Happy New Year! All Hands Meeting January 2017

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach, photos by 2d Lt Alexei Roudnev

Squadron 188 classroom, prior to the start of the meeting

The new year is starting off well, with numerous events, including missions and training, as well as other activities and promotions.

Welcome to the guests that were present at the All Hands meeting, including Capt Russ Kipp, an airline pilot and CAP member visiting from FLWG.

From left to right: Lt Bob Adams, Lt Col Dennis Matarrese,
Capt Chris Fenolio, Capt Doug Ramsey, Capt Russ Kipp

This month we had 2 safety updates!

Mr Denny discussing the
fragility of seabird eggs

Sean Denny, who is an Outreach Specialist for the Seabird Protection Network, Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, working at NOAA, gave a presentation on how to be a wildlife friendly pilot, including information about several marine sanctuaries as well as requested flight altitudes over them, to avoid disturbing the wildlife and to keep everyone safe. 

Mr Denny showing a map of the Greater Farallones
National Marine Sanctuary

Maj Steven DeFord gave a presentation on medications and their effects on flying.  Key points included:

• Review the FARs on medications and alcohol use with respect to flying!
• Effects of various drugs/medications
• Some surprising medications that can affect your ability to fly, including over-the-counter medications
• Sleep deprivation and its similarity to alcohol, in terms of impairment
• Some discussion about pharmacokinetics – how drugs and alcohol are processed in your body

Squadron Monthly Recap

Lt Pat Bitz providing another great
aerospace moment for our membership. 

Promotions, Ratings and Professional Development
Congratulations to:

• Maj Mark Fridell’s new Mission Observer (MO) rating
• Lt Karin Hollerbach’s completion of the Officer Basic Course and Level II 
• 2d Lt Tim Roberts’ promotion to 1st Lt 
• 2d Lt Terry Baldwin’s new Mission Scanner (MS) rating
• 2d Lt Scott Booth’s renewed MO rating

Missions
Thank you for squadron members who supported CAP in completing our WMAO duty in this round (during which 3 SoCal missions were initiated):

• Maj Steven DeFord
• Capt Jordan Hayes
• Lt Eric Choate
• Lt Karin Hollerbach

Events
Thanks to all who attended the holiday party in December (click here for more info).

Lt Terry Baldwin (L) and Lt Bob Adams (R) replacing epaulets for
Lt Tim Roberts' romotion ceremony; Capt Jordan Hayes (Back L)
and Capt Lou Rivas (Back R) look on.

And to Lt Bitz and Capt John Stevulak for participating in this season’s Wreaths Across America ceremony.

Training
Group 2 increased its collective expertise and readiness to handle search and rescue (SAR) and disaster relief (DR) activities in December, completing another successful Basic SAREX, held at KRHV, in which the following Squadron 188 members participated:

• Maj Steven DeFord, Incident Commander 3 Trainee (IC3-T)
• Maj Mark Fridell, Mission Pilot (P)
• Maj Jeff Ironfield, MP
• Maj Maggie Wang, Urban Direction Finder (UDF) 
• Capt Kathy Brown, Finance/Administration Section Chief (FASC)
• Capt Don Eichelberger, MP
• Capt Jordan Hayes, Logistics Section Chief (LSC)
• Lt Tim Roberts, UDF
• Lt Alexei Roudnev, UDF
• Lt Terry Baldwin, MS
• Lt Scott Booth, MO

Upcoming Events
More exciting training events are coming up in January and February.  If you are interested in attending any of these training events, please contact the Project Officers for more info, and look for emails with registration information.

• 14-15 Jan NorCal Squadron Leadership School (SLS)/ Corporate Learning Course (CLC) at Travis, Group 2 Project Officer Maj Maggie Wang, Group 5 Project Officer Lt Col Andrew Peters 
• 12-Feb Airborne Photography (AP) Ground School (at KOAK), Project Officer Lt Karin Hollerbach
• 25-26 Feb AP DREX (at KOAK), Project Officer Lt Karin Hollerbach