Oregon Civil Air Patrol Earns Excellent Rating From U.S. Air Force

"The scenarios are designed by USAF evaluation teams based on actual potential events that we could likely be requested to respond to". - CAP incident commander, Lt Col. Pete Andersen.

Oregon CAP Cessna 182 search aircraft prepare to refuel following simulated search flights over the past weekend. CAP aircraft, which carry a crew of 3, can take digital photos which can be transmitted by satellite to numerous locations simultaneously while still airborne. Photo courtesy Oregon CAP

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - The Oregon Wing of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol was awarded an "Excellent" rating by a team USAF evaluators during their bi-annual official evaluated Homeland Security Training Exercise this last weekend.

The exercise, which was managed from the CAP's Incident Command Center facility at the Aurora State Airport and an identical facility at the CAP's building at the Medford Airport, focused primarily on a 5.9 earthquake event in the Willamette Valley.

The simulated events involved as many as 85 CAP members across the state using 8 Cessna 182 search aircraft and 24 vehicles comprising over 1,050 man hours on 32 separate incident response operations.

"They pushed us hard and we did well." said Col.Ted Kyle, commander of the Oregon Wing CAP, "I am very proud of everyone and of our capabilities in Oregon, However, I also know we have room to improve and we will" he said.

The primary response from the CAP involved flights to provide instantly relayed digital images from the CAP's Satellite Digital Imaging System of key infrastructure facilities such as dams, bridges, roadways and rivers from Medford to Sandy, OR and as far East as Bend/Redmond.

The SDIS system allows digital images to be transmitted by satellite to multiple facilities such as the Incident Command Post's in Auroa and Medford as well as the state Emergency Operations Center in Salem. Authorities can use those high resolution images to determine the extent of potential damage and respond accordingly.

"The scenarios are designed by USAF evaluation teams based on actual potential events that we could likely be requested to respond to by local, state and federal officals" stated CAP incident commander, Lt Col. Pete Andersen. "These exercises can be extremely fast paced and challenging to test our skills, manpower, training, equipment and techniques in response to these various simulated missions" he said.

In addition to the earthquake, the CAP was also tasked simultaneously with mission scenarios involving a missing family, missing and presumed crashed helicopter, Homeland Security, counter drug and signals from an ELT, emergency locator transmitter, which directs searchers to a potential crash site." ELT's are activated by a forceful impact of an aircraft" said CAP spokesman, Lt Col. Thomas Traver, public affairs officer for the CAP."

They can also be activated by exceptionally hard landings and, in this particular scenario, an earthquake" he said. " Even in the event of a false alarm, the nature of the signal must be determined, located and turned off. The CAP flies missions almost every day for false ELT signals" he said.

The CAP holds major training exercises at least 6 times each year across the state, primarily during the summer months, to hone and maintain their skills in search and rescue, disaster relief operations and Homeland Security assignments. New technologies and new personnel are also assimilated during these training exercises and integrated into the overall action response plan for the state.

As the official civilian, volunteer auxiliary of the United States Air Force established in 1941 in response to WWII, the CAP today flies over 95% of all air search and rescue missions in the continental United States under the direction Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall AFB in Florida.

These search and rescue operations resulted in the saving of over 60 lives in 2006 nationwide The Oregon CAP was credited with saving a life earlier this year when they were able to locate a crashed aircraft in Southern Oregon and directed helicopter rescue teams from the Oregon Army National Guard to the crash site.

For more information on the CAP, please visit the national website at cap.gov and the Oregon website at orwg.uscap.us