Download - Minnesota Wing - Apr 2005
8/9/2019 Minnesota Wing - Apr 2005
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/minnesota-wing-apr-2005 1/4
WingTipsThe official publication of Minnesota W ing Civil Air Patrol April 2005
by 1st Lt. Joseph Bradfield,
Worthington Squadron
Ground team leaders from
across Minnesota Wingconvened in Duluth March
19-20 for “Ground Team
Leader Proficiency
Training: Beyond theBasics,” the first of what itscreators hope will become
an annual event.
According to its founders,Maj. Doug Mitchell,
Duluth Squadron; Maj.
Chet Wilberg, HutchinsonSquadron; and 1t Lt.
William Reichert, ValleySquadron, the idea came,
while talking at the wing’sES Conclave in December.They decided, from
comparing observations of past year's exercises and
actual searches, that there
was a need for moreconcentrated ground team
leader training.
They agreed that groundteam leaders need to regu-
larly review basic skills,but they also envisioned
training ‘beyond the basics’
in new search and rescuetechnology and in the
Incident Command System,which has undergone some
modifications in the past
year. The discussion con-
tinued through emails andevolved into this training.
The weekend's sessions fol-
lowed the scope andsequence of established
ground team leader train-ing. However, the instruc-
tors added opportunities to
share ‘tricks of the trade’ –both from the most experi-
enced searchers, whose
admirable paperwork andmember task delegation
routines were worthy of imitation by other
squadrons, and also fromyounger senior members
adept at the newest elec-
tronic resources.
After a full day of class-room activities on Saturday
that went well into theevening, members were
assigned a place on one of
two teams, gave their con-tact information, created a
phone tree and retired. Theparticipants tried to rest,
anxious that sometime
before breakfast – they
weren't sure when – theywould be called to respondto a simulated emergency.
The call came just as some
of the members were goingto breakfast. They made
their phone-tree calls and
reported back to their leader
which members wouldattend, then they all met at
the mission base, a confer-ence room at the motel.
The simulation briefing
gave three SAR-satelite hitsnorthwest and southeast of
their base. The two teams
coordinated their searchstrategies before departing
rather than competing
against each other.
The rest of the scenario
played out as most SARexercises do. But at the
debriefing of this event,
instructors projected an
Experienced ground team leaders host proficiency training
Participants of the ground team leader proficiency training course held in Duluth
complete a classroom exercise. Photo by 1st Lt. Joseph Bradfield
Training / Page 3
8/9/2019 Minnesota Wing - Apr 2005
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/minnesota-wing-apr-2005 2/4
by Col. Steve Miller,
wing commander
Civil Air Patrol held itsWinter National Board
meeting in March.
The first two days of theevent were for members to
meet with their senators
and congressmen and pres-ent them the ‘CAP Report
to Congress.’
All members of theMinnesota delegation to
Congress are members of the CAP Congressional
Squadron. Col. Kevin
Sliwinski, wing headquar-ters, and I meet with a staff
member of each of the sen-ator's and congressmen's
offices.
We presented CongressmanMartin Sabo and Senator
Mark Dayton with theirCAP membership certifi-
cates and CAP flight suits.
C/Capt. Brian Anderson,130th Squadron, accompa-
nied us in our meetingswith Dayton, Senator Norm
Coleman's legislative aide,
Congressman Mark
Kennedy and CongressmanJohn Kline's chief of staff.
While we were there, sev-eral major votes were tak-ing place so we didn’t get
to meet with all of ourMinnesota congressmen.
Maj. Gen. Dwight Wheless,
national headquarters, pre-sented the National Board
with a new emphasis onsafety. Each unit will soon
receive the nuts and bolts
of the program.
Some of the items that
came out of the National
Board meeting are:
m New picture ID cardswill be available to sen-
WingTips is a publication of Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol,
U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
P.O. Box 11230, St. Paul, MN 55111www.mncap.org
The views expressed, either written or implied, are not neces-sarily those of the U.S. Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol orMinnesota Wing. Submissions should be sent to the above
email address.
Wing Commander: Col. Steve Miller
Wingtips Editor: Maj. Shannon Bauer
Commander’s Column: National Board meeting updates
Col. Steve Miller
ior members for a smallcharge. The new card
looks very similar tothe Air Force ID cards.
m Senior members will beoffered the option of one, two or three year
memberships.
m An agenda item forthree levels of ratedmission pilots was
withdrawn by theauthor.
m The Air Force author-
ized 50 wing adminis-trative assistants, 25authorized in fiscal year
2005 and 25 more infiscal year 2006. We do
not know in which year
our wing will beauthorized.
m A national membershipcontest is in the works.The top prize for senior
members is a VIP trip
for two to the NationalBoard meeting, which
will includes registra-tion, banquet, hotel and
airfare, as well as a
two-year free CAP
membership. The topprize for cadets is a trip
to a cadet special activ-ity of choice, which
will include registrationand transportation, aswell as a two-year free
membership. Otherprizes for second
through fourth place
will be announced inthe national headquar-
ter’s monthly mail toall units.
m On the BDU shirts, sen-
ior members are nowauthorized to wear rank
on both collars. This
change is mandatory bySep. 31, 2005.
The end of this month is
our annual Minnesota WingConference. Take advan-
tage of this great opportuni-ty to recognize our mem-
bers for their outstanding
work in CAP. It is also agreat time to make new and
renew old acquaintances. Iam looking forward to see-
ing you there.
-Semper Vigilans
Page 2 WingTips April 2005
The wing is transitioning from the ‘mnwg.cap.gov’
domain to <mncap.org> during the next few months.
All e-mail addresses that were in the [email protected] will now be [email protected].
This applies to all e-mail lists and personal e-mail address-es. For now, both addresses will work; but on May 1, the
<mnwg.cap.gov> domain will be eliminated.
Any web page links or favorites will need to be updated.
For more information, contact Maj. Chet Wilberg,
Hutchinson Squadron, at [email protected].
Minnesota Wing changes domains
8/9/2019 Minnesota Wing - Apr 2005
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/minnesota-wing-apr-2005 3/4
Minnesota Wing conferencefast approaching
The 2005 Minnesota
Wing Conference will beheld at Breezy Point
Resort, near Brainerd,
Minn., from April 29 toMay 1.
Take advantage of this
great event and see yourold friends and meet
some new ones. Learnmore about Civil Air
Patrol and what’s going
on throughout the wing.Cheer on the award win-
ners and thank them fortheir volunteer service.
Conference registration
forms are availableonline at
<http://www.mncap.org/
xp/conf.htm>. The formswere also mailed.
For more information onBreezy Point Resort, see
<http://www.breezy-pointresort.com/>.
Thinking about complet-
ing that Level IV? Alimited number of
"intern" positions are
available for the confer-ence. If you are interest-
ed, contact Col. DennisRock at
For more information onthe conference, contact
Lt. Col. Bill Rutten,
Minnesota WingConference public affairs
officer at [email protected].
interactive topographic maponto a screen. Global posi-
tioning system, or GPS,
information plotted by thecomputer program showed
the participants their path tothe simulated crash site.
The projected landscape
clearly showed whysearchers received erratic
signals from the emergency
locator transmitter, or ELT.It neatly documented their
efforts to deduce its loca-tion in spite of the interfer-
ence of the river valley'shilly terrain.
Wilberg has already begun
planning next year's“Beyond the Basics” course
and said he hopes that this
year's participants will lead
some of those sessions.
Ten senior members attend-ed, in spite of the severe
snowstorm that hit some of the southern squadrons:
-Lt. Col. Tim Goodner
-Lt. Col. Keith Bishoff -Maj. Darlene Benjamin
-Capt. David Benjamin
-Capt. Dan Fosterling-Capt. Brian Freseman
-Capt. Mark McCormick
-1st Lt. Joel Roggenkamp-1st Lt. Joseph Bradfield
-2nd Lt. Donald Roessler
In addition to Mitchell,
Wilberg and Reichert, three
additional presenters leadsessions during the week-
end's training, includingCapt. Ernest Moen, 2nd Lt.
Chris Reichert and 2nd Lt.
John Snyder.
Training / Page 3
Participants of the ground team leader proficiency
training course held in Duluth complete a classroom
exercise. Photo by 1st Lt. Joseph Bradfield
April 2005 WingTips Page 3
Col. Stephen Miller, Minnesota Wing commander,
presents Minnesota Senator Dick Day with his mem-
bership in the Minnesota Legislative Squadron. Day
represents District 26 (Owatonna, Waseca and
Faribault area) and recently joined CAP.
8/9/2019 Minnesota Wing - Apr 2005
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/minnesota-wing-apr-2005 4/4
NONPROFIT ORG.
US POSTAGE PAIDPERMIT NO. 7109
ST.PAUL, MN
Minnesota Wing Civil Air Patrol,U.S. Air Force Auxiliary
P.O. Box 11230, St. Paul, MN 55111
Senior member and cadetofficer promotions
Major
Kevin Bauder, North HennepinDon Dalton, Red Wing
Gerald Rosendahl, Owatonna
Captain
Lonell Koppes, Crow Wing
David Mansheffer, Anoka
Jeremy Price, Pipestone
1st Lt.
Dalen Kruse, St. Croix
Robert McDonald, St. Croix
2nd Lt.
Laura Broker, North Star
The 2005 Minnesota Wing Cadet Leadership Academywill accept staff applications until April 10. See
<www.mncap.org/cp/mla> for more information.
by Lt. Col. Bob Johnson, Crow Wing Squadron
Crow Wing Squadron lost a good friend and fellowsquadron member when Jake Pfingsten died in Germany
Feb. 12.
Pfingsten died as a result of an illness he contracted whileserving a three-week deployment with the Minnesota
National Guard. His family was able to be with him, and
they have expressed their deep gratitude to the Army fortheir support during this difficult time.
Pfingsten and his family have been key members of Crow
Wing Squadron for many years, including his grandmotherMary Lou, sisters Jolene and Sarah, and parents Beth and
Tom.
His grandmother said of him, “Everybody loved Jake. He
had friends all over. He was very polite. He was every-body's friend and he loved to do service for other people.”
We miss him, and we will continue to keep his family inour thoughts and prayers.
Crow Wing Squadron, Army loses member
Page 4 WingTips April 2005