This always gives me a chuckle:
..all that aside, the meeting this Thursday will be a potpurri of several things, centering around a discussion of our preparedness for the SAREX tentatively scheduled for 26-27 JAN 2013. It is, of course, a make-up for the SAREX cancelled in December. Our Operations Officer will provide an overview.
2LT Lance Boland -- an NRA-certified instructor and Marine DM -- will present a short talk on gun safety. Additionally, 1LT Rau will give a talk on "brain rules" -- incorporating both safety and aerospace education.
Upcoming meetings in January and February (and March) will center around the theme of "ES Preparedness" -- something we all should be pointing towards. 1LT Rau makes a fair point: too often we focus on preparing for a specific calendar event -- like a SAREX or a class, etc. when we should be focusing on honing our skills and making sure that we can meet the call when it comes out of the blue.
To follow up on that thought, the Civil Air Patrol is the United States Air Force Auxiliary and we are endowed by our parent service with a serious role to act in their stead for CONUS search-and-rescue efforts. They and the governing corporation that is CAP have, by way of their precious funding, given us literally millions of dollars of the latest equipment and made available countless opportunities to train and perfect these skills. The payback to them should be a cadre of volunteers who are ready, willing and able to complete our mission.
We have come a long way as a unit in 2012 and we will continue to train and develop our skills so that more and more of us play a role in the mission of California Wing.
See you Thursday!
Bill
W. H. Phinizy, MAJ, CAP
Squadron Commander
Squadron 150
