CAP members receive training

Posted: Friday, March 30, 2012 5:00 pm

Five members of the Everett-Stewart Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) recently received search and rescue (SAR) training at the Bolivar-Hardeman County Airport in Bolivar.
The members included Second Lt. Stan Mitchell, Second Lt. Jaclyn Cook, Senior Member David Cook, Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Justin Mealer and Cadet Technical Sgt. William Thralls. These members trained along with other senior and cadet members from across Tennessee. The members traveled from Jackson, Bolivar, Millington, the Nashville area, Knoxville, LaGrange and other locations in Tennessee.
On that Friday, some cadets and senior members arrived to receive necessary classes before the search and rescue training the next day. The classes prepared members on ground team, mission base, aircrew or flight line. On that Saturday, the real emergency service training began at 8 a.m. with a briefing or meeting about safety and the training plans of the day. Around noon, the Hardeman County Baptist Crisis Team-Baptist Association provided lunch for the CAP personnel, the media and visitors at the airport. Also, the Hardeman County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) provided some equipment and tents for the SAR training.
Mitchell received his qualifying ES training in mission scanner, which is his part of the mission aircrew including a mission pilot and mission observer. The mission aircrew provides air support for the ground team of cadets and senior members. The mission scanner basically provides an “effective visual search” or observes the ground for any evidence of a downed aircraft, including helicopters and airplanes. Then she or he reports and records the finding of the mission flight.
Jaclyn Cook and David Cook received ES training for mission staff assistant, which is a component of the mission base personnel. The main duties for a mission staff assistant include administrative responsibilities. These duties included performing inspections regarding basic safety and/or hazards, setting up designated meeting and briefing areas, escorting media or visitors with public information officer, and scheduling/maintaining “status boards.” Additional duties for mission staff assistants involve notifying appropriate personnel for the next operations time; developing incident action plan sections or other briefing resources; and composing/sustaining mission documents, information, logs and data. The Cooks’ duties for the training session included scheduling/maintaining aircrew status boards and notifying appropriate personnel. They coordinated and set up the aircrew for each flight and each of four Cessna airplanes. These members provided the aircrew list to the air operations branch director for approval and revision due to weight restrictions. Next they informed each aircrew member of their next flight and fellow crew members.
Mealer obtained ES training in flight line marshaling. The flight marshal’s duties included assisting the pilot to safely taxi to and from the runaway without any mishaps, properly parking the airplane and refueling the aircraft. Also, the flight line marshal checked for any damage and impact to the airplane that occurred during the flight and removed any possible hazards on the taxiway of the flight line. Next, the flight line marshal ensured the safety of aircrew and other personnel on the flight line.
Thralls was instructed in ground team member training. The ground team member’s responsibilities included searching for missing aircraft and/or people (adults or children). For missing aircraft, the ground team utilizes an ELT (Electronic Location Transmitter) direction finder to receive a signal of a downed aircraft and find its location. The team reported back to mission base about their searching status. Once an aircraft had been found, the ground team searched for any victims and determined their condition status, including whether they were unconscious, injured, alive, critical, etc. One member of the ground team recorded the designated information off the ELT as required. For the victims of distress, a selected member reported back to mission base about medical attention/transportation needed for the victim(s).
The search and rescue exercise training was a success and every CAP personnel that needed training was checked off on their required tasks, a spokesman said.

Published in The Messenger 3.30.12