Iowa Wing CAP

[Pylon]

This letter from the Iowa Wing commander, addressed to Maj Gen Pineda, has been turning heads and generating a lot of discussion on both CadetStuff and CivilAirPortal.

It brings up some incredibly fresh thinking for how a CAP wing (and CAP as a whole) could or should be run.  And in Iowa, it has been run like this.

It's a long read... about 14 pages, but it is well worth reading the entire document if you ask me.

Comments?  Thoughts?

[mprokosch11]

The commander of the Iowa Wing has a great point. Wings that expand their relationship with the National Guard or other military affiliations will likely prosper and succeed.

P.S. If you have time this is definitely worth reading.

[mawr]

I was forwarded an email on 17 August 2006 that might show you some of CAP leadership's thinking.  In the wake of hurricane Katrina I believe that though we are the USAF Auxiliary, we will need to work with the US Army in future responses to large scale DR and HLS missions.

I've cut and pasted the body of the email only leaving out email addresses and phone numbers in the headers and footers for privacy reasons.

"General Bowling and General Pineda,



At your request, we were able to brief Maj Gen Bell today.  He is the Commanding General for the US Army's 81st Regional Readiness Command and his headquarters is in Birmingham, AL.  The "CAP 101" briefing with heavy emphasis on CAP's operational capabilities (to include SDIS and ARCHER) went very well.  General Bell asked several good questions indicating he is very interested in using CAP to support the 81st RRC's mission in the future. General Bell is responsible for providing Army support for the southeastern part of the United States.  He specifically mentioned they were responsible for providing personnel and equipment to support hurricane relief efforts (and other disasters) all across the southeast.  He expressed a lot of interest in using CAP's aerial reconnaissance capabilities to help the 81st pick the best routes to quickly deploy into a disaster area.   General Bell's paraphrased comments after the briefing were...I had no idea that Civil Air Patrol was more than a youth program...CAP really has numerous outstanding operational capabilities!  He concluded the meeting by thanking us for coming and saying he was going to put his G3 (Operations Chief) in touch with us so we can begin working together.



81st RRC website:

http://www.armyreserve.army.mil/USARC/RRC/0081RRC/0081_RRC_Overview.htm





General Bowling, I would like to thank you for paving the way for this very productive meeting. 



V/R   



John A. Salvador"
Director of Missions, HQ CAP

[flyguy06]

I was forwarded an email on 17 August 2006 that might show you some of CAP leadership's thinking.  In the wake of hurricane Katrina I believe that though we are the USAF Auxiliary, we will need to work with the US Army in future responses to large scale DR and HLS missions.

I've cut and pasted the body of the email only leaving out email addresses and phone numbers in the headers and footers for privacy reasons.

"General Bowling and General Pineda,


Actually, 1st Army, Commanded by LTG Honore' is responsible for all disater relief efforts east of the Mississippi. MG Bell is a Reserve General and the 81st RRC supports operational Reserve units in the southeastern US



At your request, we were able to brief Maj Gen Bell today.  He is the Commanding General for the US Army's 81st Regional Readiness Command and his headquarters is in Birmingham, AL.  The "CAP 101" briefing with heavy emphasis on CAP's operational capabilities (to include SDIS and ARCHER) went very well.  General Bell asked several good questions indicating he is very interested in using CAP to support the 81st RRC's mission in the future. General Bell is responsible for providing Army support for the southeastern part of the United States.  He specifically mentioned they were responsible for providing personnel and equipment to support hurricane relief efforts (and other disasters) all across the southeast.  He expressed a lot of interest in using CAP's aerial reconnaissance capabilities to help the 81st pick the best routes to quickly deploy into a disaster area.   General Bell's paraphrased comments after the briefing were...I had no idea that Civil Air Patrol was more than a youth program...CAP really has numerous outstanding operational capabilities!  He concluded the meeting by thanking us for coming and saying he was going to put his G3 (Operations Chief) in touch with us so we can begin working together.



81st RRC website:

http://www.armyreserve.army.mil/USARC/RRC/0081RRC/0081_RRC_Overview.htm





General Bowling, I would like to thank you for paving the way for this very productive meeting. 



V/R   



John A. Salvador"
Director of Missions, HQ CAP

[flyguy06]

I read the letter and tink its great. I wish our state had an agreement with our state National Guard. I am in the Guard myself and know thta we dont

[Eclipse]

Since this is obviously a shared, but different audience from Cadetstuff and Capblog, I'll put here what I posted there:

************************

Synopsis:
We're working with the IANG - it was a PITA to get started, but once we learned our place and figured out how to stop wasting people's time, we got some real effective things moving forward.

******

I applaud their efforts as well, and we are discussing with some of their leaders, as well as their LO, how to emulate and expand on what they have done here in ILWG.

They have been able to accomplish and maintain a lot of things that we in ILWG have managed to screw up repeatedly - one prime example would be the Mississippi River flights they do on a regular basis - we managed to mess up the relationship with the state ES people on our side of the river, and years later we are still not back in the air, and this is in spite of the fact that one of the IEMA decision makers on this is also in CAP.

It needs to be said, though, that IAWG's numbers are fairly small for the size of their state - I understand about 250-300 members total. We've got that many in just my Group.

In fact, in a state that is only about 2% smaller than Illinois, they have only 23% as many people as IL. So I'll bet these guys spend a lot of time driving.

My point here is that the smaller the group of people, the easier it is to turn them all in one direction.

And perhaps they have hit on the solution. Its possible that the sheer hassle of the travel has weeded many of the GOB's and naysayers, and by default resulted in a leaner, more committed force. I understand they are pretty tight with the Red Cross as well.

A regular discussion by many people in ILWG
is that of the 12-1500 members (depending on renewal cycle) there's probably only about 300 who are actually fully engaged, and of those, maybe 100 that are worth anything in a real ES situation.

Which is still saying SOMETHING to our ES customers - I can give you 100 skilled people for the cost of gas.

However it's not where we should be.

[ZigZag911]

Centralization certainly has its benefits, especially in a wing with manageable membership levels, like Iowa.

In states with larger CAP memberships -- or even simply more congested traffic!-- the centralization won't work as well.

Furthermore, what happens when a natural disaster or HLS event cuts off access to the central 'brain' of the organization??

In these larger wings, groups can (and often do) bridge this gap....when the wing staffs are mature enough not to feel threatened by officers of similar expertise to their own....and when the squadrons learn to stop resenting supervision.

I once heard a group commander explain to his unit commanders that this was not the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars, and they were not Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey, frigate captains with near total autonomy from HQ!!

This 'team' concept was not well received!

[M.S.]

I was following a big discussion on "The Portal" about Iowa Wing's new way of doing things.  I know there was a large document floating around the internet from their Wing Commander that explained a lot of what they were doing and i didn't see any discussion of that here.  does anybody have that document to post and to discuss?

[Ricochet13]

Here you go . . .

[NEBoom]

I'll go ahead and give this thread a bump.  This was one of the biggest conversations over on the Portal, and I guess we can resume it here (mods willing).

As Lt Col Critelli said in one of his posts over on the Portal, a small delegation from Nebraska Wing visited the October Iowa WTA.  I was one of them, and I'd like to share some very basic thoughts and observations.

You have to approach the whole Iowa reorganization with an open mind.  To be sure, there are a couple of things they're doing over there that don't make me entirely comfortable, but I have to say that they are for the most part on the right track.

Is the Iowa system perfect?  Nope (and the leadership there knows this which is why they're continually making adjustments and changes).  But let me say this.  I've been around CAP for about 20 years now and Iowa is a heck of a lot  closer to perfect than I've ever seen in CAP.  Period.

CAP has always suffered, IMO, because it never seems to reach its great potential.  Sadly, it seldom even comes close, at least in these parts.  In Iowa Wing, they've taken concrete steps to move CAP toward its true potential as an organization that serves the country, and I applaud them for it.

I also want to say that it's been years and years since I've seen such a large group of people who are so enthusiastic about CAP, and so proud and professional in their demeanor.  Our small delegation was met with open arms from litterally everyone we met that day.  The enthusiasm and esprit these people have for what they're doing was awesome to see.  We would do well to replicate it elsewhere in the organization.

GO IOWA!!  :clap:

[Major_Chuck]

I've long argued that CAP has missed the HLS boat because we tried to be all things to all people while never really defining our mission and relationships with the military.  "Performing Missions for America"  really doesn't do it because we don't know what those missions are for the large part.

Partnering with the Guard (Army and Air) is the best proactive move I've seen in 17 years and I applaud Iowa and other wings that move in tha direction.

[ZigZag911]

As Lt Col Critelli said in one of his posts over on the Portal, a small delegation from Nebraska Wing visited the October Iowa WTA.  I was one of them, and I'd like to share some very basic thoughts and observations.

You have to approach the whole Iowa reorganization with an open mind.  To be sure, there are a couple of things they're doing over there that don't make me entirely comfortable, but I have to say that they are for the most part on the right track.

Is the Iowa system perfect?  Nope (and the leadership there knows this which is why they're continually making adjustments and changes).  But let me say this.  I've been around CAP for about 20 years now and Iowa is a heck of a lot  closer to perfect than I've ever seen in CAP.  Period.

I think the Iowa effort is indeed something we should all look at and see how it can be adapted to our local situation.

A lot depends on the willingness of the  National Guard to get involved.

And, in the larger wings (NY, TX, CA) this may need to be 'regionalized'....maybe for a group, or a cluster of groups.

[DNall]

There was some pretty good discussion there about how this could apply elsewhere. My group for instance is roughly the size of Iowa & has about a thousand members. If we were to bring something like this concept over, it's a no brainer it'd be executed at the Gp level w/ Wg supervision. We also have some good Wg centralized programs working here & I'd like to see those continue as best as possible but be tied in to some extent also.

I too am uncomfortable with a couple aspects of what they're doing over there. As most of you know, moving CAP to the NG Bureau was considered recently by Air Staff & shot down. I agree with that decision, because while we do need to work extensively with the Army side on disaster response & other such missions, we also need the AF & that cultural identity. A move to 1AF was also considered & shot down. That made much more sense to me. They have AFRCC, DR & HLS missions, and control mostly ANG units (Fighter Wings mostly). If I were going to take Iowa's program nation wide it'd be partnered w/ 1AF rather than individual states, which I think gives you the best of all worlds.

This is all pretty far out there & probably wouldn't be worth considering if Iowa weren't out there doing it in the real world already.

[Nick Critelli]

I'll probably regret doing this but here goes...

In forming the IAWG program,  our due diligence indicated that we needed a partner within state government in order to  achieve our goal of  maintaining a constant flow of missions and funding.  Several agencies and  departments were considered.  As you know we decided that the National Guard would be our partner. 

In researching the Guard we were shocked to see the parallels which developed between the Guard and the Patrol.  For example, the Guard has a  US Code Title 10 military mission when operating under presidential orders.  CAP also has a USCode Title 10 military mission when operating under orders from any federal agency or department ("A" missions).  At all other times the Guard operates under USCode Title 32 status which forms the basis for its state based missions involving support to civilian autorities.  So it is with the Patrol.   When not operating under Title 10 ("A" missions) the Patrol operates under Title 36 which defines our emergency services/disaster relief status.  Both the Guard and the Patrol are dual status organizations.  This fact alone has proven to be a kindred link between the two organizations.  Culturally and  politically (within the state as well as the federal government)  the Guard and Patrol are extremely compatible. That's why we chose the Guard as our partner.

Nick Critelli
Chief of Staff -- Iowa Wing.

[ZigZag911]

I'll probably regret doing this but here goes...

In forming the IAWG program,  our due diligence indicated that we needed a partner within state government in order to  achieve our goal of  maintaining a constant flow of missions and funding.  Several agencies and  departments were considered.  As you know we decided that the National Guard would be our partner. 

In researching the Guard we were shocked to see the parallels which developed between the Guard and the Patrol.  For example, the Guard has a  US Code Title 10 military mission when operating under presidential orders.  CAP also has a USCode Title 10 military mission when operating under orders from any federal agency or department ("A" missions).  At all other times the Guard operates under USCode Title 32 status which forms the basis for its state based missions involving support to civilian autorities.  So it is with the Patrol.   When not operating under Title 10 ("A" missions) the Patrol operates under Title 36 which defines our emergency services/disaster relief status.  Both the Guard and the Patrol are dual status organizations.  This fact alone has proven to be a kindred link between the two organizations.  Culturally and  politically (within the state as well as the federal government)  the Guard and Patrol are extremely compatible. That's why we chose the Guard as our partner.

Nick Critelli
Chief of Staff -- Iowa Wing.

Sir, the results I've read about have been impressive.

A lot of factors would impact how readily your solution could be applied in another wing....but the important thing for the present is that it's working for Iowa Wing..... I wish you continued success in the effort!

[Nick Critelli]

Thanks for your kind remarks.  It's not been without problems.  We've changed a culture and that always brings discord.  We've debugged it and we're up and running. 

There is a very noticible change of spirit.  The negativity has gone and excitement and enthusiam has surfaced.  I keep reminding myself that people join the Patrol out of a desire to help their community.  These are fundamentally very good people who want to put back into society rather than take away. They are happiest when they are giving back and seeing some appreciation for it.  If that doesn't happen they can get downright negative and start griping and complaining about everything.  The solution: Keep them fulfilled by doing good and eciting things as a part of a team.

NC

[lordmonar]

The only problem I have with the Iowa Wing plan.....is that if they try to force it on to every wing, and some wings may not have the same state level support.

Iowa is able to do such wonderful stuff because the NG is willing to pony up the money and facilities to support it. 

Not everystate can or is willing to do that.

But other than than...I think it is a great way of doing business.

[Nick Critelli]

I learned long ago that "forcing" anything or anybody doesn't work.

The number one lesson from IAWG that I would like everyone to learn is that it is all about  good, positive and strong relationships.  If you have them you can do just about everything.  If you have no relationships nothing will get done.  If you have bad or negative relationships you are doomed to failure.  The IAWG had all three.  As we built positive relationships we found that the negative ones were bringing us down so we had to take steps to eliminate them.  Negativism was the single worse thing we had in our Wing.  We still have some but we hope that by our actions and success those who harbor them will begin to change.  As we say, lead, follow or stand down.  Some have stood down and transferred to other Wings.  We respect their choice. 

NC

[Pylon]

I think there's certainly a lot of great ideas and lessons to be learned from the Iowa Wing model.  There was definitely some great and creative thinking behind setting this up.  I love the idea of aligning with the National Guard.

As someone pointed out earlier in this discussion thread, there are great similiarities between the Guard and CAP, in both formal/legal matters and how we do business.  In addition, within the Air Force, I think CAP, as a whole, would do better being aligned under the AF Reserve Command, rather than Air Education Training Command.

Good discussion!

[RogueLeader]

Did they want to leave, or were they told diplomatically to "Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"