ES Missions in NJ Wing?

[ReCAP]

I'm and ex-cadet (circa 1992) and now a recently minted Senior Member.  During the two years I was ground team qualified, I think I got called out once and they found the guy who forgot to close his flight plan by the time I got to mission base. 

My composite squadron is more of a cadet squadron at the moment (althought the CC is working to change that) and there's no one with ES experience. 

I'd like to eventually put some of that training to good use - what sort of ES missions might I expect in NJ?  In other words, what should I train for / get qualified for?  Or with the passing of 121.5 ELT's is CAP SAR pretty much a thing of the past? 

[Huey Driver]

NJWG could use all fields, but especially in mission management and aircrew.

We've still get our fair share of ELT missions, but not too many materialize into anything. Additionally, we do limited work with the military, primarily with NJARNG and some GIIEP. But last year, we had a >3,000% rise in Disaster Relief missions (Sandy), so that's an area where we really need to step it up. I believe that mission staff and aircrews are the most essential areas for us at the current time.

[ReCAP]

Thanks for the info.  Not really interested in staff, but aircrew would be interesting.  Too bad I wasn't able to attend the recent Mission Scanner training.  Looking at the SQTR, I could satisfy most of it with just a bit of study.   How about ground teams?  Anything going on there? 

[Huey Driver]

I want to say that there's like 4-6 mission-ready ground teams, and a handful of people with ratings who just get called depending on where the mission is. Up in North Jersey, UDF is the primary thing that they use, due to the amount of air traffic and ELTs that sometimes get activated. As for that, we've utilized Ground Teams for maybe a handful of actual missions on the past year... besides disaster relief.

Besides MS for aircrew, AP is needed too. Photo recon is becoming increasingly demanded for CAP, and we need people who are knowledgeable in the field.