Identifying Mission Staff positions

[ELTHunter]

The IC should be busy running the mission, not going through his call list to ID and locate mission personnel.  As an ES Officer, I consider it my job to help the IC's get the resources they need, whether they be manpower or equipment.  When I get a mission handed down from Wing, I call the IC's until I get one who can run the mission.  Then I alert the Air Ops guy so he can start getting crews, and the squadron commanders so they can stand up there ground teams.  From there, the IC tells us what he needs.  Usually, the IC's find thier own replacements, but the should know I'm always there to help them find what they need.

[DNall]

It is the ICs job to round up mission staff as soon as he is alerted.  He should be calling folks right after getting off with AFRCC.  If has been sitting on his butt watching tv instead of doing this, in expectations that he will have enough randomly qualified people show up the next day, he needs to be fired.   The IC should already know who is qualified for various staff positions and they should be in his speed dial.  The same goes for the pilot and his aircrew and the GT Leader and his team.

All the essentiall staffing should be known before anyone shows up at base.  Sure, invite un-assigned people to show up just in case there is a need for them, but they're the only ones who shouldn't know what they're doing when the mission opens. 

What next day? You get the call & have teams at base in 60 minutes & in the field in 90. The IC gets a call from the alerting officer, plots the hits/LKP, dertermines what teams are needed for an initial search, calls people till he has those teams on the way to base, then gets changed & goes to the base himself. If 12 hours later it looks like this is going to be an ongoing major search, then the NOC & Wg call people to take over, who may or may not show up.

Katrina was no small deal & plenty of people all over the country were ready to go, but the NOC & the mission base were not on the same page & no one was ever alerted to fill certain critical positions (logistics was mentioned among others). Most normal REDCAPs are decent sized operations, but like all of CAP they tend to always be shorthanded & inconsistently staffed. It is VERY normal that you pick people up off GTs/Aricrews to serve in staff positions (how many AOBDs showed up to fly but didn't have a crew). It's even more practical when you want to find assistants or staff for those critical positions. Personally, if I saw my PSC was overwhelmed & I saw someone waiting to go out on a GT wearing a personnel badge, and I knew that tech included MSA & the senior/master rating included PSC, then I'd be greatful to have that info so I could reassign them to help my people.

I don't know where you guys have been runnning missions out of, but being in uniform has always been enough for any LE I've ever seen. If oyu have a cop working your door to keep CAP members out that aren't lead staff positions, there's something seriously wrong there.

[ZigZag911]

I'd prefer NOT to have Vests or clip on IDs or armbands, all that just looks stupid, and frankly anyone who doesn't know what position you're in doesn't need to be disturbing you.

Most of the ICS/NIMS training I have gone through recommends that people wear position identification as much as practical.  This is probably more critical when the CAP mission staff is co-located with other incident operations which probably isn't often.  Of course that will be when the fact that CAP operates with its own mini-ICS command structure could cause difficulties. 

Actually, there is a position that covers that situation, Agency Liaison (1,2,or3, just like IC)....this officer is in overall command of CAP personnel/assets but clearly reports to the Incident Commander from another agency (which is likely to be state OEM, or maybe police or fire)

[ZigZag911]

If the IC is picking his mission staff based on who shows up at the base that day, he needs to be fired.  That should have been worked out the night before.  He also shouldn't need to be hunting around that morning trying to find someone to fill a job based on a badge they're wearing on their BDUs (and since many won't be wearing the badge they're qualified for anyway, that wouldn't be a good search strategy). 

True for a SAREX....what about an actual (non-ELT) aircraft distress mission? 

[RiverAux]

It should be the same for actual missions too depending on the size of the mission.  If an IC gets alerted for a missing aircraft mission and knows it will be an all-hands on-deck operation, they (or someone else they designate) should be finding qualified mission staff people to fill the critical positions as soon as possible.

Sure, depending on how much daylight you have in front of you after getting the call, there will be a period where the priority is to get planes up and moving towards the search area, but pretty quickly after that the IC's priority should be making sure they have adequate help to run the mission. 

And, yes a certain amount of pick-up will be played in terms of finding assistants and less critical staff positions from those who show up.  I've got no problems with that.  But, at a minimum, the IC should know who his Ops, Air Ops, Ground Ops, and Comm people are before he walks in the door of the base.

As to badges, since a fair number of CAP people wear the golf shirts, many without any names on them, I do think it is a good idea to wear the position badges, especialy if you're gathering people together from all over who probably don't know each other very well.  If it is a tight-knit staff that works together all the time, its not critical, but not a big inconvenience either.   

[arajca]

There is a problem with the same group running all the missions all the time. You end up with them being burned out and, since only those members are called, no one else trains because they will not get called, so you have no depth from which to draw from.

In a paid, career organization, this problem is somewhat mitigated, but in a volunteer org, it's huge.

It's human nature to want familiar faces and people you know when working in a high stress environment, but the cost of that comfort is alienating the rest of the members. We've seen the same thing happen with aircrews and ground teams. For example:
IC knows aircrew xyz is good and relies on them as his 'alert' crew and never calls anyone else because he knows xyz will get the job done. One day xyz is not available and he is scrabbling trying to come up with a pilot he can trust, only to find - in his experience - there aren't any because he never called anyone else. Before you start in one the plethora of aircrews available, remember, CAP has an extremely limited number of qualified (according to CAP) IC's (CO only has 3 or 4 out of 1500 members) and they tend to call out their 'reliable' crews and not open the mission to the general membership until the second or third day - which the missions seldom go to.

[RiverAux]

At all levels CAP should be doing its best to train and use as many different people as possible and should avoid the good old boy syndrome when picking staff or crews.  However, you always have to balance that goal with the fact that in day to day life some people can be counted on to be available at the drop of a hat while others have other demands on their time and may or may not be able to help.  How much time should be spent alerting the "old reliables" vs searching out new blood to help is always tricky. 

[Eclipse]

I believe you were in Ms for Katrina? The after action report I read talked about a situation I've seen a hundred times (well 50 anyway), in which there is an IC & a bunch of people showing up at base but there's no logistics or PSC or GBD or much else. People tend to show up for the sexy jobs or to be in charge & don't much like the in-between. ALL but one of the times I've flown actual missions as an observer were when I deployed at a GTL/GTM & the wings seen on my uniform got me moved to an aircrew.

Wearing the badge doesn't mean you are qual'ed, it only means you earned it at some point in your career.  Its the 101's that say who is qual'ed.

[TankerT]

Wearing the badge doesn't mean you are qual'ed, it only means you earned it at some point in your career.  Its the 101's that say who is qual'ed.

Exactly...

It's kinda like the tatoo that says you love Margaret... even though she left you and you're now married to Janet... it's the marraige license that says your married...

/Not directed at Eclipse...
//Just saying...

[Pylon]

Wearing the badge doesn't mean you are qual'ed, it only means you earned it at some point in your career.  Its the 101's that say who is qual'ed.

Exactly...

It's kinda like the tatoo that says you love Margaret... even though she left you and you're now married to Janet... it's the marraige license that says your married...

/Not directed at Eclipse...
//Just saying...

Sounds like the voice of experience.