Rescue exercise teams 9 wings' cadets with Kans. sheriff's patrol

 

 

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Civil Air Patrol cadets participate in spinal board immobilization training during their weeklong winter encampment at the Great Plains Joint Training Center's Crisis City xomplex in Salina, Kan.

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Cadets receive instruction from a Saline County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol and Rescue Squad member on conducting a line search and rescue.


Air National Guard Maj. DeAnn Bar
Public Affairs Officer
Great Plains Joint Training Center

KANSAS — Near-freezing temperatures proved no obstacle when 108 Civil Air Patrol cadets and leaders from nine wings assembled recently at the Great Plains Joint Training Center’s Crisis City complex in Salina for search and rescue training with the Saline County’s Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol and Rescue Squad. 

The cadets— from the Kansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas wings — divided into four training groups for a rescue scenario involving a line search with the Mounted Patrol and Rescue Squad.  The search and rescue exercise was part of CAP’s  annual cadet-planned weeklong winter encampment at the Kansas training center.

The team-up proved to be an asset to both organizations. Most real-world searches and rescues involve multiple agencies, so side-by-side training creates an extra sense of realism that can translate into efficiency during an actual crisis.

“It’s good training for us and good training for the kids,” said Doug Philbrook, sheriff’s rescue squad commander. “The more agencies that can work together in training, (the more it helps) us when something major comes along.

“We know we have practiced together and can trust each other.”

Gary Peterman, a 15-year sheriff’s office veteran, echoed the value of combined training: “Training here today with the CAP not only exercises our own skills, but gives us a chance to teach young kids to train on what we have already learned.”

The cadets participated in three other training exercises as well. They used enclosed wooden structures at Crisis City to train with emergency locater transmitters, participated in spinal board immobilization training and carried out a helicopter landing exercise that involved clearing a landing pad of debris and excess personnel.

The training center’s challenging Kansas terrain helped make it “the most perfect place for our training,” said the event’s organizer, Cadet Maj. Matthew Simmonds of Kansas Wing Headquarters. 

“We have achieved our objectives, and emergency services training is the most complicated part of the CAP,” Simmonds said. “Here, we were able to train many elements all at once.”

When Simmonds began planning the event 11 months ago, he wrote numerous letters to private landowners seeking permission to use their property. In doing so, he encountered many obstacles with liability and space limitations.

The training center, designed for joint exercises by civilian and military organizations and civilian first responders of Kansas, offers state-of the-art training venues that can accommodate realistic hands-on scenarios as well as overnight and dining facilities. 

At Crisis City alone, a two-story command center building offers several large conference rooms that also can function as command centers. An elevated observation deck with a 300-degree view of the training area allows for complete surveillance of the multiple training venues. Eight railcars and a 166,000-square-foot concrete rubble pile can be used for search and rescue and fire rescue training. 

Access to the various training venues is free of charge for Kansas first responders, with nominal fees for consumables. Requests from out-of-state organizations are fulfilled on a space-available basis, with a venue use fee will applied.