Suggestions for a struggling squadron

[Майор Хаткевич]

NIN, you and I will need to talk at some point.

[NIN]

Bring it!

[NC Hokie]

This week, 11 new cadets in ranks, 1 had a conflict and will be there next week for inprocessing.

Not sure 100% why the percentage of "packets handed out to cadets in ranks" is that low.  Its a little unusual.

Well, I deliberately backed myself into a corner when I recently spoke with the mother of a prospective cadet.  I told her that we are having an open house on April 30th and plan to start basic cadet training (based on Great Start, of course) the following week.  Most of the troops have been told about this and the PAO has been asked to get a list of press release contacts together and start reaching out to the local schools.  I already have a long list of things to do or assign, and I'm sure that it will only get longer.

[Panzerbjorn]

So, I'm the commander of a struggling squadron, and this is (theoretically, at least) a place for the exchange of ideas to improve CAP. What better place to ask for help, right?

Here's the situation in a nutshell:

Five active and mostly reliable senior members (11 on roster)
Ten active cadets (12 on roster)
Located at an airport that serves two small cities, with another less active airport located minutes away
Major USAF base 40 miles to the east served by a growing and active CAP squadron
Large urban area 40 miles to the west served by several other CAP squadrons
No EAA, etc. at home airport, and a small EAA presence at the other airport that doesn't like CAP (or our airport) very much

I am open to any and all ideas anyone wants to share. I've been in the big chair (well, it's not that big) for 15 months now with little to show for the effort I and my members have expended, and I honestly feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I'm hoping you guys have suggestions for other barrels to pry open.

I had no idea I flew HALF your cadets in one day.  Guess I need to come out and do the First Flight loop more often if that'll help some with recruiting.

Talk to Langley. He can give you some good ideas on how to revitalize your cadet program.  Outside of that, everything I could come up with for suggestions seems to already have been said.  Attracting more pilots is a vicious cycle. Hard to attract more pilots without the toys, can't get the toys without more pilots.

[NC Hokie]

I had no idea I flew HALF your cadets in one day.  Guess I need to come out and do the First Flight loop more often if that'll help some with recruiting.

Talk to Langley. He can give you some good ideas on how to revitalize your cadet program.  Outside of that, everything I could come up with for suggestions seems to already have been said.  Attracting more pilots is a vicious cycle. Hard to attract more pilots without the toys, can't get the toys without more pilots.

HA!  You ruined future o-flights for my cadets with the epic route that you took, but you really gave them something to speak about during the open house.  You can count on being requested by name in the future.

I will talk to Langley, but I'm surprised that he didn't speak up himself.  Maybe he's waiting for the "right moment" to say his piece.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Bring it!

I'll PM you my contact info. When you have some time I'd love to pick your brain direct to formulate a plan.

[Panzerbjorn]

I had no idea I flew HALF your cadets in one day.  Guess I need to come out and do the First Flight loop more often if that'll help some with recruiting.

Talk to Langley. He can give you some good ideas on how to revitalize your cadet program.  Outside of that, everything I could come up with for suggestions seems to already have been said.  Attracting more pilots is a vicious cycle. Hard to attract more pilots without the toys, can't get the toys without more pilots.

HA!  You ruined future o-flights for my cadets with the epic route that you took, but you really gave them something to speak about during the open house.  You can count on being requested by name in the future.

I will talk to Langley, but I'm surprised that he didn't speak up himself.  Maybe he's waiting for the "right moment" to say his piece.

Despite being one of the creators of CAPTalk, he doesn't come here anymore.  Too many piranhas in this pool nowadays.

[NIN]

for grins, I went back and looked at the OrgStatistics table for my unit in CAPWatch.  (Note: I suck at statistics, I know just enough to know that I should talk to people who know way more about stats than I do!<GRIN)

The table contains JOIN/RENEW/TOTAL data for the unit for every month back to January 2000, which just slightly predates the unit's pipelining history, and starts basically about 45 days after I took command.

In those 15 years, we've taken in 420 new cadets. And 73 new seniors.

Kind of mind blowing sometimes...

[LTC Don]

Tar River was founded back in 1980.  Over the years we have had a large Senior and Cadet presence.  Had a large group of pilots and a plane that we rotated back and forth with CPB16 in Manteo.  Our squadron was known as a great ES asset and our Cadets were like blood hounds in locating the ELT targets.  We have had 3 cadets make Spaatz and are in fairly high positions in the Air Force.  One of the Spaatz Cadets is flying Ospreys for the Special Operations Command.  Another cadet that made Cadet LtCol is now flying Ospreys for the Marine Corps out of Okinawa.  The original base of Seniors and Cadets have either passed away, moved on to other squadrons or higher positions in CAP.  Most have been in for a long time and just burned out.  I burned out for awhile and now I am back.  We have three pilots left in the squadron.  One is elderly and not current, the other two have very low times in the aircraft.  One has been gaining time with the plane from the other squadron but is having some personal difficulties at this time and not able to continue until it is worked out.  Major Hess is a great CC and has a lot of good ideas.  I was the CC in the late 90s and feel that I did a good job but things are completely different now than it was then.  I am the PDO, ESO, Testing Officer, Historian, and Asst IT.  I also work in Law Enforcement and only can make every other Cadet meeting and mostly none of the Senior Meetings due to work.  I and another member have also been trying to heal any perceived wounds with the EAA group at the other airport.  The other airport was the original home of the squadron.  Currently we have a very nice squadron building that the airport has given us.  It used to be the manned weather office for the airport.  Now it is automated and we do not go into that part of the building.  We have a classroom, supply, kitchen, communications, 2 staff offices, operations room, and we are located on the apron.  We can look out and see all the aircraft that use the airport.  Navy enjoys doing touch and go here as well.  We have a great set up and we are one of three Mission bases for the NC Wing.  I apologize for the long post, but wanted everyone to know a little about us.  We are proud to be called "River Rats"!

To add to this post, I moved to Wilson, NC in 1986. Shortly thereafter I transferred into NC057 (then, 32057) and very shortly was named DC for Cadets. Around 1990 I assumed Command.  This was while the squadron was based at W03 in an old cinder block building that was originally built specifically for CAP by the local Civil Defense group. This was around 1955. That building has since been demolished.  So, although the history is poorly documented, CAP has a rich presence in the Wilson area over quite a few decades.

[TarRiverRat]

[/quote]

To add to this post, I moved to Wilson, NC in 1986. Shortly thereafter I transferred into NC057 (then, 32057) and very shortly was named DC for Cadets. Around 1990 I assumed Command.  This was while the squadron was based at W03 in an old cinder block building that was originally built specifically for CAP by the local Civil Defense group. This was around 1955. That building has since been demolished.  So, although the history is poorly documented, CAP has a rich presence in the Wilson area over quite a few decades.
[/quote]

I hope to correct this oversight of CAP history in the Rocky Mount, Wilson, and Tarboro area.  If you have anything on this please let me know.  I am trying to collect as much information from WWII till now concerning CAP in this area and especially Tar River Composite Squadron.  I enjoyed my time as Squadron Commander back in the late 90s.  It was rewarding and tiresome at the same time.  I had a good staff.  I sometimes miss that old building at W03.

[LTC Don]

All I can tell you is that I remember seeing a snippet of an article in the Wilson Daily Times from the '50s about the building dedication, It may have been at the Wilson County Library, but it's been so long I can't remember. Wes Surratt was commander when I arrived.  He may have some details. It's a shame Elton has passed away, he was a treasure from back in the day.

As I recall, W03 was a AAF training base and the three-runway triangle was a common format so a downwind leg into the wind was always possible for the new pilots.  Correction -- according to the below, it was a Marine training base.

http://www.airfieldsdatabase.com/WW2/WW2%20R27a%20NJ-TN.htm



This 1994 picture clearly shows the well-used dirt path (that outlines a triangular patch of land) to the CAP building on the east side of the main access road leading to the FBO. the CAP building itself is obscured in this shot.


OLFs

The Navy and Marines referred to the major facilities as Naval Air Station (NAS) or Naval Air Facility (NAF) and Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS).  The next tier down was a Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) or Naval Auxiliary Air Facility (NAAF) and  Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station (MCAAS).  Support airfields were referred to as Out Lying Field (OLF).  Normally, the Navy and Marines named there OLFs.  The Navy also had a number system that was associated with the property referred to as Naval Air Facility (NAF).  An example of this form of identification is NAF-12345.  Fields identified by these numbers (a lot of charts showed OLFs this way) also had names.  Most of the names have been determined.  Just for confusion, many of the OLFs associated with Corpus Christi's NAS used "names" which were numbers too! (e.g. NAF 25519 - OLF No. 2B).  Have not been able to locate all of the OLF names associated with Clinton NAS in Oklahoma and Hutchinson NAS in Kansas.

This is perhaps why W03 isn't mentioned in other histories beside places like Seymour Johnson and Charlotte since Wilson was just an OLF. Seems like I remember the old Rocky Mount Airport was some type of military auxiliary field as well.

[TarRiverRat]

Thanks.  I remember being told that W03 was attached to Cherry Point Marine Air Station as an auxiliary field. Heard from some of the older people in the area that they remember seeing Corsairs sitting on the ramp from time to time.