(1)
Chief Master Sergeant Joshua Freeze of Capital City Composite Squadron 302 trains as a flight marshaller, learning how to safely guide and park aircraft.
(2)
Inside the Pennsylvania Wing's mobile communications unit, mission radio operators (from) 1st Lt. Michael Gaines, Maj. Skip Walls and Cadet Tech. Sgt. Leo Malfara relay critical information from aircrews to members on the ground. Gaines and Walls are communications officer and assistant communications officer, respectively, for Jesse Jones Composite Squadron 304; Malfara is a member of Harrisburg International Composite Squadron 306. The mobile unit – featuring the latest radio technology and established by Walls and Maj. Don Inscho, Group 2 communications officer – was being deployed for the first time.
(3)
(From left) Second Lt. Pete Gionet, mission observer; Lt. Col. Richard Gray, mission pilot; and Maj. Bruce Russell, mission check pilot, head out for one of 23 sorties flown during the exercise. Gionet is a member of Nittany Composite Squadron 338, while Gray is cadet programs development officer for Group 6 and Russell is the Pennsylvania Wing’s standardization/evaluation development officer.
(4)
Capt. Jay Ledvina, assistant standardization/evaluation officer for Group 2, carries out a preflight inspection for the next mission.
(5)
A Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172 returns to the Pennsylvania Wing incident command center in New Cumberland, Pa.
Photos by 2nd Lt. Jennifer Lichlyter, Pennsylvania Wing
2nd Lt. Jennifer Lichlyter
Public Affairs Officer
Harrisburg International Composite Squadron 306
Pennsylvania Wing
PENNSYLVANIA – Members from throughout the Pennsylvania Wing participated in a multistate training exercise with other Northeast Region wings, participating in a scenario that called on them to assess damage caused by a disastrous derecho – a violent windstorm causing extensive fire, flood and tornado damage throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
From its incident command post at Capital City Airport in New Cumberland, the wing used six Civil Air Patrol aircraft to fly 23 sorties throughout the state and launched three ground teams in the Harrisburg and Philadelphia areas.|
"Aerial imagery was a primary mission for this exercise," said Lt. Col. Bob Meinert, the wing’s incident commander for the event. "CAP is very good at aerial imaging and a cost-effective resource to assist local, state and federal agencies."
In addition to training members for actual emergency situations, the exercise allowed Northeast Region officials to assess the effectiveness of a Region Area Command program designed to coordinate emergency service assets to respond across multiple states in the event of a large-scale disaster.
