Successful State-Wide Disaster Relief Exercise Conducted

CAPE MAY — If you looked to the sky this past weekend in Cape May, N.J., you likely spotted a red, white and blue Civil Air Patrol aircraft conducting missions for a state-wide coordinated effort to sharpen emergency services skills. Several ground teams were also tasked with searching beach areas and other lowlands, building on the organization’s experiences supporting disaster operations following hurricane Sandy.
Nearly 100 members of the Civil Air Patrol’s New Jersey Wing participated in a robust three-day training exercise than involved approximately 40 day-and-night missions from March 7-9, 2014. The team, which included a mix of cadet and senior members, operated from the Cape May Airport.
This training event, which included a coordinated effort of six Civil Air Patrol aircraft and five ground teams from all over New Jersey, executed searches for Emergency Locator Transmitters (ELTs) and simulated missing persons. ELT devices are standard in all aircraft and are automatically activated by during an emergency. The ELT’s signal can be found by tracking equipment used by the Civil Air Patrol’s ground and air teams.
“This training is critical to ensure we are at our best when asked by the United States Air Force to support emergency or disaster relief efforts,” said Maj. Tom Woods, Assistant Director of Operations for the New Jersey Wing and Incident Commander for this exercise. “We greatly appreciated the enthusiastic support and participation from our members; our success is a direct result of their unwavering commitment to our mission.”
The Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, a nonprofit organization that conducts hundreds of service missions across the country each year. Civil Air Patrol was born 7 days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, with its first base of operation at Bader Field in Atlantic City searching for German submarines. For more than 72 years, the members have served their communities, state and nation… all as volunteers.
Following Hurricane Sandy, the Civil Air Patrol provided comprehensive air surveillance and photography for FEMA to catalog the devastation. In the days after the storm, the Civil Air Patrol conducted thousands of flight hours to support FEMA and other relief agencies – the Civil Air Patrol captured more than 300,000 photographs of the Jersey coastline during that time.
Throughout the year, the New Jersey Wing offers dozens of training and professional-development opportunities for its members. These collaborative efforts support the Wing’s motto – One Wing, One Team, One Standard of Excellence.