TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The 181st Intelligence Wing’s Incident Awareness and Assessment (IAA) team, the Mobile Veterans Center (MVC), and the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) teamed to conduct training Feb. 6, 2013, in support of the Indiana Air National Guard civil support mission.
Although the primary mission of the MVC is to provide Department of Veteran Affairs resources to remote veterans, alternative missions include utilizing their communication capabilities to assist federal and state first responders during a natural disaster.
“We’re able to take the pictures and send them to the Mobile Vet Center where we have people inside with the software to analyze the natural disaster, so we can give it to the incident commander to better prepare him for recovery efforts,” said Master Sgt. Ben Knowles, noncommissioned officer in charge of the IAA team.
Training included system testing and familiarization, as well as an IAA flight with the CAP to test the combined capabilities of the organizations.