SCWG CAP-USAF SAREVAL

[Brad]

Well, after an incredibly long day, this year's CAP-USAF SAREVAL for SCWG is over. Overall grade of Marginal, if only for the weather conditions, lack of backup members on certain positions, and no Finance staffing. Upside though, Communications received Outstanding, and I am proud to say that I helped make that happen. I originally was going to fly one aircrew sortie as mission scanner, then work comms for the next sortie to pick up an entry for my MRO-trainee status. Well, 1430Z or so comes around, and we're still not being tasked, having been on-base since 1200Z. So, I ask if I could go ahead and work comms until I get tasked to an aircrew. Seems the weather had other plans. We only had a max of two aircrews and ground teams out at a time, because there was a nasty slow-moving storm front pushing eastward across the state all day. So I maxed out my crew day hours working both sorties as MRO. Not that I'm complaining though, I already sit behind a radio all day at work as a police dispatcher. Also, not only did I fill up the marks for my MRO SQTR sheet, CAP-USAF presented me with a Liason Region Commander's Coin for all the hard work I did on comms, WOO! I'll get a picture up when I'm not so frickn' tired. Sandlapper 535 out.

[wingnut]

SCWG CAP-USAF SAREVAL, "Overall grade of Marginal"

CAWG came out the same way, well are we not sharp. PAWG, shut down, marginals in some major Wings, I could report on some other issues but not here. I think we need a Lube Job. Or maybe we are slipping a little too much.

[SAR-EMT1]

Any talk of SCWG or CAWG needing ORM?

[Short Field]

IIRC Oregon and Nevada had "Overall Excellent" ratings in the last six months or so.

[Brad]

Any talk of SCWG or CAWG needing ORM?

Not that I heard of. Safety got really good marks actually; we stressed ORM sheets and such like no tomorrow.

[SJFedor]

Tennessee had an overall of "Excellent" last summer.

[KyCAP]

I am IC of the SAREVAL in KY in less than a month.... Wish us well, I think that we are well prepared.

[flynd94]

SCWG CAP-USAF SAREVAL, "Overall grade of Marginal"

CAWG came out the same way, well are we not sharp. PAWG, shut down, marginals in some major Wings, I could report on some other issues but not here. I think we need a Lube Job. Or maybe we are slipping a little too much.

And we know why we got a Marginal at the SAREVAL.  Why won't you let the good folks know how the AF Monitored SAREX went a couple of months ago.  If I am correct CAWG did a bang up job.  Wonder if it has anything to do with that the SAREX was run by different players, who actually know what they are doing.  It was the first time in a long time that the SAREX was based in NorCAL.  JMHO

PS-  I know many on the staff there got coins (for their superior performance)  from the AF Liaison's that were observing.  These are the same AF personnel that saw the debacle we called a SAREval last year

[SJFedor]

I am IC of the SAREVAL in KY in less than a month.... Wish us well, I think that we are well prepared.

Good luck! If you guys need some people for the "Plays well with others" category, let me know, I'll come up and play with ya.

[Brad]

Here's the article from the SCWG website:

SC Wing Passes USAF Evaluated SAR

Columbia SOUTH CAROLINA - Every two years, the SC Wing is graded by the USAF on its performance on a simulated mission involving multiple sorties with multiple aircraft and multiple ground teams operating simultaneously. This year's mission involved an aircraft downed in the aftermath of an earthquake. There were multiple ELT beacons, providing a challenge for the IC as to where to send air crews and ground teams and what kinds of searches to conduct.



In the midst of real afternoon thunderstorms, IC Capt Billy Geier and his staff worked to perhaps save a life in a downed aircraft and to save lives of passengers in a missing kayak during the exercise which took place at wing headquarters on Friday, 25 April and Saturday 26 April 2008

In the end, the USAF evaluators passed the SC Wing on its ability to safely and effectively conduct USAF missions, giving the wing the right to continue to conduct A, B, and C missions. Of course, the SC Wing mission staff wasn't satisfied with simply a "pass". "We would have preferred getting a higher rating, but we found that we have several areas of needed improvement. We all know what we could have done better. We're going to start doing tabletop exercises involving complex scenarios, such as those we might have in a real search and rescue mission," said Capt Geier.
LtCol Lewis Strough, the MELR Commander, gave his personal coin as rewards to four members of mission staff who went beyond the call of duty. Communications was singled out as "outstanding", with Capt Boykin Roseborough and 2Lt Brad Lee each getting a MELR Commander's coin. Others receiving coins in the day-and-a-half mission were 1Lt Mike Ragin for his role as the safety officer and for LtCol Dave Friedenberg. LtCol Gene Sullivan was praised by the USAF evaluators for his well-flown CD mission on Friday.

"We congratulate these USAF-recognized mission staff members for their excellent work under difficult circumstances. They provided the support so that the air crews and ground crews could do their work efficiently and safely. We had all the mission capable aircraft and vans that we needed. Those who prepared these aircraft and vans prior to bringing them to the exercise are to be commended. I thank Capt Geier for his work and that of mission staff and the USAF evaluators," said Col Emerson Smith, the SC Wing Commander.

[dbaran]

flynd94 - You are quite correct that CAWG did very well this year.  I was fortunate to be there and hear the very positive comments that were made  by the review team at the wrap-up.    It was quite clear to everyone  that it was completely different than what the AF had the misfortune to observe in the prior year.   

[MikeD]

flynd94 - You are quite correct that CAWG did very well this year.  I was fortunate to be there and hear the very positive comments that were made  by the review team at the wrap-up.    It was quite clear to everyone  that it was completely different than what the AF had the misfortune to observe in the prior year.   

So I'm confused.  Did CAWG do great, or get an overall grade of marginal?  Or are those for two different evaluations?

[KyCAP]

Sounds like the Guided Training Exercise recently held was a much better outcome than the SAREVAL the previous year and that the GTE was ran by different staff.

[PHall]

flynd94 - You are quite correct that CAWG did very well this year.  I was fortunate to be there and hear the very positive comments that were made  by the review team at the wrap-up.    It was quite clear to everyone  that it was completely different than what the AF had the misfortune to observe in the prior year.   

So I'm confused.  Did CAWG do great, or get an overall grade of marginal?  Or are those for two different evaluations?

Two different evals.  Marginal on the first one, much better on the second one.

[RiseAbove]

Does anybody know how MAWG did this month?

[MIKE]

I think the email said we passed.  I don't recall a specific rating, if one was given.

[MIGCAP]

MAWG was rated Outstanding.

[RiseAbove]

Great news, I haven't been able to get on the MAWG email lists because Wing HQ won't recognize that my membership info is in the system. 

[calguy]

And we know why we got a Marginal at the SAREVAL.  Why won't you let the good folks know how the AF Monitored SAREX went a couple of months ago.  If I am correct CAWG did a bang up job.  Wonder if it has anything to do with that the SAREX was run by different players, who actually know what they are doing.  It was the first time in a long time that the SAREX was based in NorCAL.  JMHO

PS-  I know many on the staff there got coins (for their superior performance)  from the AF Liaison's that were observing.  These are the same AF personnel that saw the debacle we called a SAREval last year


Good thing Northern California had weather.  Little flight activity, most was done in Southern California that received an "Outstanding".  Communications failed between the North and South and So Cal went on auto pilot and we did well.  Our crew was launched and we were one of only a few crews that were able to post our photos in a timely manner.  Our AF reservist was so impressed with our base and staff that they left early and very pleased.  The report he told us about why we were not getting instructions was that the other base was in chaos.  The staff down south only had 3 or 4 staff and ran most of the taskings for the Wing.  Kudos to them!  I saw the closing traffic said he North had 40 staff and little taskings accomplished.

[dbaran]

I'm sorry you'd like to think that the March CAWG GTE was a failure; it wasn't, at least according to the state of CA OES, USAF, and CAWG (at the debrief, the statement was made that it would have gotten an "excellent" if this was the year to be graded).

There was a lot of flying in So Cal, but also a lot in Nor Cal.  Communications NEVER failed; the AF was extremely impressed with how the CAWG DC had arranged to bring in state OES and sherriff comm resources - comments like "We've never seen such extensive use of HF," "The way you guys used IM was excellent and is something we're going to take to other wings" and the Wing DC got a challenge coin.   

No issues with photos; the comments were "Best we've seen in 9 years".  Both So Cal and Nor Cal did fine.  Neither base was in chaos; the OSC at the North one got a challenge coin as well, and the AF was highly complementary of the base IC for how well organized things were.

In case you're curious, a young UDF standard got a challenge coin for quickly nailing a difficult practice ELT with two trainees in a place where a CAP aircraft couldn't go (under the San Francisco International Airport final approach course ... about a mile from the end of the runway!).

One common misconception was that the CAP people had much control over the tasking - they didn't.  The calls came in with the requests, and that determined where people were going and what they were going to do. 

This was run using ICS, and we had some people at the top who know it very well from their Forest Service, police, and CALFIRE work.  There was an overall area command that included the agency liaison function (to the AF and the state office of emergency services) and then a base in the north and one in the south. 

[calguy]

SCWG CAP-USAF SAREVAL, "Overall grade of Marginal"

CAWG came out the same way, well are we not sharp. PAWG, shut down, marginals in some major Wings, I could report on some other issues but not here. I think we need a Lube Job. Or maybe we are slipping a little too much.

And we know why we got a Marginal at the SAREVAL.  Why won't you let the good folks know how the AF Monitored SAREX went a couple of months ago.  If I am correct CAWG did a bang up job.  Wonder if it has anything to do with that the SAREX was run by different players, who actually know what they are doing.  It was the first time in a long time that the SAREX was based in NorCAL.  JMHO

PS-  I know many on the staff there got coins (for their superior performance)  from the AF Liaison's that were observing.  These are the same AF personnel that saw the debacle we called a SAREval last year

The last SAREVAL was in central California and they have folks that know what they were doing.   This year the IMU was not used by the IC and DDO because he had no idea how to make it work and didn't want to get dinged.   How was that a success?  They made it work down south just fine.  They ran the south ops with just 3 or 4 command staff and were told by the USAFR that they would have had an outstanding and the south ops ran most of the missions.  The guys down south and central arn't just a bunch of idiots.  Funny, IM has been used on missions for years down south, I am surprised you have just started to use it now up north.

[wingnut]

I am sorry my bad,

???hey did you just see the emperor? he has no clothes !! :clap: