CONDITIONS

You are a member of a ground team, and receive a phone call at home alerting you for a mission.

OBJECTIVE

Take the steps necessary to alert all the personnel you are responsible for on the alert roster, passing on all the necessary information.

TRAINING AND EVALUATION

Training Outline

1. Alerting the team is the first step to saving a life. Done correctly, the phone alert quickly notifies all members of the team that a mission is in progress, gives them the information they need to prepare for the mission and move to the team meeting place, and informs the team leader of who will be attending the mission.
1. You squadron should have an alert roster, which graphically designates who calls who in the event of an alert. The roster will look something like this:
   
   With this diagram, it is easy to see who calls who in an alert. 1st Lt. Smith calls 2nd. Lt. Jones and Cadet Brown. 2nd Lt. Jones calls S/M Green. Cadet Brown calls Cadets Doe and White. Cadet Doe calls Cadet Black. Cadet White calls Cadet Cook, who in turn calls Cadet Davis. This chart also assumes that 1st Lt. Smith is the squadron commander. If for some reason the squadron commander is not the main POC for missions in the unit, then the commander should be notified that the squadron has been alerted.
2. The team leader or designated individual must ensure the alert roster is kept up to date as members leave or join the team.
3. When a team leader starts the alert by "calling down the alert roster," he or she needs feedback. The personnel on the alert roster must confirm that they have passed the information on to those they were supposed to call, report on whom they could not reach, and report who will be attending the mission. This last piece of information can be critically important in determining how much transportation is needed. Accomplishing this can be done one of two ways. First, when the people at the bottom of the roster have been called, the people who called them should call back UP the roster, telling the person who called them, whom they contacted, whom they did not contact, and who will be attending the mission. Second, last member notified in the chain contacts the squadron POC initiating the alert (in this case probably 1st Lt. Smith) before departing for the meeting place with the same information.
4. The biggest problem with alert rosters occurs when you cannot reach someone you are supposed to call. If this happens, you must take responsibility for calling all the personnel that person was supposed to call. If you do not, those personnel will never be alerted.
2. When you receive an alert call:
1. Ensure the person tells you (minimum):
1. Type of Mission
2. Expected Duration of Mission
3. Time and Location of Meeting Place
4. Any special instructions
5. Mission number
6. Their call back number
2. Write down all this information. Do not trust your memory.
3. Call those people directly below you on the alert roster. If one of those people is not available, call all the people that person would call. (if you could not reach them because of a busy signal, make sure to try again later.) Pass on all the information. Find out if they will be able to attend the mission.
4. If the personnel you call are at the bottom of the roster, after you call them, call the person who called you or the alerting officer and report who you reached, who you did not reach, and who will be attending as advised during your alert briefing.
5. If the personnel you call have other people to call, wait until they call you back with their report. Then call and report to the person who called you.
6. Keep conversations short and keep the phone line open as much as possible. Someone may be trying to call you with a report or an update to the information.

Additional Information

More detailed information on this topic is available in Chapter 17 of the Ground Team Member & Leader Reference Guide.

Evaluation Preparation

Setup:

Prepare an alert roster and give a copy to the student

Brief Student:

Show the student where he is on the roster (it does not have to really be his name. Just ensure that the name you pick is someone in the middle of the roster). Tell the student that you will simulate an alert call, and that the student should take all necessary actions, including simulating the calling of all the personnel that they should call on the list. Tell him that you will play the role of anyone he calls. Then "call" the member and pretend to alert them for the mission. Ensure you leave out one of the required elements of the alert call (listed in paragraph 2 above). When they simulate calling others, have one of those people not be home.

Evaluation

Student must receive a pass on all performance measures to qualify in this task. If the individual fails any measure, show what was done wrong and how to do it correctly.