RESCUE SQUADRON PRACTICES; CIVIL AIR PATROL SIMULATES A SEARCH

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Many people likely spent Sunday afternoon in their warm, dry living rooms in front of a television.

But cadets and senior members of the Cape Girardeau Composite Squadron, Civil Air Patrol were out in the rain and fog, trekking through the mud, woods and wet grass searching for victims of a missing airplane.

Fortunately, their maneuvers were only a training session. It was part of a simulated search and rescue (SAR) mission to prepare the squadron for the real thing.

The superintendent at Trail of Tears State Park, the Cape Girardeau County office of Emergency Preparedness and members of Cape Girardeau Boy Scout Troop 2, helped in Sunday's search and rescue operation as "victims" of the simulated air crash.

Search and rescue is just one of the roles of Civil Air Patrol, a non-profit, volunteer civilian auxiliary to the Air Force.

2nd Lt. Fred Brown, squadron commander and mission coordinator, said the patrol dedicates itself to humanitarian service.

"The mission today simulated the search for a downed aircraft somewhere in the Trail of Tears State Park area, with four persons on board," Brown said.

"We were notified by the (Federal Aviation Administration) at 7 a.m. that an aircraft was reported missing and (they were ) requesting us to respond for search and rescue duty."

Brown said the squadron's ground search and rescue team members were notified to report to the central command post, which operated in the park near Lake Boutin.

"If the weather had been better, we would have had airplanes supporting our ground search teams," he added.

The county's Emergency Preparedness Mobile Communications Center served as the mission command post. The center is equipped with two-way radio equipment and a generator for emergency power.

After briefing the search teams on their mission, the cadets and senior members fanned out in two teams to begin the search for the missing aircraft.

Based on information obtained from simulated interviews, Brown said the search was narrowed to the east side of the park.

Shortly after 4 p.m., one of the teams radioed the command post to report that the airplane and "victims" had been found in a wooded, hilly area of the park near the Mississippi River.

Cadet team members performed first aid on the survivors, who wore tags identifying the scope of their "injuries," and waited for paramedics to arrive in an ambulance.

Later, Brown said he was pleased with the mission.

"Overall, I would say everything went pretty good," he said. "We'll go back and critique the entire operation to see where we could have done better. We want to make our mistakes now, instead of making them during an actual mission, when lives are at stake."

Sunday's mission is the second SAR practice since the squadron organized in October 1989. "We held the first one during the summer, in good weather," Brown said. "There was some question whether we should go ahead with the Sunday mission because of the bad weather.

"But most aircraft accidents occur in this kind of weather, so the rain and low clouds provided a realistic scenario of what we could expect during a real search mission."

Brown said the squadron's search and rescue operations date back to the founding of the Civil Air Patrol in 1941, when the group's mission was to assist in U.S. defense during World War II.

Civil Air Patrol wings and squadrons throughout the nation now are trained and ready to respond to search and rescue calls from the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

The CAP also works with many government and private organizations, such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army, in disaster-relief operations.

"These missions may include such things as courier and light cargo transport; mercy missions, such as blood, organ transplant and life-saving patient transport evacuations; and air and ground transport of non-CAP key personnel involved in disaster relief operations," Brown added.

When the Cape Girardeau CAP squadron isn't training for search and rescue missions, they perform aerospace education and cadet training.

"The CAP Aerospace program provides cadets, senior members, and educators with information on our aviation and space activities," Brown said. "The cadet training program for boys and girls in junior and senior high school provides the opportunity for the cadets to go on to the Air Force Academy and careers in the Air Force."

Brown said the Cape Girardeau squadron now has 16 cadets and 15 senior members.