All Hands Meeting October 2017

Saturday, October 7, 2017

All Hands Meeting October 2017

By 1st Lt Karin Hollerbach and Maj Noel Luneau, photos by 2d Lt Alexei Roudnev

The squadron's deputy commander,
1st Lt Devine.

A warm welcome to our newest member, Vivian Wan!

Our squadron activities from the month of September included the following:

Missions

Squadron 188 participated in one real-life mission in September: an ELT/ALNOT @ Bolinas, with Capt Hayes (AOBD+MRO), 1st Lt Choate (MP), Capt Stevulak (MO), Capt Gast (UDF), 1st Lt Roberts (UDF) and 2nd Lt Roudnev (UDF) participating; Lt Choate and Capt Stevulak earned a Distress Find – congratulations!

1st Lt Choate.

Events

9-Sep Support of powered/glider cadet o-flights @ O83, with Maj Fridell, Capt Hayes, 1st Lt Choate, 1st Lt Devine and SM Rainville participating
12-Sep "Cold Water Rescue & Hypothermia" talk by Dr Thomas Nuckton @ OAK
16-Sep AEX 3D Printing, ADS-B @ KOAK, led by 1st Lt Spears
16-17 Sep UCC, led by Maj DeFord
19-Sep FAA FAASTeam Seminar: Off-field landings, led by Maj Michelogiannakis, with CAP and non-CAP members alike participating
24-Sep Hayward Open House
24-Sep Support of glider orientation flights for Sq10 @ Byron, led by Capt Gast

Squadron members relaxing before the meeting start.

30-Sep California Dog Rescue Association (CARDA) requalification @ KOAK: "The event was a nice opportunity to refresh radio procedures and meet, and work with, CAP and CARDA members (both the speaking and non-speaking ones)." 1st Lt Roberts.

CARDA is the largest volunteer search dog organization in America, training, certifying and deploying dog teams to assist law enforcement and other public safety agencies in search and rescue operations. CAP Group 2 members were involved in a re-qualification exercise, working with CARDA dogs and dog handlers.

The CARDA flying exercise was a great success. We flew six dog handlers with their pooches. Each dog handler had flown the year before, and for some of the dogs this was their first time.

Each flight was a local approximately 15-20 minute flight, with either both dog and handler in the back, or with the dog in the back and the handler in the front.
CAP used to fly CARDA on a regular basis to and from searches. CARDA volunteers have to find their own transportation to searches, which for some searches could be a 6 - 7 hour drive. Using CAP as a resource would greatly increase their efficiency and improve their readiness.

According to Capt Gast, “it was much more interesting talking with the handlers about their dogs to get a feeling for personalities, and watching the different dogs get loaded into the back seat. I also liked that the outcome of this was that the dog handlers went back and are already working their chain of command to get requests to come to us more often.”

Both the dog handlers and the dogs were very enthusiastic about flying in the CAP plane. Lt Col Coby Sena and Capt James Warmkessel were the pilots. Squadron 188 members that participated included Maj Luneau, Capt Gast, and 1st Lt Roberts.

New ES Ratings

1st Lt Bitz talking about this
year's Wreaths Across America
ceremony and fundraising.

Congratulations to 1st Lt Hollerbach, who completed her initial F91 and is our newest Mission Pilot!

Professional Development

Congratulations to the following members:

1st Lt Devine completed the Officer Basics Course (OBC)
SM Chung completed Level 1

Miscellaneous

As a reminder to members who were not present at the meeting: annual squadron membership is due. Please bring a check to the next meeting or mail it to the squadron at your earliest convenience. Thank you!

Upcoming Events

7 Oct This coming weekend, there will be an Open House at the Livermore Airport, LVK. See SM Rainville for details.
21-22 Oct: A SAREX is being planned at LVK.
16 Dec The annual Wreaths Across America will be held at Golden Gate National Cemetery
31 Oct any ideas for a 5th Tuesday Halloween party?
December holiday party – details to be determined

Awards