[Rusty24]

I was 15 and 16 (early 90's). The night the Gulf war kicked off I was coming home from our nightly meeting. We trained alot too and I still use some of that training today. The biggest thing I gained was learning how to do Lat/Longs on a map. Alot of the guys in our career field hate Lat/Longs and prefer MGRS.

As far as the mission, I was asleep and the phone rang. My mom brought itr in and I spoke with Maj. Breitmier. He said that they are going on a CSAR and asked if I was available, hell yeah! We were assigned to canvass an area (4 man teams) and the team next to us found a piece of debris. About an hour later we heard some yelling and it was a coupple of hundred meters away.

Training is good, but make sure you make it broad. Do not go over a standard topo map. Get some JOG Air maps, JOG Ground, 1:250 etc. Drill is also good. When I went to basic thatwas the second easiest thing, because it was so repetitive.

As far as missions you will get your chance. Maybe set up some practice missions? Rather than go over how to plot coordinates, incorparate it into a scenario. Start out with a "Distress" call. have the team locate the "Survivors". Pre Brief the survivors on what injuries they have (if they are unable to talk, give them a card stating their injuries). Once they are found have the troops treat them. Once they are safe for evacuation, give them a set of coordinates to go to rather than back to the start point. If you have radios, add it in as well. Do not try to plan something like this in a day or so. Take atleast a week and try to think of every possible detail.

Maybe go to a nearby State Park and grab a camp site for the weekend. Train during the day and sit around the camp fire at night drinking sodas and telling lies.

To this day I still use some of the CSAR stuff that I learned. About three months ago a local man went missing in a State Park up the road. I assisted with the local FD and we found him within 3 hours of setting foot down at the park.

Stay Motivated!