Civil Air Patrol Continues Homeland Security Exercise

Six Oregon CAP aircraft participated in the extensive series of responses for assistance involving over 35 people contributing over 300 man hours through the weekend.

CAP Pilot Capt. Tom Moore and observer Lt. Jim Metcalf make final check of their route before departing the CAP Incident Command Center at the Aurora Airport on their flight to check the effectiveness of the Airborne Public Address System Photos by Thomas Traver/CAP

(SALEM) - It was all simulated. Nothing really happened. The hypothetical terrorist attack in California was treated as the real thing however by Oregon and California Wings of the Civil Air Patrol who were part of a six state pacific region Homeland Security training exercise this weekend.

Roving boat off southern Oregon coast was photographed by Oregon CAP reconnaisance aircraft using satellite digital imaging system to allow USCG to observe the resolution the sytstem is capable of

The exercise, planned and coordinated with the United States Air Force and the Department of Homeland Security, tasked the six state pacific region of the CAP including Oregon, Washington, Nevada, California, Hawaii and Alaska, with a multitude of potential terrorist themed scenarios with the respective wings responding to realistic forecasts of requests from federal and states agencies. Most of those tasks involved aerial reconnaissance, Satellite Digital Imaging and utilizing portions of the CAP's extensive nation wide communications network but also involved emergency transport of personnel and, in one case,a specially trained tracking canine from Washington to California using CAP aircraft from Washington, Oregon, and California .

For the first time, Oregon CAP utilized it's new airborne public address system.

With this new system, the CAP is capable of flying over a designated area from 1000' and, by utilizing a high powered speaker, able to warn persons on the ground of an emergency such as an approaching tsunami, a lost child or other situation requiring public action on the ground. The system has a range of over 1 mile from the aircraft. Major areas of activity in Oregon involved southern Oregon with a mission base at the CAP's Incident Command Center at the Medford Airport and the Portland metro area operating out of the CAP's ICP at the Aurora State Airport. "The missions we have been tasked with this weekend help us in preparing for a variety of incidents that we are capable of responding to, not only Homeland Security" remarked CAP spokesman, Major David Rudawitz, Oregon CAP director of emergency services."

Six Oregon CAP aircraft participated in the extensive series of responses for assistance involving over 35 people contributing over 300 man hours through the weekend.

Our aerial reconnaissance capabilities have practical search and rescue applications as well"he said in reference to the cap's involvement in the recent search for Mrs. Klein, who's teal colored vehicle was the object of an extensive search in Oregon City earlier this year. While her vehicle has yet to be found, numerous sightings from CAP aircraft led to ground verification of similar vehicles. The CAP was also credited with locating a crashed Cessna 182 earlier this month in southern Oregon, leading to the rescue of the downed pilot by a helicopter from the Oregon Army National Guard and ground teams from the Douglas County Sheriff's office. The CAP, which is the official civilian, volunteer auxiliary of the United States Air Force conducts over 95% of all air search and rescue missions in the continental United States under the direction of the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall AFB, FL.

Utilizing their fleet of over 535 aircraft, the 56,000 members of the CAP are credited with saving an average of 100 lives each year on search and rescue missions. For more information on the CAP, visit the national CAP web site at cap.gov or the Oregon CAP web site at: orwg.cap.org