ALCON I apologize for being so out of touch, as many of you know we had a 3AM house fire and my days and nights have been consumed with drywalling, tiling, painting, and wondering the aisles of Lowes, Home Depot and various furniture stores; CAP has been almost completely off my radar screen for the last couple of months. Fortunately nobody was hurt and there was no structural damage to our house, we just lost a lot of contents (including all the kids' clothes and uniforms) but almost everything that matters has been replaced except for a few uniform items which we are working on obtaining. Now that the holidaze are over, we can start thinking about training again. A couple of months ago a Group 2 training plan was laid out for the first part of 2008 and for the most part nothing has changed. Some of the training will be local to each individual squadron (or in combination with other local squadrons) while other events will be centralized. As stated before, we will not be conducting aviation-related training as that is being left to the Operations Directorate. The Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) Academy is scheduled for the weekends of 12-13 Jan (Curry and GES), 25-27 Jan (GSAR Pt 1), 22-24 Feb (GSAR Pt 2), and 14-16 Mar (evaluations and exercises at Goldhead Branch State Park in Keystone Heights) The entire schedule is online at http://www.tallahasseecap.org/gsar.shtml. This will eventually be developed into a full-blown website, but for now it is primarily for basic information. This is the recommended teaching schedule; if you follow this, we will be ready for a full weekend of evaluating and exercising in March when we gather our SETs together in order to make it easier for people to get signed off on tasks that they may be unable to find SETs for locally. We will also conduct the required 2 exercises during this weekend so that everyone should finish the GSAR Academy with either GTM3 or GTL. Where task numbers are shown, tasks may be taught directly from the Ground & Urban DF Team Task Guide which can be downloaded from a link further down. Note that no special qualification is required to teach a subject, but the teacher should be knowledgeable of the subject being taught. The SET certification only comes into play at the time of evaluation. We are currently exploring the possibility of videotaping and podcasting individual lessons for those who do not have qualified or interested trainers in their area; if anyone has the expertise to do this, please contact me. Tallahassee, Madison, and Live Oak will be training as a group at the Live Oak Squadron Building. All others are invited to join us or use the schedule below to plan their own local training either on their own or in conjunction with other local squadrons. Dates shown below are for the Live Oak training only, other squadrons feel free to change the schedule as needed, but all squadrons in Group 2 should plan on attending the final evaluation weekend in Keystone Heights and the Group 2 SAREX in May if they wish to participate in Group 2's ES training program. Other squadrons may feel free to alter the schedule below as needed, but the end goal should be to be prepared for a complete and total formal evaluation of all GTM3 and GTL tasks in Keystone Heights in late March plus some rather comprehensive ground exercises. Please note that the first 3 weekends are training only, not evaluations. While it may be possible to sign off on some tasks over the course of the 2 months leading up to the eval weekend, all evaluations will be available in Keystone Heights. Please note that all training exercises will also work on various mission base specialties, so just because you're not into tromping through the woods with a loaded rucksack, please feel free to help support our activities by training and serving as a Mission Staff Assistant, Radio operator, or one of many different Unit Leaders, Section Chiefs, or Command Staff Positions. While the general uniform is BDUs or corporate equivalent, polo shirts or even blues can be worn if needed by mission staff personnel. Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding our support staff positions, responsibilities and training standards/materials. Other upcoming ES activities: ICS training - 1-2 Mar This is the tentative date for March's ICS training at the Ocala Fire College. 3 classes will be available, 1) ICS 100/200/700/800 plus MSA/LO training, 2) ICS300: Intermediate Incident Command System for Expanding Incidents, and 3) ICS400: Advanced Incident Command System Command & General Staff: Complex Incidents. Cost will be approximately $50.00 for the weekend including lodging and meals. More information will be available as I dig further out from under the drywall dust. Sun n' Fun - 8-13 Apr Join us as we work at the 2nd-largest airshow in the US in what is best compared to a mini Blue Beret event. Crews will be needed for recruiting, flightline, Urban Direction-finding, crowd control, Aerospace Education and more. Oh yeah, the airshow is a blast to watch too.especially since the Thunderbirds will be there this year. See http://flwg.us/database/database/news.asp?action=print <http://flwg.us/database/database/news.asp?action=print&article=466> &article=466 for last year's article. North Florida Ranger School - 25-27 Apr The North Florida Ranger School goes on the road to Wimauma, FL (near Tampa) for a weekend of Ranger Training. Special emphasis will be paid to preparing attendees for Pennsylvania Wing's Hawk Mountain Ranger School ( http://www.pawingcap.com/hawk )which is one of the few National Special Activities that younger cadets are allowed to attend. Hawk Mountain Ranger School is much more than an ES training activity; it is a real-world leadership laboratory and experience of a lifetime that few people come away from unchanged. All cadets and officers are advised to attend at least once if they are the least bit interested in Wilderness Search and Rescue / Survival. Please see http://flwg.us/database/database/news.asp?action=print <http://flwg.us/database/database/news.asp?action=print&article=445> &article=445 and http://flwg.us/database/database/news.asp?action=print <http://flwg.us/database/database/news.asp?action=print&article=392> &article=392 for more information on recent North Florida Ranger activities. Carpooling may be available for those between Tallahassee and Tampa or those going to Pennsylvania this Summer. Please note: Attending Hawk Mountain or any other "Ranger School" does not make anyone special or better than anyone else. Ranger School is just a fun and high-energy way to learn not only basic ES skills, but a good bit of advanced SAR and survival practical experience while exploring one's own limits. Ranger credentials do not count toward mission requirements and contrary to popular belief, graduates of the school put their pants on the same way as everyone else. While there is a lot of running, yelling (HOO-RAHH!!!! etc) and PT, hazing is strictly not tolerated and all staff have or will received training aimed at eradicating hazing altogether. The idea is for everyone to have fun, learn, and grow not to make anyone feel that they are about to wash out of Marine Corps Basic Training. That all said, it is good training and most attendees (including myself) have a blast. Group 2 SAREX (2-4 May): Group-wide SAREX. Details will be made known as needed and all exercise inputs will follow normal operating channels (ie AFRCC, Wing Alerting Officers, local contacts with witnesses etc). In short, please keep this weekend open and be prepared for anything to happen. By that, I do mean anything. If you prefer always knowing what will happen next and operating with a clear-cut plan of action you may find yourself a little outside your comfort zone, but it will be...interesting. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Gene Floyd, Capt CAP Emergency Services Officer Group 2, FL Wing (850)284-3677