CAP role in oil spill response tops 10,000 volunteer hrs., 1,000 hrs. in air ... & counting

 

 

(1)
Maj. Gen. Amy S. Courter, CAP national commander, is briefed by Capt. William Drelling, overall deputy for the Coast Guard’s Mobile command center, as (from right) Lt. Col. Marcus Taylor, Florida Wing chaplain, Col. James M. Rushing, Southeast Region commander, and Capt. Phil Norris, Southeast Region Assistant Director of Public Affairs, listen.

(2)
Joint Information Center liaison officer Garry Willis, left, tells Maj. Gen. Amy S. Courter and Col. James M. Rushing about the center’s structure and how it relates to the different agencies working out of the Mobile command post.

 (3)
Maj. Gen. Amy S. Courter and Col. James M. Rushing listen as Eric Songer, geographical information systems data management group leader for URS Corp., explains how CAP’s aerial reconnaissance photographs are processed and why they are important to the oil spill response.

Photos by Susan Robertson, CAP National Headquarters


Steve Cox
Public Affairs Manager
National Headquarters

ALABAMA – Civil Air Patrol’s role in Deepwater Horizon Response has already reached significant milestones, surpassing 10,000 volunteer hours and 1,000 hours of flight time while providing aerial oil spill reconnaissance along the Gulf Coast.

“The level of CAP members’ response to the oil spill is significant and an indication of the continued diversification of Civil Air Patrol’s missions,” said Maj. Gen. Amy S. Courter, CAP national commander, who received the news during a briefing last week at the incident command center in Mobile.

CAP pilots fly the coastline daily to monitor and document oil control efforts, while scanners onboard take photos of booms deployed along the shoreline.  The images, as many as 3,000 each day, provide valuable information to agencies managing the response.

“It is critical to (the response), because a day is an eternity in this event,” said Eric Songer, data management group manager for geographical information systems for URS Corp., one of several agencies at work at the command center. “If a boom gets out of place or is misplaced, it’s not there to protect what it’s supposed to.”

Courter’s visit to Mobile came on the 60th day of CAP’s sustained operation on the Gulf Coast. The Southeast Region’s commander, Col. James M. Rushing, who briefed Courter on CAP’s response to the oil spill, described it as CAP’s biggest mission since World War II, when civilian pilots who founded the organization used their own aircraft to keep German U-boats away from America’s East and Gulf coasts.

 “It’s wonderful to see the trained, experienced, competent CAP members working shoulder-to-shoulder with their Air Force and Coast Guard counterparts as part of the whole team,” Courter said. “We are partnered at such high levels with other services and agencies. This speaks volumes about CAP’s ability to handle incident command structures and imagery standards.”

To date, CAP aircrews have made 497 flights in support of the response, logging 1,099 flight hours in 33 planes. In all, 239 CAP volunteers have put in 10,361 hours in support of the mission. 

For now, Courter said, CAP will maintain a presence in Mobile.

“From the briefings I heard today, I believe there will continue to be a need to support the communities and environment of the Gulf Coast and to respond with smart people who are capable of continually modifying their responses as the crisis unfolds,” she said.

Kristi Carr, staff writer, also contributed to this report