2017 NorCal Ground School for MAS

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

Welcome to this Year's MAS! 

Squadron 188 hosted the NorCal Ground School portion of CAWG’s 2017 MAS (Mission Aircrew School) on the weekend of July 1-2 at our squadron headquarters at OAK.

Entrance to our Squadron Headquarters

The course included 2 days of training in topics such as:

• CRM (Crew Resource Management)
• Preparing for and flying sorties – for Mission Pilots (MP) and Mission Observers (MS) 
• Search patterns
• ELTs 
• Altitude considerations
• Other key topics 

This prepares students for the flight portion of the MAS, which will occur in Southern California later in July. Graduates of the entire program can then look forward to achieving their MO and/or MP ratings – with the latter still requiring a checkride after the MAS.

This year’s Ground School had 15 MO candidates and 4 MP candidates attending.

Inside Squadron 188's Classroom

Capt Hayes

Course instructors from Groups 2 and 5 included:

Capt Heldt

• Lt Col Peterson (MP, Group 5)
• Maj Blank (MP, Squadron 188 OAK)
• Maj Ettlin (MP, Squadron 157 STS)
• Maj Luneau (MP, Squadron 188 OAK)
• Capt Hayes (MO, Squadron 188 OAK)
• Capt Heldt (MP, Squadron 80 RHV)
• Capt Nicholson (MP, Squadron 23 DVO)
• 1st Lt Gross (MP, Squadron 10 PAO)

Thanks to Project Officer, Capt Hayes, for organizing yet another fantastic event!

Participants Signing in for the Class

To attend the upcoming air portion of the MAS, you have to have attended either the NorCal or its SoCal equivalent of the Ground School weekends.  However, there may still be openings for base staff and/or ground team training opportunities.

Lt Col Peterson

Lt Gross

Several members from our squadron are involved in organizing that event as well:

• Maj DeFord, Incident Commander (IC)
• Maj Johnson/C, Operations Section Chief (OSC)
• Maj Johnson/K, Air Ops Branch Director (AOBD)



Graduates Receiving their Certificates from Capt Hayes

• Capt Brown, AOBD

Capt Nicholson 

If you would like to see whether you can still register for the MAS, or for other information, please contact Maj Wallace, Commander San Diego Diego Senior Squadron 57.

Maj Luneau (L), 1st Lt Devine (C),  Maj Blank (R)

The 2017 Oakland Ground School Class