so i finally got called up for an actual ARES activation last weekend, not just a drill. county OEM needed radio support for a pretty bad flooding situation, couple roads washed out and some cell towers were having issues. i've been through maybe four or five training nets and the SET last fall but nothing had ever actually gone live before.

honestly i was nervous as heck driving to the EOC. like i knew the procedures on paper but when the EC handed me a packet log sheet and said 'you're on the hospital net' i kind of blanked for a second. ended up being fine, traffic was mostly welfare checks and some resource requests, nothing too crazy. but there was definitely a moment where i had to ask someone next to me how they wanted me to format the ICS 213 because i'd only ever done it in training and i second guessed myself.

anyway just wanted to share because i feel like people dont talk much about what the first real one actually feels like versus the drills. also curious — do most groups do any kind of debrief after activations? ours sort of just... ended. people packed up and left and i never really heard what went well or what didnt.

that feeling you described when they handed you the assignment is totally real and basically everyone goes through it the first time, doesnt matter how many drills you've done. drills are almost too low stakes in a way, nobody's really stressed so your brain doesnt go into that same mode.

on the debrief question — it really varies a lot by group. our section does a written AAR within a week of any activation, EC sends out a form and then we go over the highlights at the next monthly meeting. but ive been to other counties where yeah, people just kind of drift off and nothing formal happens. which is a shame honestly because thats where you catch the stuff that almost went wrong before it actually does go wrong next time. if your EC isnt doing it might be worth just quietly asking if thats something the group wants to start. sometimes it just takes one person to bring it up.

congrats on the first real one. hospital net is no joke for a first assignment, that's usually pretty important traffic. sounds like you handled it fine if nobody had to come fix anything for you haha.

we do a debrief but ours is pretty informal, usually just the EC and a couple of the net control guys standing around the parking lot for 20 minutes talking through what happened. works for us but i could see how a small group might just call it a night especially after a long activation. the SET we did in october had an actual written AAR which was nice, found out our simplex coverage on the north end of the county is way worse than anyone thought.