Senior Member Encampment

[ZigZag911]

Region SAR Comps are coming back, at least in NER....I was asked to go, but couldn't get off that weekend...I was told that the mission management portion is 'table top' simulation only, not sure how I feel about that....how do you show your SAR skills if the air & ground aren't integrated under direction of mission management team?

Anyway, something like this sounds worthwhile, IF there is a degree of 'realism'....that is, when you task a GT or aircrew to go do something, somebody actually does it!

[sardak]

I was on a SARCOMP team twice in the 80's, once on the ground team and once on the mission management team.  Aircrew, management and ground team worked independent exercises occurring simultaneously.  The ground team was 2 seniors and 3 cadets performing field exercises, the aircrews flew different types of sorties and the management portion was a table top exercise.  I have mixed memories of them because they were poorly managed.

Tabletops in general can certainly task the participants' skills if designed properly.  For a SAR management team the idea is to test the team's ability to manage field resources, which doesn't actually require them.  One can certainly devise a realistic tabletop that results in the teams' sweating (almost) as hard as if they had real field resources to manage.

The latest in wildland fire management training are "tactical decision games" (TDGS) and "sand table exercises' (STEX) in which a tabletop exercise is implemented in 3D.  They can include terrain features, miniature trees, vehicles, etc.  Imagine your kid's (or your's) sandbox or model train layout being used to evaluate a team or individual's capability to manage a situation.  ICs are now being required to participate in TDGSs.  Here is a link to a TDGS site:
http://www.fireleadership.gov/toolbox/TDG_Library/default.htm

Mike

[SJFedor]

Let me bounce this hare brained (can't be hair - I don't have enough to spare) idea around. After all with tweaking it might not be that terrible.

Not so much an encampment but a senior oriented (not exclusive) national activity. The idea would be a very large scale training exercise to allow regions and wings to send candidates to learn and bring back skills and information to teach others. It would be sort of a CAP REDFLAG

It would involve air ops, ground ops, ICS, Comm, basically everything we do. A large, multiple tasking exercise, evaluate it, and then try it again using what we learned. The graduates take it back (like REDFLAG) to the wings and squadrons.  By doing it nationally, it can help bond the organization at the top level and bring in good stuff for everywhere. It can also help teach interoperability and build standardization.

Note, this should not be a school but a hands on teaching exercise. modeled on the Flag exercises. Participants should be selected by their commanders   with the obligation to come back and teach other members.

Not that it wouldn't be a blast...

If CAP wants something elite, this would be it. A chance to participate in something like this is a great incentive to rise to a standard.  It's a chance to practice and demonstrate what we can do, get PR, use our gear, and have a  ah bunch of fun.

Comments?

Yeah... it's pretty much what NESA is currently doing. Problem is, getting all the interested parties from across the country to one central location, without blowing too much of their own $$.