FROM THE OPERATIONS DESK
Well the summer
is almost gone and fall is in the air. No, that does not mean it is
not hot here yet. But the mornings are cooler and it is only a
matter of time. I even see a few Northern license plates around and
that means the snow birds are starting to migrate down.
Enough about the
weather, we were able to put out facilities on almost every
weekend. We had OWT in June and took July off. We started again
in August and have been going strong ever since. Crew members are
still in short supply, and that should change with everyone
finishing up their vacations. There were some questions about the
number of crew need on OWT or a patrol if the facility did not go
out into the gulf. I e-mailed our Division Operation Officer and
received the following response.
“Hello Jim, In
Division 8 we only Generate orders for 3 member Boat Crews, we tried
letting Boat crews use 2 member Crews on the second vessel as a Dead
Boat while Training in the past for inside ICW only , but this
practice was misused and
people were going into the Gulf with only 2 members on board. The
practice was stopped after the Station Chief and I felt it was wrong
as this was an unsafe practice in SAR work. We are trained with a 3
member crew in our Operations procedures."Gabby" SO-OP 8"
We will be
having a QE mission as soon as possible to get the remaining
Coxswain and crew re-qualified. Be sure to call me when you get
down, so that we can bring you up to speed and ready for the QE.
The following members need their QE check ride by Dec.07. Tom Fox,
John Meyer, Monique Ring, Don Ruhl, and Bob Stutzman.
As the flotilla
Operations Officer I will be happy to see our Northern members and
guests down for the winter. It makes it a lot easier with the extra
manpower.
Here is one more
notice that I received just lately in regards to canceling an order
in POMS.
Subject:
Filling Out 5132’s
Please check
with your Coxswains and ask them to please fill out their Orders as
soon as they do their Patrols. We need to get the Orders in as soon
as we can.
Also remind
them if for some reason their Patrol is canceled please go into
“POMS” and cancel the Orders. If the Orders are not used or canceled
FINCEN has to keep funds open for those Patrols. Also mail a copy of
the 5132 to St. Pete with cancelled across the page.”
Juan and I also
attended a meeting at Sarasota Flotilla 84 to meet the new Chief
Bennett of Station Cortez. It was an informal meeting and mostly
dealt with how Station Cortez can use the Auxiliary and how the
Auxiliary can serve the needs of Station Cortez. Many of the
questions from the Auxiliary where concerns that we are rarely
called out when something happens in our AOR. The conclusion was
that Cortez watchstanders are not always aware that we have
facilities on the water or where the specific boundaries are in the
AOR. Even though we activate orders from Station Cortez, most, if
not all, of their personnel have no idea where the flotilla areas of
responsibilities start or end. Chief Bennett, with the help of
division, will place strip charts by the watchstanders on a magnetic
board. When an order is activated by a flotilla, a magnetic piece
will be place on the chart in the flotillas AOR. When the patrol is
secured, the magnetic piece will be place at the bottom of the
board. Therefore, even when they change watchstanders, the new
person will know exactly what facilities are active and their AOR.
Chief Bennett
also discussed training with the flotillas. Unfortunately, with
their many missions and their own training, it will be hard to
schedule on-water-training with the flotillas. However, he stated
he could use our boats as a dead boat in the Gulf when their
coxswain and crew training are centered on finding a boat in
distress. Since our boats are not red, it will make it harder for
his crews to find the right boat.
Chief Bennett
also stated that St. Petersburg needs boats for their helicopter
rescue training. He will notify St. Petersburg that the Auxiliary
will be more than happy to assist in any way it can.
I also asked
Chief Bennett about qualifying for watchstanding at station Cortez.
He stated he would be more than happy to train an Auxiliarist that
is willing to spend the time needed for training. The training for
his men is two weeks at 8hrs a day. That means a total of 80hrs
training at the
station.
Jim Sleichert
FSO-OP
October,2007
capable
of processing and transmitting location information (latitude &
longitude) to a repeater that acts a gateway to the internet. You can
see the track of my boat during the patrol by accessing the chart at the
following link:
