Some old school pictures from mid 80s.

[Stonewall]

Some pics from around 86-87 during survival training.  Yes, before CPPT.

[Stonewall]

Air Ground Operations School.  Something I never experienced but saw videos, pictures and heard tons of stories about.  I showed up to National Capital Wing too late.  I think their last AGOS running was 1990, I got there in 1992.

The Staff:  75% former cadets, Mitchell and higher.  75% prior military, to include Special Forces, Ranger, and Airborne Infantry.  All ground team member or leader.  Cadets and Seniors.

The Setting:  Ft. Belvoir, VA Training Areas 8 and 9 (a huge area) all to themselves.  [Then] Ft. Belvoir (Davison AAF) Air Assault School obstacle course and rappel tower plus AAS Instructors available.  NO RANK for students, only a roster number taped to their fatigue hat.  Students were cadets and seniors alike totaling between 25 and 45 from what I understand.

Training:  7 days straight, all in the field.  Survival, first and foremost.  I have pictures from AGOS of them killing/eating both chickens and rabbits, living in natural shelters, washing in the creek, boiling water, building fires....  Tactical radio communications.  Setting up different types of radios and antennas.  Signalling exercises (mirror, panels, natural).  Water survival in Pohic bay to include water crossings, poncho rafts, etc.  Ropes course to include rappelling (wall and skid); negotiating the obstacle course several times over different days.  Land navigation out the wazzoo.  ELT tracking.  Lost person search.  Team level SAR competitions.  Medical training from 18Ds.  And the bread and butter of the course, air/ground coordination/communications.

Graduation:  No tabs, not bells and whistles, not even a certificate.  Just excellent training in leadership, followership, core operational skills, life skills and a gut check.  No one was ever hazed, just treated as equals while enduring some good training.

This went on for at least 5 or 6 years, starting in either '85 or '86.  I actually have the photos that belonged to the squadron because the guy that took command after my time was a POS who lost everything from the actual Charter we had hanging on the wall from 1960-something, to a brand new L'Per.

The "survival" pictures also came from AGOS.

AGOS Formation.


AGOS Inspection.


Rucksack Flop.


Old school ruck march...

[SARMedTech]

Do any of these activities still go on?  Looks like great training...and we should go back to green fatigues. 

[SarDragon]

Who's the lucky guy who got to hump the pallet in and out? 

[Stonewall]

Do any of these activities still go on?

Until I became inactive in mid-2005, yes, we still did things like this, but on a smaller scale.  The last thing we did that was remotely like the above activity was WINTEX which I have another thread.

NATCAP wing is unique in that all the squadrons are no more than about 30 minutes apart, maybe 45 on a busy day.  Mostly, the two bigger squadrons on the Virginia side, Fairfax and Mount Vernon, plus the Andrews Squadron, would often do activities of the caliber I speak of here in this thread.  From very well run survival weekends to very realistic lost person search FTX's.  We also did intra-squadron competitions with land navigation, ELT searches, and night time link-ups.

There is no doubt that we ran our squadron(s) exactly the way they were meant to be run.  Things were "HOOAH" without stupid scenes out of Full Metal Jacket.  They were fun yet challenging, and we always maintained strong military bearing in everything we did.  Cadet staff were always given a lot of responsibility and held to high standards, but never given more than they could handle.  Schedules were planned and kept, call-downs conducted and inspections every meeting, seniors and cadets.  It was awesome!  Its hard to go from that to anything else.

Who's the lucky guy who got to hump the pallet in and out? 

It was an Army base, there never seems to be an absense of pallets...

[Stonewall]

Good thing I save everything.  Here is an article about TAC COMEX, a long lasting exercise that I think still goes on today.  I had the honor of planning and running TAC COMEX XXV.

Fairfax Squadron Hosts 25th Annual Exercise

For over 25 years members of the National Capital Wing have taken part in what's called "TAC COMEX", or Tactical Communications Exercise.  TAC COMEX, developed by Maj Derrill Ballenger, a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant and forward air controller in Vietnam, was the "new" Communications Officer at Mt Vernon Squadron and wanted to test the two new radios that Mt Vernon had just acquired. His goal was for the teams to unload, be given a map, a quick briefing, a radio and be on their way within one hour of arrival.  It worked.  Attendance was good.  The sorties were simple radio range tests along with map and navigation tasks to get to their testing points.  They all went home with high morale, good radio test reports and a positive outlook for our next year's COMEX.

Mt. Vernon opened up the exercises to the entire wing during TAC COMEX VI. Major Ballenger says, "I guess there is no such thing as 'ownership' of an exercise, but my
association with this is as close as they come, since I am the only person who has attended all past 25".

TAC COMEX I was held in April of 1978.  Only one year has gone by without a COMEX, and that was due to a lost training area last minute.  This activity has been held at George Washington National Forest, Quantico MCB, Ft. Belvoir, and Ft. AP Hill, but always in Virginia.

The motivation of making this a special exercise was the result of several consecutive SARCAP's where National Capital Wing Ground Teams spent inordinate amounts of time awaiting sortie assignments, lengthy briefings and then spent hours riding in the back of hot vans.  "I could sense a feeling of frustration and that the cadets didn't want to go on any more activities", said Maj Ballenger.

This year's TAC COMEX was hosted by Fairfax Squadron and held at Ft. AP Hill, Virginia over a 3-day period.  As always, Maj Ballenger and few advanced radio operators set out to the field one day prior to get the mission underway.  No different from the 24 exercises before, cadets and seniors alike were trekking through the woods, streams, and marshes of Virginia's rolling hills.  Additionally, aircrews flying 4 aircraft flew 8 training sorties totaling 23.1 hours.  Ground teams were tasked with gaining visual contact with the aircrews throughout their regularly assigned tasks using mirrors, panels, smoke, and flares.  Total number of participants this year included 26 ground team and radio operators along with 11 aircrew members.  Incident Commander for the mission was the National Capital Wing Commander, Colonel Frank McConnell.

Story by Lt Col Kirt Bowden
Fairfax Composite Squadron

I also attached the OPORD for  TAC COMEX XXV

[Stonewall]

Here are a few pictures from TAC COMEX XXV

1st Lt Culpepper (now an AF PJ) signalling an A/C by mirror and smoke. Notice my dog.


Retired CMSGT (CAP Major) Ballenger, founder of TAC COMEX


Paying our respects to a "fallen cadet".  Sometimes cadets can't handle being away from mom and dad so we have to send them home.  This was the third time this happened with this particular cadet.


Not sure why some of the pics are showing up twice...

[alamrcn]

Oh yeah.... THAT was why I first joined Civil Air Patrol.
Forgot there for a moment. Well, back to reality again!

[Flying Pig]

I dont recall camo face paint being part of the SAR equipment.  But I did like wearing the green fatigues.

[Stonewall]

I dont recall camo face paint being part of the SAR equipment. 

Those guys were former cadets turned 82nd Airborne, Ranger and SF types who came back one summer to offer their assistance for survival training.  I'm sure the face paint was more for effect than anything.

[citizensoldier]

God but I miss the old "Pickle Suits".

[SarDragon]

God but I miss the old "Pickle Suits".

Still got my last one, but it don't fit no more. 

[Grumpy]

God but I miss the old "Pickle Suits".

Still got my last one, but it don't fit no more. 

You're not fat now Dave.  You must have REALLY been skinny.  Stick out your tongue, turn sideways and look like a zipper, did you? 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

Got mine, too. Still has the diamonds on the collars and everything.

Unfortunately, there's no way I'd fit in it unless I was starved nearly to death now. Man....

[SarDragon]

Yeah, Grumps, really skinny. About 25 lb lighter than I am now, and NO gut at all. I did mostly gain gracefully, and it's spread out all over. Went from a 38 chest to a 42, and about 4 inches in the waist.

[NIN]

I still have my old-school jungle fatigues... with the insignia sewn on the slant..

[BillB]

<gasp> Nin wore an unauthorized uniform?  For shame (jungle fatigues were never authorized, even though widely worn)

[CAPSeahawk8]

Slant pocket Jungle fatigues(OG-107) were authorised from about Apr 1990 until sometime in the mid 90's until BDU's had fully taken over. We wore them as long as we could , still the best field uniform CAP has ever had.

[citizensoldier]

Slant pocket Jungle fatigues(OG-107) were authorised from about Apr 1990 until sometime in the mid 90's until BDU's had fully taken over. We wore them as long as we could , still the best field uniform CAP has ever had.

We wore them without authorization when I was a cadet.  They look SHARP when heavily starched.  That was possibly the best US uniform ever.  The Marine ERDL jungles looked great too.

[citizensoldier]

Sadly or luckily we were never told not to wear them back then.

CS