On the ground and in the air, CAP is ready to help

Courtesy Photo | Stepahnie Thomacos, 13, Enfield, Conn., gives aid to simulated victim Julia Massi, 20, Falmouth, Mass., during a mock aircraft crash as part of the training at the National Emergency Services Academy.  

CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, UNITED STATES

08.01.2007

Courtesy Story

Camp Atterbury Indiana

By Amy May
Camp Atterbury Public Affairs

CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. - When terrorists leveled the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, a private pilot in a single-engine plane was the first to fly over the site and send back photographs of the destruction.

After Hurricane Katrina, pilots in Cessnas mapped the disaster area and flew vital supplies, such as donated blood, medical supplies and mechanical equipment while the military pilots were busy plucking survivors off rooftops in flooded New Orleans.

More than 300 members of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) spent two weeks at Camp Atterbury learning how to save lives during such an emergency. The Civil Air Patrol, composed of approximately 60,000 civilian volunteers, is the auxiliary wing of the U.S. Air Force.

Not all of the CAP's duties involve such large-scale disasters. Civil Air volunteers also search for missing people and lost aircraft, assist drug enforcement agencies, spot forest fires and conduct aerial reconnaissance of security-sensitive sites such as dams and power plants, said Maj. Gary Brockman, a CAP member and director of the National Services Academy, the training school for CAP.

The Civil Air Patrol performs 95 percent of the nation's inland search and rescue, saving 100 lives per year.

The Air Force, Brockman said, is tasked to find inland missing aircraft, but it is cheaper and more practical to have CAP pilots and ground volunteers conduct the search. The majority of the Air Force's fleet is fighter jets and attack helicopters.

"Fighter jets go 500 mph. They couldn't look (for a downed airplane)," he said. "The military is also very expensive to operate. Our costs are about a quarter of what it takes the military to launch something."

A Cessna costs $100 an hour in fuel and mechanical upkeep, while a military helicopter costs $2,644 and a C-130 costs $3,942 per hour to operate. Like the helicopter, private planes also can land more places, fly lower and easily double back if the crew spots something, but there are some tasks, such as rescuing Katrina victims, which only a helicopter can do. The CAP helped with the rescue efforts by taking care of the other flying-related tasks.

"It's not only the monetary considerations, but it also allows that (military) helicopter to be used for something else. We're a force multiplier," Brockman said.

He added that much of the military's equipment is deployed in the Middle East right now, so CAP's fleet is more important than ever for domestic missions.

As an auxiliary force, CAP can also be ready for sporadic and unpredictable incidents at a moment's notice and be inactive when it's not needed. This saves the government the costs of having to maintain a full time search and rescue force.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, CAP has become more concerned with homeland security issues in addition to its regular duties, Brockman said. CAP would be an important part of the overall response to a terrorist incident.

During the Ardent Sentry exercise, CAP volunteers were activated to participate in the dirty bomb scenario. Their flexibility allowed incident commanders to assign them a variety of tasks. During the exercise, CAP crews flew over the "disaster site" to send back visual data on the scope of the damage.

"Part of what they might need is intel on routes," Brockman added. "They use us to fly the routes to feel out what routes can use to bring people and equipment in."

The CAP's equipment is sophisticated. Part of the flight crew in a search and rescue or reconnaissance mission, for example, must be trained on the imaging equipment. They can take still pictures or use the Archer system, which digitally records as they fly over an area.

The video is saved and can be altered using hyperspectral imaging to help the searchers find something specific. Specific colors can be "pulled out" to aid in the search. If they are looking for a red and white aircraft, for example, those colors can be isolated on the recording.

The system can also be used in homeland security missions. For example, the intelligence reports could say a person in a U-Haul is planning to blow up a dam. The CAP can set the system to pull out U-Haul's orange. The criteria can also be changed, if, for example, they later learn the saboteur is actually in a blue minivan.

Of course, that equipment requires training. Each state, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have a CAP presence and there are 1,600 operational units. Those units may offer their own training throughout the year, but once a year, a school is conducted for all members.

The National Emergency Services Academy has been conducted at Camp Atterbury since 1998.

Six schools operate within the academy: Basic Ground Team School, Advanced Ground Team School, Team Leader School, Incident Command School, Mission Aircrew School and First Responder School.

The CAP does not offer flight training. Pilots must be certified and have 200 hours and his or her own plane to fly CAP missions. Pilots are trained on CAP-specific needs, however, such as grid searches, communications and using the search and rescue equipment.

Camp Atterbury and nearby sites are ideal for CAP's training. The wooded areas and the rubble piles at the Mari Hulman-George Search & Rescue Academy give ground teams ideal areas to practice looking for missing people or aircraft. There are also lakes, as well as the camp's pool, to practice water rescue.

The students used equipment to track downed aircraft signals and practiced medical scenarios on each other. They used skits to hone their skills for interviewing witnesses to gather information. For ground crews, this training will help them find a missing aircraft using the equipment and witness accounts and give first aid to survivors.

The nearby Columbus airport is the site for the aircrew school. Brockman said the planes are capable of using the runway at Atterbury, but that would require shutting down ranges during take-offs and landing, so the Columbus site was more convenient.

"The National Guard has been very helpful to us. Col. Richmond is actually a (CAP) member," Brockman said. "Folks go out of their way to support us."

He said even after Atterbury was activated and full of Soldiers training for overseas missions, the camp still managed to fit them in.

CAP has three components, said Maj. LouAnn Maffei: emergency services, cadet programs and aerospace education.

Cadets, members ages 12-21, are included in the academy. The younger members can take part in programs that train them on the CAP's duties, aerospace education, orientation flights and a foreign exchange program.

Maffei said the young people are her favorite part of the CAP.

"There are lots of different activities for them, such as schools, trips, programs," she said. "We've got a lot of returnees ... kids that we've watched grow up."

Maffei, a pediatrician from Boston, Mass., wasn't interested in CAP at first. She said she was taking her son to meetings and the members kept urging her to join. Now, her son is away at college and not as active, but Maffei is a dedicated member. Her husband is amazed, she said, that she is willing to use two weeks of vacation and pay travel expenses to Indiana to attend the academy, where she has to don heavy military BDUs and run around in the humid Indiana summer. It is one of the most enjoyable experiences of CAP membership, she said.

"We all look forward to this all year," she said.

• Date Taken: 08.01.2007
• Date Posted: 08.01.2007 11:35
• Story ID: 11572
• Location: CAMP ATTERBURY, IN, US