How Technology Helped Our Air Force Operations Evaluation

Wyoming Wing of the Civil Air Patrol just completed its 2011 Air Force Operations Evaluation and received an overall rating of Successful. This rating was in part to the successful use of technology throughout the exercise. Here is what we used and how it helped.

Civil Air Patrol

Skype

Starting on the first day of the exercise, we used Skype to conduct our evening meetings. Skype is a program where you can conduct conference calls through your computer. With a paid membership, you can get your own telephone number and call telephone numbers. With Skype, we could conduct a conference call each evening and stay abreast of the various scenarios we were tracking. You can download Skype from skype.com.

Dropbox

The second program we leveraged heavily during the evaluation was Dropbox. Dropbox is a virtual storage drive that resides in the cloud. We provided access to this shared drive for our entire team. The team could then add documents they needed during the evaluation process . These documents varied from various forms for the Incident Action Plan (IAP) to Google Earth overlays. In the event of a power outage, Dropbox was still available on the local computer. The system automatically synced changes to files with the other computers in the network. You can get a Dropbox account from dropbox.com.

Google Earth

Google Earth was the most recent addition to our arsenal. With Google Earth, we could create various overlays to aid in mission planning. These overlays included infrastructure like dams, bridges, and power plants, which were used as targets throughout the week. We could create an overlay showing all airports in Wyoming. When we received flood and missing aircraft scenarios, we built overlays to show affected areas, routes of flight, weather, and proposed search areas. With Google Earth, we could rapidly measure the distance from one point to another; this helped us determine our time on target times. You can get Google Earth from earth.google.com.

SPOT

SPOT is a GPS transmitter that allows us to keep track of our aircraft and ground teams while they are away from the mission base. Approximately every 10 minutes, the transmitter sends out a signal. The system reflects the signal on a website, which shows the location of each device and its travel path. In the event we lose contact with the aircraft or ground teams, we have a set of grid coordinates where we can start looking. You can get a SPOT from findmespot.com.

Assort Other Programs

During the week, we also used several other programs to help us achieve our mission. We used Microsoft Excel to plan mission times, calculate our finances, and track target lists. We used a special spreadsheet developed by the Lubbock Fire Department to build our IAP. This spreadsheet has saved me countless hours because of its updating capabilities.

I use PDF Split and Merge to merge a series of PDF documents into one file. We also use several Civil Air Patrol-specific programs from WMIRS and e-services to the IMU program. IMU allows us to create cleanly lists of personnel, vehicles, and aircraft assigned to the mission base.

With a wing as small as Wyoming, it is imperative to gain whatever advantage possible. Technology allows us to gain an advantage especially when short-staffed. Each new technology we have used has helped make mission planning and execution easier.

Additional Reading

• Civil Air Patrol a Key Player in Operation Moonwatch
• Layering Game Mechanics on Top of a Civil Air Patrol Summer Encampment, Part 1
• Layering Game Mechanics on Top of a Civil Air Patrol Summer Encampment, Part 2
• Layering Game Mechanics on Top of a Civil Air Patrol Summer Encampment, Part 3
• How to be a Successful #CivilAirPatrol Commander
• How Technology Helped Us Find a Missing Aircraft

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental the AFRCC credited U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by with saving 113 lives in fiscal year 2010.

Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies.

The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 26,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs.

CAP has been performing missions for America for 69 years. It is a major partner of Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. For more information on Civil Air Patrol, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com or www.capvolunteernow.com.

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