Special appointments for infantry skills

[Smithsonia]

Shortfield;

Well I think interoperability is the goal for certain skill-sets, for FEMA, at leasy. Mostly these are the command soft-skills. I'm not saying every fireman is also expected to be a mission pilot -- I'm saying that the IO duties for fire, police, CAP, wildland fire command center, the earthquake center in Golden, CO. are not unique enough to disqualify a good-cross-trained generalist IO helping in a pinch.

So to sum up -- there's no good reason not to train up to FEMA standards. From what I see this isn't rocket science and there's not that much math so I think I can work for FEMA and Volunteer for CAP. If not on the same mission, at least in the same general part of the country.

With regards;
ED OBRIEN

[Short Field]

You can certainly be dual qualified as a FEMA IO and a CAP IO.  My point is that while skills in one organization certainly can make you more qualified in another - it does not automatically qualify you in the second organization.  If you are a fully qualified IO in most any organization, it should not take much to get fully qualified as a CAP IO - but you do need the CAP framework to help prepare great news releases with the CAP flavor and prospective to them.

Basic skills transfer well - it is just the CAP framework that needs to be added.  Some Ops Quals need a deeper understanding of the CAP framework than other Ops Quals.   Getting qualified in multiple specialities and working for multiple organizations is only limited by your available time.

[DNall]

What infantry skills are applicable to CAP?

There's two parts to being a field leader in the military, Army anyway. That's leadership (TLPs, planning, etc), and it's technical/tactical skills. You certainly in no way need any advancement in CAP for knowledge of weapons systems or battle drills, and that's the bread & butter of being an infantryman. The TLPs & small unit leader process on the other hand are essential to CAP. It's not something we teach at all, and is an area we are seriously deficient in. At the same time, it's in no way whatever limited to just infantry. How are you going to keep that from cav scouts, MPs, combat engineers, FA, or even admin NCOs. It's a process and skills that are taught to everyone & universally applied. That's not something we need to be offering advanced promotions for, it's something we need to integrate into our training & share with all our members.

[McAllister]

I agree. Some of the skills they learned in the infantry could probably benifit a few parts of the program.

[cap235629]

the basic mission of an infantry soldier is to close with and destroy the enemy.........

so go get your orange vest and camouflage BDU's and lets go...............................

WALK A SEARCH LINE!!

this is a stretch to say the least

[JohnKachenmeister]

What infantry skills are applicable to CAP?

There's two parts to being a field leader in the military, Army anyway. That's leadership (TLPs, planning, etc), and it's technical/tactical skills. You certainly in no way need any advancement in CAP for knowledge of weapons systems or battle drills, and that's the bread & butter of being an infantryman. The TLPs & small unit leader process on the other hand are essential to CAP. It's not something we teach at all, and is an area we are seriously deficient in. At the same time, it's in no way whatever limited to just infantry. How are you going to keep that from cav scouts, MPs, combat engineers, FA, or even admin NCOs. It's a process and skills that are taught to everyone & universally applied. That's not something we need to be offering advanced promotions for, it's something we need to integrate into our training & share with all our members.

I agree with you, Dennis.

Use of the 5 paragraph operations order format is as good for sending out a ground team as it is for sending out an ambush patrol.  A ground search team is nothing more than an unarmed recon patrol, anyway.

Tags - MIKE

[JoeTomasone]

Wow, I musta missed this thread when it hit.... 

Radio communications.  Absolutely.  I think an ACUT should be awarded.  In Basic Training and Infantry School, we learned things like the phonetic alphabet (I knew it from being a cadet), basic radio procedures, and some other basics. 

As a Comms Officer and Wing Certified Comms Instructor, I have to disagree here.   There are too many specifics to CAP comms that would never be gleaned in a non-CAP setting to allow even awarding BCUT.   For example, some of the items required to be taught that wouldn't be known outside CAP are:

1.  Tactical Callsigns (including CAPFLIGHT, HIGHBIRD, and tactical calls 1-6.   In fact, in contrast to the military, Florida CAP (or whatever) 6 would NOT be the (Wing) Commander!)

2.  National Standard Channel allocations

3.  Universal Access Tone, and when it can be used (and when it can't)

4.  Maximum power limits for base, mobile, handheld, and aircraft

5.  Net operations - roles of NCS/ANCS

I would also speculate that repeaters and repeater operation are not a big facet of infantry comms training.

[lordmonar]

Joe....I got to say BS to that.

By BCUT class and ACUT class were both wastes of time. 

Even as an advanced user of CAP comm stuff....a lot of that technical information is no needed.  All a user needs to know is that repeater x is on chanel y of the radio that was issued to him.

Tactical call signs are adhoc anyway they can be what ever works.

[arajca]

Tactical call signs are adhoc anyway they can be what ever works.

Tactical call signs are fixed (i.e. BM4 - me). Functional call signs are ad hoc (Ground Team 1, Luxor Base, etc).

[JoeTomasone]

Even as an advanced user of CAP comm stuff....a lot of that technical information is no needed.  All a user needs to know is that repeater x is on chanel y of the radio that was issued to him.

I'm not even sure how to begin...

Much of the BCUT/ACUT training gives you information on how to operate within regulations.  Unless you deem that to be "not needed", of course...

If all a user knew was that repeater x was on channel y, then:

1. They would not know how to access a repeater in another Wing if sent there on a DR mission. 

2. They would be clueless when told to go to "Victor 4".

3. When "Uncle Mike 4" comes on the air, they will have no idea who that person is.

4. While in an aircraft, they will have no idea what frequencies may be used and at what power levels.

5. They won't know what to do when a repeater they are using FAILS.

6. They will not know how to efficiently operate during a net to pass mission-critical traffic in an expeditious manner.   In fact, they will be likely to jam up the whole works.

7. They will know none of the required prowords; meaning that the difference between "WAIT" and "WAIT OUT" will be lost on them (for example).

8. In FL Wing (and presumably others), they would have no idea what callsign is assigned to a Corporate vehicle, Corporate aircraft, or member-owned aircraft on a reimbursable mission.

9. They will have no idea what a PAN call means, nor what to do when they hear one.

I could go on and on and on...   But there's a lot more involved than just selecting a channel and keying the mike, just as there's more to being in the Infantry than walking through the woods with a gun looking for things to shoot.

[RiverAux]

Not sure what this has to do with infantry skills and CAP special appintments...

[oak2007]

What about giving special appointments for infantry cooks. We all need to eat in the field.

cook Hamburgers 2Lt
cook Steak           1LT
cook Fish              Captain

[SarDragon]

What about giving special appointments for infantry cooks. We all need to eat in the field.

cook Hamburgers 2Lt
cook Steak           1LT
cook Fish              Captain

cook Calimari that doesn't like rubber bands      LtCol