33rd annual Dixie Crow symposium begins Sunday at Museum of Aviation Published March 14, 2008 By Holly Birchfield 78 ABW/PA Robins Air Force Base, GA -- The 33rd Annual 542nd Combat Sustainment Group and Dixie Crow Electronic Warfare Symposium will be held at the Georgia Museum of Aviation March 16-20. The symposium is co-sponsored by the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center's 542nd CSG and the Dixie Crow Chapter of the Association of Old Crows, a national professional organization of people in the electronic warfare industry. Nearly 1,500 people are expected to attend the symposium. Michael Hopf, an electronics engineer in the 579th Software Maintenance Squadron, was one of more than 20 people who coordinated this year's event. He said the symposium gives people in the electronic warfare sector a chance to come together and expand their knowledge. "The symposium is a typical professional convention of people in the electronic warfare profession from the program management side, the engineering side, and the operational side, including customers from foreign military sales," he said. Julie Julius, scholarship committee chairman, said the symposium gives contractors a chance to share their latest, state-of-the-art technology with their customers. He said the symposium, which is completely planned and executed by volunteers, is the biggest regional symposium held within the national organization. Mr. Hopf said the event will include multiple sessions, presentations and vendor displays by more than 50 contractors and government organizations. Displays will include aircraft production, avionics systems, the component repairs, and some management functions. "On Thursday, they (will) offer short courses," he said. "There is a group of four management courses and a group of four engineering courses. They'll be taught in parallels (and) each session is two hours long. Anyone can go to any session, with exception of two of the engineering classes which are classified, so you have to have a clearance beforehand." Mr. Hopf said to attend any classified session, people must have their current security clearance submitted in advance of the symposium. Ms. Julius said the Peachtree Roost Chapter out of Atlanta will teach participants about the fundamentals of electronic warfare. Mr. Hopf said the symposium will address many of the emerging technologies in engineering and trends in management among other topics. Mr. Hopf said military and civilian government employees who take any combination of four sessions at the symposium can earn eight hours of continuing education credit. Ms. Julius said revenue generated by the symposium's registration and display costs supports $40,000 in scholarship money that will be given to 66 students at the symposium's reception on March 18. "Since 1979, we've given out $505,000 in scholarships," she said.