It NEVER Fails....
Well...for me at least. I arrive home from work around 2230, plop down in my recliner, pop open a ice cold soda and flip it to the History Channel. Five minutes later (just when I'm getting into the program), I hear the very distinct noise of my cell phone screaming at the top of it's voice. (After a few "colorful metaphors")... "Cooridnates? Dual 21-5 and 243? Roger Ma'am, 3926 will be up in 10 minutes with SL410 online in 5 via HF and channel 1/6 victor ." I kiss my wife goodnight and run out the door. (She's in CAP too....she understands).
There goes a quiet evening....Then comes the "self-interrorgation"...Is this an actual downed aircraft? Was it an absent minded mechanic acidentally bumping the switch? Is it a result of the thunderstorms that rolled through earlier? I work at an FBO....OH GOD! DID I TRIGGER IT !!!???!?!?!! (Thankfully hasn't happened yet!)
For many of us, this is what happens when AFRCC comes calling. We never know when or where, so the best medicine we've discovered here in the Lowcountry is to expect the unexpected, prepare for the worst. Hopefully, this will serve as a "guide" of sorts to help you sharpen your response time and get you out there in the field searching as soon as possible.
So, how does one go about doing as such...expecting the unexpected? For starters, talk to your SQ Alerting Officer. Have none? Talk to the IC's at your WG HQ. Give them your name, E-Mail address and telephone number(s). List your ES quals and request that you be placed on the alerting roster for your SQ. If you have a cell phone...take the loudest ring tone you can find and make it so when anyone related to CAP calls or text-messages you, your neighbor 3 blocks down will know you're on a REDCAP. Why you ask? Something has to wake you up to be activated at 0300 now doesn't it?
Now you're ready to save the country from the terrors of that little orange box. Or are you?
You can't just run out the door on a REDCAP with no gear. In fact, all that GT/UDF training might go out the door when you arrive at mission base in nothing more than a green suit. The IC tells you to take a mission base assistant position, or worse....sends you home. All because you didn't have the required gear for the type mission. Yes, I have seen this happen. Granted the IC or your Team Leader might not be as strict as to send you home, but if you go out with no equipment, it's like spitting into the wind. Not much point in that is there?
If you have not a copy of the GT/UDF Manual, my strong advice is to obtain one as soon as possible. This is practically the bible of CAP ground operations. Listed near the front are all the required items for 24 and 72 hour packs. Buying all the items at once can be rather pricey to say the least, so if your budget does not allow for such a purchase, buy the most important items (first aide kit, flashlight, compass, notepads/pens) first, then add to the pack as your budget allows. Soon enough, you'll have a 24/72 up there along the lines of people that have been doing this for years. Or at minimum, some cadet that has a well to do parental unit.
So what to keep all this stuff in? Check the Yellow Pages for local surplus stores, maybe even a pawn shop or two. They're an EXCELLENT source of cheap, very high quality gear. These shops are usually packed wall to wall with old ALICE packs, which will hold everything you need and then some. Be sure to pick up a web belt while you're there...there's 1001 uses to hang gear on these rather comfortably (they look good too). Many of us choose to use mil surplus duly stated to the fact that with normal use, it is nearly indestructable, or pretty darn close. Rummage around in the local shop and see what you can find, then find a way to adapt it to your use. Rifle tripod holders for web belts make an excellent 4D MagLite holder, ammo cans (.30 and .50 cals) are great to store radios (you can fit 10 ISR's in a .30 can), batteries etc...and are pretty water resistant too. A few web belt .223 ammo pouches work just fine to clip a first aide kit, small flashlight, insect repellant handheld GPS receiver in a ziploc bag, nomex gloves.....the list can go on and on.
However, there is not a single reg stating that your equipment has to be anything to the extent of the Itailan CFP2002 that I personally carry. If you learn one thing from my little article here, it is by all means...DO WHAT IS COMFORTABLE AND QUICK FOR YOU! Use the Nike backpack you carried last year in school or the old duffel bag in the closet. Ask a family member who hunts or camps for an old (make sure it's not worn out) hiking pack. Be inventive and think outside the box. Just last week a newly qualified GT3 cadet showed me his 24 hour pack in a medium sized "fanny pack thing" and his 72 on a hiker's backpack his father gave him. It was clean, neat, comfortable for him, and he had every piece of equipment required in the manual at an arms reach.
Speaking of being creative...compact discs make for a great signal mirror... (Thanks to LTC Morris for that one).
Once you have everything, and I can't state this enough...CHECK IT ON A REGULAR BASIS!!! Don't want to be called out into the field with a dead flashlight or a rotten energy bar now. On our team, we have a monthly mandatory equipment check where we open everything and just check it. If something is broken or needs to be replaced, we do as such. Remember your 4R's. Rest, refit, replenish and repair. (I forget the order of precidence here, but you get the idea). Throw a few MRE's in there from the surplus store as well. They'll be a life saver when you're on those long missions or SAREX'es. They have a halflife similar to Uranium so they'll last. Trust me.
Now, and only now are you ready to go. Keep that pack at an arm's reach at any time. Keep it in the trunk of your car, or in a locker at the SQ. If your parental unit or spouse allows, near the door (not as a doorstop). You will then officially be a SAR warrior, sitting in your recliner, drinking ice cold soda and watching the History Channel when out of nowhere.....................
(/insert colorful metaphor)
First Lieutenant Christopher Bishop
Comm Officer- SC-056
There goes a quiet evening....Then comes the "self-interrorgation"...Is this an actual downed aircraft? Was it an absent minded mechanic acidentally bumping the switch? Is it a result of the thunderstorms that rolled through earlier? I work at an FBO....OH GOD! DID I TRIGGER IT !!!???!?!?!! (Thankfully hasn't happened yet!)
For many of us, this is what happens when AFRCC comes calling. We never know when or where, so the best medicine we've discovered here in the Lowcountry is to expect the unexpected, prepare for the worst. Hopefully, this will serve as a "guide" of sorts to help you sharpen your response time and get you out there in the field searching as soon as possible.
So, how does one go about doing as such...expecting the unexpected? For starters, talk to your SQ Alerting Officer. Have none? Talk to the IC's at your WG HQ. Give them your name, E-Mail address and telephone number(s). List your ES quals and request that you be placed on the alerting roster for your SQ. If you have a cell phone...take the loudest ring tone you can find and make it so when anyone related to CAP calls or text-messages you, your neighbor 3 blocks down will know you're on a REDCAP. Why you ask? Something has to wake you up to be activated at 0300 now doesn't it?
Now you're ready to save the country from the terrors of that little orange box. Or are you?
You can't just run out the door on a REDCAP with no gear. In fact, all that GT/UDF training might go out the door when you arrive at mission base in nothing more than a green suit. The IC tells you to take a mission base assistant position, or worse....sends you home. All because you didn't have the required gear for the type mission. Yes, I have seen this happen. Granted the IC or your Team Leader might not be as strict as to send you home, but if you go out with no equipment, it's like spitting into the wind. Not much point in that is there?
If you have not a copy of the GT/UDF Manual, my strong advice is to obtain one as soon as possible. This is practically the bible of CAP ground operations. Listed near the front are all the required items for 24 and 72 hour packs. Buying all the items at once can be rather pricey to say the least, so if your budget does not allow for such a purchase, buy the most important items (first aide kit, flashlight, compass, notepads/pens) first, then add to the pack as your budget allows. Soon enough, you'll have a 24/72 up there along the lines of people that have been doing this for years. Or at minimum, some cadet that has a well to do parental unit.
So what to keep all this stuff in? Check the Yellow Pages for local surplus stores, maybe even a pawn shop or two. They're an EXCELLENT source of cheap, very high quality gear. These shops are usually packed wall to wall with old ALICE packs, which will hold everything you need and then some. Be sure to pick up a web belt while you're there...there's 1001 uses to hang gear on these rather comfortably (they look good too). Many of us choose to use mil surplus duly stated to the fact that with normal use, it is nearly indestructable, or pretty darn close. Rummage around in the local shop and see what you can find, then find a way to adapt it to your use. Rifle tripod holders for web belts make an excellent 4D MagLite holder, ammo cans (.30 and .50 cals) are great to store radios (you can fit 10 ISR's in a .30 can), batteries etc...and are pretty water resistant too. A few web belt .223 ammo pouches work just fine to clip a first aide kit, small flashlight, insect repellant handheld GPS receiver in a ziploc bag, nomex gloves.....the list can go on and on.
However, there is not a single reg stating that your equipment has to be anything to the extent of the Itailan CFP2002 that I personally carry. If you learn one thing from my little article here, it is by all means...DO WHAT IS COMFORTABLE AND QUICK FOR YOU! Use the Nike backpack you carried last year in school or the old duffel bag in the closet. Ask a family member who hunts or camps for an old (make sure it's not worn out) hiking pack. Be inventive and think outside the box. Just last week a newly qualified GT3 cadet showed me his 24 hour pack in a medium sized "fanny pack thing" and his 72 on a hiker's backpack his father gave him. It was clean, neat, comfortable for him, and he had every piece of equipment required in the manual at an arms reach.
Speaking of being creative...compact discs make for a great signal mirror... (Thanks to LTC Morris for that one).
Once you have everything, and I can't state this enough...CHECK IT ON A REGULAR BASIS!!! Don't want to be called out into the field with a dead flashlight or a rotten energy bar now. On our team, we have a monthly mandatory equipment check where we open everything and just check it. If something is broken or needs to be replaced, we do as such. Remember your 4R's. Rest, refit, replenish and repair. (I forget the order of precidence here, but you get the idea). Throw a few MRE's in there from the surplus store as well. They'll be a life saver when you're on those long missions or SAREX'es. They have a halflife similar to Uranium so they'll last. Trust me.
Now, and only now are you ready to go. Keep that pack at an arm's reach at any time. Keep it in the trunk of your car, or in a locker at the SQ. If your parental unit or spouse allows, near the door (not as a doorstop). You will then officially be a SAR warrior, sitting in your recliner, drinking ice cold soda and watching the History Channel when out of nowhere.....................
(/insert colorful metaphor)
First Lieutenant Christopher Bishop
Comm Officer- SC-056
posted by AvGasPasser at 01:38
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