IOWA WING SAREX

Iowa wing conducts a SAREX exercise at Ft. Dodge

1st Lt. Cindi Wachholz
Squadron Commander, IA-007 / Squadron PAO
Northwest Iowa Composite Squadron

Ft. Dodge, Iowa- The Iowa Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, the auxiliary of the United States Air Force, conducted a Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) in Ft. Dodge and in surrounding areas. A total of 55 CAP members contributed almost 500 volunteer man hours, for a day of training in air and ground operations.

Under the direction of the Incident Commander, Col Joe Casler, Region Director of Emergency Services out of Columbia, Missouri, ground and air teams worked in tandem to successfully complete the assigned missions. Included in the days scenarios were: A missing person search in the area of Vincent was successfully conducted involving both air and ground assets. An Emergency Locating Transmitter (ELT), of the type carried on most aircraft, was detected in rural Stratford. Photo missions, similar to the ones flown during the floods last year, at the request of local, state, and federal agencies, such as Homeland Security, EPA, Corps of Engineers, and USDA were completed. Air and ground crews also located a “missing vehicle” in a gully off of Highway 169.

Communication is a key to the success of Civil Air Patrol missions. “If communications and coordination exercises are solid, then mission success is much more likely,” stated CAP member Major Joe Murphy, an active duty Lieutenant Commander with the United States Navy, serving CAP out of the Red Oak, IA, detachment. During an actual mission, tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center or the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the benefits of these types of exercises are realized.

Actual “field training” emphasizes the importance of teamwork between cadets and senior CAP members. “You can learn something in a classroom” said CAP Capt Pam Lehman, Ft. Dodge Squadron, “but with practice it becomes automatic.” One of Lehman's sorties was a search for colored panels simulating a downed aircraft with a victim nearby, in rural Ottosen.

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is utilized by CAP members during both actual and training missions. “Learning how GPS works, such as on geo-cache missions,” comments Major Roger Elliott, Iowa Wing Logistics Director, “helps cadets and even more the senior members, to become comfortable using that technology.”

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 67 years.

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