|
TXWG 2007 Summer Encampment,
17-24 June
CAMP
MAXEY, TX – The Texas Wing 2007 Summer Encampment set itself apart from
other encampments by offering a Public Affairs Officer Boot Camp. As in
the past, the Basic Cadet Course got most of the student enrollment, and
two other specialized courses – Communications School and Ground Search
and Rescue Specialty School – trailed quite a bit behind it, yet ahead
of the brand-new PAO Boot Camp..
Not
surprisingly, the PAO Boot Camp had the lowest number of students,
although some cadets interested in PAO work had enrolled in the other
available course. Undeterred, the PAO Boot Camp Commander sought them
out and encouraged them to keep a log or diary, take photographs if they
could, and write notes about their experience. Time permitting, they
were asked to hand over them their work for evaluation and publications; otherwise,
they could write them after encampment and send them in when ready.
Staff Prepares to Run Encampment – Portfolio
(Photos: Capt Arthur E. Woodgate)
(Photo: C/CMSgt Elyshba Kempf)
(Photo: C/MSgt Marcela Leano)
(Photos: C/A1C Sarah Heitzmann)
Basic
Encampment – What CAP Cadet Life is All About
Cadet
Basics were scheduled to be at Encampment by 9 a.m. on Sunday, June 17. However,
for this to go well, much work needed to be done prior to their arrival.
This is why Staff personnel – from the Encampment Commander, Lt Col
Brooks Cima, to the youngest kitchen worker – started arriving on the
early afternoon of Friday, June 15. Quarters, training areas, mess hall
and kitchen facilities, supplies, communications, training schedules,
signage, training aids, and in-processing procedures had to be defined,
standardized and practiced.
The Texas
National Guard had generously loaned the use of Camp Maxey’s selected
buildings and training areas for the duration of the event, from June 15 through June
24. For the encampment staff and students, these would be nearly ten
days of non-stop activity. The Basic Cadet encampment is run by older,
trained cadets who, themselves, have attended the same course in their
younger years. As a rule, these trainer/leaders range in age from 15 to
19. They could be as old as 20, and – rarely – as young as 14.
The Cadet
Basics can be as young as 12 (in some cases 11, but that is a rarity), but some
might be as old as 17. This time, most
of them ranged from 13 to 15. This is normally Civil Air Patrol cadets' introduction to the
principles of leadership, behavior, and fundamental skills. Many students will
be experiencing a highly structured and
disciplined environment for the very first time ever, and a few will reject
it. In practice, after the initial shock, most of them develop a strong bond
of belonging and unit pride, maneuver their way around the hurdles of
the environment, work quite hard, and greatly increasing their level of physical
fitness.
From the
student cadets’ perspective, who rise at 5 a.m. and – exhausted –
welcome lights out at 10:15 p.m., their cadet instructors and TAC
officers (adult supervisors who oversee all aspects of their training)
are all-powerful and inexhaustible leaders. As far as the young trainees
can tell, their instructors and supervisors “know everything” and are
absolute rulers of their daily routine.
Blinded by their own predicament, the cadet students don't stop to
reason that their trainers and supervisors need to
rise before they do, in order to make sure that the cadet students rise
at the proper time and greet the day the right way. Nor do they give a second
thought to the cruel fact that these “demigods” they fear and respect
will need to remain “on the job” for yet another 45 minutes every day, and
won’t enjoy their own lights out until 11 p.m. These instructors and TAC
officers will consider themselves lucky if they get five and a half
hours of sleep a night.
For the cadet leader/instructors, teaching and mentoring younger cadets
is part of their own leadership requirements, which they must go through
in order to satisfy CAP promotion requirements. The TAC officers come in
"flavors." Some of them are prior
service military men and women who re-live some of their prior
experiences through their donated time and effort. Others are senior members
whose own children are in the CAP Cadet Programs. Yet others are just
civic-minded individuals who want to serve the community and foster the
development of young persons.
Initially, the cadet students view TAC officers as silent but
ever-present figures of undetermined power and authority. These
experienced adults are the guardians of propriety and are charged with mentoring the cadet
leaders, making the system work smoothly. The entire teaching structure is designed to help
young persons in their formative years acquire a sense of duty,
responsibility, self worth, and desire to do well. By the time
encampment comes to a close, just seven calendar days lived in an intense
succession of whirlwind events, the bewildered and lonely student has learned to fit into
the group, acquire pride of membership, and reach a plateau of comfort
within the structure of the Cadet Corps – a first step in the arduous
trip towards adulthood and useful membership in our society.
The Army National Guard is generous with their training aids as well.
They made Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Armored Personnel Carriers
available for cadet familiarization rides, and these got integrated into
the training schedule. During this one week of near-frantic activity,
cadet basics are exposed to rifle target practice, physical training,
indoor rifle range simulator, Bradley Combat Vehicle orientation,
physical training, Armored Personnel Carrier orientation, physical
training, aerospace education, moral leadership, physical training,
customs and courtesies of the service, physical training, traversing of
the confidence course, and lots of close order drill (marching)
instruction.
Yes, there is a great deal of physical training. The ancient Romans held
that happiness was rooted in the dictum mens sana in corpore sano
(a healthy mind in a healthy body). This has been foundational in
military and para-military training through the centuries, and CAP is no
exception. The cadets' food rations are adequate, their bedding meets
military standards, and the training grounds are safe and
well-maintained.
Suddenly, after days of ceaseless toil and perceived agony, the week is
nearly over and Saturday dawns on the eve of graduation. That Saturday
evening is devoted to a "dining in," an occasion that gives everyone an
opportunity to let off steam. In the military, a dining in is a high
protocol event that calls for very formal dress – not at this
encampment, though. The dress is casual in the extreme, but the spirits
are very, very high. The cadet basics know that they have only one last
thing left to do before they graduate and "earn their ticket home":
Passing in Review.
This year, the basic encampment cadets met the standards of the parade
field with confidence, dash and honor. Passing in review for the Texas
Wing Commander, they filed past in step and proudly, in the best
tradition of military generations of the past.
Basic Encampment – Portfolio
(Photos: Capt Arthur E. Woodgate)
(Photos: C/A1C Collin Cathcart)
(Photos: C/MSgt Marcela Leano)
 (Photos:
C/MSgt Ruby Moreno)
(Photos: C/A1C Sarah Heitzmann)
(Photos: Capt Jay Workman)
(Photos: Capt Arthur E. Woodgate)
(Photos: 1st Lt Cheri Fischler)
(Photos: 1st Lt Sue Kristoffersen}
Communications School – Keeping in Touch With the World
The Civil
Air Patrol conducts 95% of all inland Search and Rescue operations in
the Continental United States, and is in a state of constant alert,
ready to carry out its mission under any conditions short of total
devastation. This means that, in
the case of a natural disaster, it needs to have its own self-contained radio
communications equipment, personnel trained in its use, and be able to
transport and set up the equipment for optimal performance.
This course is offered to both cadets and adult CAP members, who are taught how to set up the antennas for VHF and HF
(long range) communications. The students are required to set up a link that works with
the Ground Search and Rescue Specialty School (GSARSS) equipment,
using UHF radios that have a range of about two miles.
The HF net can reach CAP units across Texas and even across into the
neighboring states, a network that is operational at specified times
across the area.
VHF is
commonly used in CAP vehicles, and the GSARSS students can use it to communicate
with Comms School, which for training purposes operates as “Mission Base”
for the GSARSS course environment.
Students learn how to set up
and operate under field conditions, practice for emergency missions when
an area has lost electrical power and all telephone communications – such as
happened in New Orleans and surround area during Hurricane Katrina – and build antennas for direction
finding, as well as HF and VHF radio communications.
Students
must have received their ROA training and be licensed by CAP (as an FAA
agent), which
empowers the individual to operate CAP radios – hand-held, vehicular
mounted, and fixed base. Classroom work covers the theory and practice
of communications, and is a mandatory prerequisite to field work and field operations.
Lab work
is also important. Here, the students learn how to solder, use test
equipment, and diagnose small problems with the radio’s proper
operation.
Besides
the technical aspects of getting radio equipment to work in concert, the
students engage in extensive radio message exchanges. Each students is
assigned to one of three groups that train individually. This
arrangement gives the
instructors a better chance to verify that each student has acquired the right
skills.
At the
end of the course, students are evaluated and, if found
knowledgeable, they are checked off on the Mission Radio Operator
skills. Once they have worked in this capacity during two missions
(actual or training), they'll earn their MRO rating.
Communications School – Portfolio
(Photos: C/CMSgt Elyshba Kempf)
(Photos: C/MSgt Marcela Leano)
(Photos: C/CMSgt Michael Moody)
(Photos: C/MSgt Ruby Moreno)
(Photos: Capt Jay Workman)
Ground
Search and Rescue Specialty School (GSARSS)
This is one tough school, and in fact it
clearly advertised as such. To be acceptable, the student must be fit
and in good physical condition.. It is physically
demanding, taught under high stress conditions, and requires a lot of
academic as well as hands-on learning. As the course progresses,
students are awakened at odd hours and required to participate as
working members of a search party during a simulated emergency.
Emergency workers, in common with pediatricians, must be available at all
times.
The range of course activities is varied: emergency
medial evacuation, rescue from simulated rising waters, searching for a
downed airplane, locating a missing person, and the many
life-threatening situations that people can find themselves in. Forest
fires and brush fires are also a consideration. Hurricanes and
tornadoes enter into the equation as well. Whenever a life is at risk, the
emergency workers will be called upon to help.
A more than passing acquaintance with aerial
rescue is necessary, since many injuries happen at inaccessible places
that might require that a seriously injured patient be evacuated via
helicopter. Or the place could be quite accessible but the extent and
gravity of the injury might demand the fastest possible transport to a
fully-staffed medical facility. This training was made available to the
GSARSS students as well, and it included ground-to-air and air-to-ground
signaling..
Texas has known its share of floods,
hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and other large-scale disasters. As any
other place on Earth, though, the smaller-scale dangers are always
around the corner also. And they are taken very seriously because,
though smaller in scale, they can still prove quite dangerous to the
victim.
GSARSS
– Portfolio
(Photos: C/CMSgt Elyshba Kempf)
(Photos: C/MSgt Marcela Leano)
(Photos: C/MSgt Ruby Moreno)
(Photos: Capt Arthur E. Woodgate)
(Photos: Capt Jay Workman)
PAO Boot Camp
–
Reporting it All
It was the job of the PAO Boot Camp's
students to report the encampment in its totality. After a day spent on
ethics fundamentals, and the do's and don't's of PA work, and having
demonstrated adequate basic writing skills, they were pronounced
"capable" and sent out into Camp Maxey to do ferret out the story and
document the event. Any event. All of the events.
This they did,
admirably. They photographed, interviewed, shot short film clips, and wrote about
it all. They followed the activities of the day and made a permanent
record, part of which is reproduced here. Some of their articles
were published in last month's newsletter, reflecting their point of
view, their experiences, and their thoughts.
They came to the PAO Boot Camp to learn, and
in the process they taught each other. They came to write and they did.
As the course commander edited each article, they sat next to him and
got a run-down of why the changes were being made. The ever-present Who,
What, When, Where and Why were stressed again and again. Soon, it became
second nature to all of them. And they wrote better as a result. This
was an amazing personal improvement that operated in concert with their
willingness to do the job, and their ability to express themselves
became tighter, clearer, even more compassionate. (Perhaps to their
surprise, they came looking for "material" and found "people" behind
each assignment.)
They also tested their own
limitations and found out how much they could accomplish, were they
willing to try hard enough. Their ingenuity and dedication was an inspiration to
this instructor, who found in them the seeds of greatness.
Other PAO Boot Camps will come along, but
only this one can ever be the first. With no previous guidelines and
left totally up to the instructor, this commander chose not to approach
it as a "let's write the book on this subject" but, instead, as an
exercise in facilitation. "How can I help each student do a better job
and reach a higher standard?" became the instructor's personal goal.
Other boot camps might be harder to conduct than this one, or even
easier. But this one provided a rich environment in which young minds
were allowed to take flight and reach for the stars.
One thing,
however, is certain. Due to security reasons, a technical problem that
will be solved very soon, the expected high-speed
Internet connection was not there. This handicap represented a true
barrier to adequate dissemination of information, yet it served another
useful purpose. It provided yet another way to teach the students how to
improvise, work around the obstacles, and get the story out no matter
what.
An so they did.
PAO Boot Camp
–
Portfolio
(Photos: PAO Boot Camp Staff & Students)
Capt Arthur E. Woodgate, Commander, PAO Boot
Camp |
