Emergency Services is Civil Air Patrol’s operational mission. The Emergency Services segment of CAP is divided into two parts: Search-and-Rescue and Disaster Relief.

Civil Air Patrol’s primary function in Search-and-Rescue (SAR) is electronic direction-finding from both the air and the ground, as well as aerial visual searches. Our electronic searches are typically for Emergency Location Transmitters (ELT’s), which are mounted on all aircraft except ultralights, or Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB’s), which are mounted on all commercial vessels and many privately-owned small craft. Both of these devices transmit a radio signal on the same frequency, which is detected by a Search-and-Rescue Satellite (SARSAT). This information is gathered by the United States Air Force at the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) and relayed to Civil Air Patrol (if the signal is determined to be on land), or to the United States Coast Guard if the signal is determined to be off-shore. Civil Air Patrol performs about 90% of the inland SAR missions in the continental United States. The image above shows two of our squadron’s senior members (Senior Member Ricky Walsh and First Lieutenant Frank deBros) holding up their “prize”, a malfunctioning EPIRB (the yellow box in 1st Lt deBros’ hand) located after a long night of searching.

Civil Air Patrol searches from both the ground and the air. Senior members with a private pilot’s license who meet the criteria are able to become qualified as Mission Scanners, Mission Observers, or Mission Pilots, who fly in CAP-owned aircraft (primarily Cessna 172′s, like the one in the photo above, which is from Hanscom Squadron in Bedford, MA) to perform their mission.

Both cadets and senior members are also able to serve on Ground Teams, which are teams with a minimum of four members, one of whom is a Ground Team Leader, that perform tasks from, well, the ground. Those tasks vary from electronic direction-finding like the aircraft, to searching aircraft ramps at airports, to line searches, to witness questioning. Ground Teams typically are the ones who pinpoint and deactivate the beacon after being guided into the general area by an aircraft.

Our squadron is currently one of the most active units in the Wing (each state comprises one wing, so we are in Massachusetts Wing) for SAR. We are the only squadron in the Wing with two complete Ground Teams, either of which gets activated for a search about twice a month on average. Needless to say, like a fire department or police station, a large percentage of our activations end up being “false alarms” (beacons that were accidentally activated but are not in a state of distress), but these beacons still need to be found and deactivated so that we will be able to find the beacon that really is a distress beacon. Non-distress searches also allow us to practice and hone our skills for when those times when we are called on an actual distress mission in which someone’s life might depend on us.

In the Disaster Relief segment of Emergency Services, Civil Air Patrol provides assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as the American Red Cross, state Emergency Management Agencies (in our case, MEMA, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency), and local agencies and authorities such as police departments.

We provide services related to natural disasters and other widespread emergencies. While our state is generally a quiet place when it comes to natural disasters, other states, such as Florida and the midwestern states, are not so fortunate, and their squadrons keep busy responding to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, and the like. Additionally, a Civil Air Patrol aircraft was the first aircraft to overfly the site of the World Trade Center towers after they were attacked in September, 2001, flying aerial surveying routes with high-tech cameras capable of seeing through the smoke to determine the extent of the damage to the towers. Civil Air Patrol aircraft also regularly assist the American Red Cross by transporting blood and organs for emergency transplants and transfusions.

In order to perform all these varied missions, our members get extensive training. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, First Aid and First Responder training, CPR certification, outdoors/wilderness training, emergency preparedness, and other SAR skills. Here you see cadets from our squadron (left to right: C/AB Roberts, C/A1C Henderson, with orange bag, C/Amn Monterrosa, C/AB Blair, and C/A1C Walker, sitting in background) engaged in some wilderness and outdoors training, and enjoying a good view to boot!

The bottom line is, if any of this piques your interest, you can do it with Civil Air Patrol. So come visit us, speak with our members, and find out about all the cool Emergency Services stuff you can do as a cadet in our squadron!