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NC Wing Holds Incident Command Post (ICP) Training Day

Maj Griffa
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Maj Alberto Griffa discusses the program that allows photo targets to be plotted and assigned to specific sorties. Photo Credit: Lt Col Anthony Biondo, CAP (click image to view full size)
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4th Annual event held at Wing headquarters

By Lt Col John W. May, CAP
NCWG Director of Emergency Services

3/26/2018–BURLINGTON, NC–The North Carolina Wing conducted its fourth annual Incident Command Post (ICP) training day on Saturday, 24 March 2018, at Wing Headquarters in Burlington with 26 members attending as students.

After a brief introduction of the day’s event, Maj Alberto Griffa presented the program on the Wing website that allows photo targets to be plotted and assigned to specific sorties with the sortie route transmitted to the pilot in command (PIC’s) iPad using ForeFlight.

The students then went to individual training classes for IC (Incident Commander), PSC (Planning Section Chief), LSC (Logistics Section Chief), OSC (Operations Section Chief), GBD (Ground Branch Director) and AOBD (Air Operations Branch Director). Each class covered all of the SQTR items for the classroom portion of the training.

After a short lunch break with lunch catered by Lt Col Eric Grant, the students were divided into four teams. The teams then completed a table-top exercise with the need to plot and assign photo targets to air sorties and manage the simulated aircraft flights. A missing aircraft was then introduced into the exercise requiring the ICP teams to multi-task the photo targets along with a missing aircraft. 
 
The ICP training allows the attending members to go back to their squadrons and Groups and participate in Emergency Services (ES) training, as they work to complete the exercise portion of the training to become fully qualified for that rating. As your squadron conducts future ES training, consider asking for mission staff support from ICP-qualified members to make your squadron training more realistic to what a real mission would look like.
 
Special thanks to Maj Brendan Kearns and Lt Col Eric Grant for organizing the event, setting up the facilities and feeding everyone. Thanks also to the outstanding instructors for the event.
 
The Wing will be scheduling this annual event again in March of next year. So, if you are interested in training to become a ICP staff member, start your training now so you will be ready to attend next year's event.