http://www.coderedweb.net/

http://www.voiceshot.com/public/urgentalert.asp?ref=uaemergencyalert

https://www.onecallnow.com/emergency/?gclid=CKjkppT00JMCFQMoGgod8EcRjA

Google is loaded with these services now.   A lot of the national "campus" emergencies have created more "attention" to the problem creating a lot of opportunities and thus solutions providers.     Two years ago when I was looking at this issue it was mainly "dispatch" and 'EOC' operations that were only looking for these tools.

[Eclipse]

Pagers and text messages are good,  but they are one-way communications with zero feedback - which is not the definition of communications.  A phone call that doesn't get answered (going to voice mail doesn't count) tells the caller they need to call someone else to get what they need.  And I have never gotten woken up by a email. 

Not in my world, or the world of anyone under about 25, to say the least.

Text messaging is the only way a lot of people communicate these days, and a quick, concise method to call up resources.

[KyCAP]

Eclipse's point is actually addressed by one of the packages that I didn't list earlier..

http://www.messageone.com/crisis-notification/

This is hosted in one of Dell's data centers and handles two-way SMS messaging.

[RiverAux]

Our Wing relies primarily on the IC calling up the squadron and letting the squadron put together whatever crew is needed for ELT missions.  For major missions, it goes much the same way however, an alert will go out over the wing email list to let everybody know that something big is going on and that they should be ready for it.

Interstingly, though the CG Aux doesn't do as as much call-out stuff, they are experimenting with using the CG's "Homeport" web page and associated systems to notify Auxies of emergency situations.  Actually got my first test alert yesterday morning via automated cell phone call and I hit "1" to acknowledge receipt.  Don't know the infrastructure behind it, but seems like a good idea. 

[Short Field]

[Text messaging is the only way a lot of people communicate these days, and a quick, concise method to call up resources. 

Communications:  I send an idea - you receive and understand the idea - I get feedback that you received and understood the idea.

A text message or page is fine if you get immediate feedback that the person you sent it to read it.  My point is that you don't know if the person you sent the message to actually read it (we are talking about Alerting here.  As I said, we use email and the WMU alert pager to ALERT people about an event.  This goes out to hundreds of people and tells them to put their availability into the WMU.  However, for the first sorties and the initial base staff, you had better call and make sure the manning will be there.   You don't want a alert call into the blind and have 20 Scanners, 20 Observers, 20 Transport Pilots, and ZERO Mission Pilots how up.

Granted people under 25 MAY be more into texting and email, but I don't think we could activate Mission Base or launch an air mission in our state just using people under 25. 

   the life of the once-prevalent 'SAC-trained killer' sitting in the alert facility waiting for either the alert horn to go off of the words "FOR THE ALERT FORCE, FOR THE ALERT FORCE... KLAXON! KLAXON! KLAXON!"   

BTDT - got the wings and medal to prove it.        Great job to finish ACSC and get your Masters but other than that - BORING!

[Short Field]

http://www.messageone.com/crisis-notification/

Looks like a great system - what are the costs?

[Eclipse]

OK, maybe there's more clarification needed on the difference between "alerting" and " staffing".

My wing alerts members via email and text paging. The alert says "mission x at area y, need G & A teams, call ###-###-####".   There is an expectation based on proximity to the situation and qualifications over who will respond, and if they don't, calls are made. 

Generally, the issue is too many people calling in but if no one reports in timely, we don't just let the clock run and
cross our fingers - telephone calls are placed to key individuals to insure the mission is accomplished, and some of the stronger units muster and deploy together.

If you're somewhere that throws a page into the ether and then stops, well that's not using the tools properly and I can see why all the frustration.

[notaNCO forever]

 I think sending a text or email is fine for warning that you might be called out. When you are called on a mission you need to get a actual phone call because if you send a text you don't no if they received it until they respond and depending on how good of reception they get that could take a while. As far as emails I want to know someone who checks theres at one in the morning?