Va., Middle East Region members join multi-agency search and rescue exercise

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Pilot “Mr. Jack O'Lantern” is attended to by paramedics at base camp after being lowered down a mountain by a team of about 15 members using a belay line.


Capt. Alberic Bergeron
Public Affairs Officer
Virginia Wing

VIRGINIA – Nineteen members marked Halloween this year by participating in the appropriately named Operation Jack-O-Lantern multi-agency search and rescue exercise in the Jefferson National Forest near Blacksburg.

.The exercise scenario -- created by Col. Charlie Glass, Middle Eastern Region director of safety and a longtime Civil Air Patrol incident commander and pilot -- involved a missing charter aircraft with seven people aboardthat had disappeared from radar after declaring an emergency.

In all, 19 members from Middle East and Virginia Wing headquarters and the Danville, Montgomery and Roanoke composite squadrons joined with more than 150 participants from more than 10 organizations, including Commonwealth Search and Rescue, South Western Virginia Mountain Rescue, the American Red Cross, Angel Search and Rescue and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.

The weekend began with a Friday night planning session, as CAP air operations and command staff worked closely with the other agencies to investigate clues and create tasks for the next day’s search and rescue operations. In addition, an airborne electronic locator transmitter search was launched Friday evening from Roanoke to provide real-time position information to the search planners.
 
Early Saturday morning, CAP established air operations at the Blacksburg and Roanoke airports, while ground search and rescue operations were established at Caldwell Fields in the Jefferson National Forest. Search and rescue teams from across Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee were involved. and participants included equestrian and dog teams, as well as mountain rescue and CAP direction-finding personnel.
 
Two high-birds radio relay flights were flown from Roanoke to ensure communications among the assorted ground teams.  The air operations staff had to improvise, however, when the high bird could not be in position because of fueling or pilot constraints and low visibility.

By substituting a CAP vehicle as a low bird relay when the aircraft was not available, the members were able to maintain communications throughout the 10-hour exercise period.
 
In all, 28 ground search tasks, one airborne ELT search, two high bird radio relay flights and two transport flights were completed. CAP flew 9.9 hours and four corporate vehicles providing ground support, all in poor weather conditions.