CAP

An American Asset 75 Years in the Making

By Russell Slater

The Civil Air Patrol has come a long way in its 75-year history. What began as a national effort to coordinate civilian pilots during World War II has evolved into America’s premier public service organization. Acting as a force multiplier to the Air Force and other agencies, CAP members draw on hours of training to carry out search and rescue as well as disaster relief operations. Utilizing state of the art technology and equipment, personnel have assisted the military in homeland security training, employed radar and cell phone forensics to locate missing persons, and provided security during major events and for critical infrastructure. With an eye toward outstanding continued service, CAP forges its way into the future as an ongoing asset to their public and private partners.

Return to its Roots

As the terrible shock of the 9/11 terror attacks sunk in to the national psyche, the Civil Air Patrol found itself, along with the rest of the country, facing a new and uncertain future. The unprecedented loss of life that took place in New York City and Washington D.C. put Americans into a state of mind that emphasized our collective safety and security. The rather minor threat of international terrorism had become a clear and present danger to our nation.

The Civil Air Patrol was born amid a similar mindset in the beginning years of World War II. The threat of German U-boats along America’s east coast propelled the organizing and training of civilian aviators on a national level. The burgeoning clubs and groups scattered across the country lacked practical effectiveness due to the absence of large-scale coordination and standardized equipment and training. A national organization was needed. After authorization was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, general headquarters opened their doors on December 1, 1941.

Fast forward 60 years, and Americans again found themselves faced with the threat of attack, albeit in a less conventional form than the German navy. Motivated by fanatical religious hatred, terrorists hijacked several airliners carrying full loads of passengers, and turned the craft into offensive weapons, crashing two into the World Trade Center and another into the heart of US defense planning, the Pentagon, in Washington DC.

“We were a heavily Search and Rescue and Disaster response-focused organization prior to 9/11,” said Lt. Col. John W. Desmarais, Director of Operations at National Headquarters. “That all changed then, and we went from training and supporting those missions to doing so much more.”

The day following the attack, a CAP Cessna 172 took to the air over New York City in order to document the destruction. Still smoldering, the remnants of the World Trade Center was later confirmed as the location where nearly 3,000 innocent people perished. Thanks to the efforts of the crew, they were able to provide some of the first images from the sky. Although their presence was challenged by a New York City Police Department helicopter, CAP’s authority to fly from the Air Force and FAA was confirmed via radio from authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the crew was cleared to carry out their emotionally-trying mission.

In addition to obtaining aerial photographs and videos, CAP personnel also transported blood and medical supplies to area hospitals. On the ground, crews assisted with communications, as most phone service in the area had been knocked out due to its routing through the World Trade Center complex. CAP chaplains offered their support and counseling for grieving families of the victims.

One positive take away from the post 9/11 response has been the expanded role and understanding that CAP is genuinely an organization that can be relied upon not only for airborne imagery collection during emergencies, but many other missions critical to the nation.

Desmarais explained, “We now fly thousands of hours of homeland security and air defense intercept training missions annually. Though there has always been some need for that type of support, the events of 9/11 highlighted that, and the activities in the months following 9/11 really highlighted some of the core functions and capabilities of CAP. The skill sets learned from search and rescue and disaster relief operations definitely translate into other missions.”

Air Defense

In order to protect to skies over America, the Air Force and various state Air National Guards must prepare to respond to a number of threatening scenarios. Training partners can be hard to come by, and that’s where CAP has stepped in to fill the void. Using their small aircraft as mock targets, air crews participate in regular intercept rehearsals. Defending the airspace over sensitive no-fly zones is essential, and in the event that such restricted airspace is violated, military pilots must either force the intruding craft to land, or shoot it down.

During the exercises, military pilots have to corral CAP’s slower speed Cessna’s, boxing them in before guiding them to the nearest airfield outside of the no-fly zone. Depending on the rehearsal, CAP pilots simulate a variety of issues, such as communication problems, which is often the case in real life situations, illness, or individuals intent on doing harm to others. Occasionally they will take on the role of drug runners or suicidal pilots. Practices are held all over the country, involving up to 4 CAP aircraft and their crews, which allow the military pilots to react to a number of potential threats.

Demarais reiterated, “Training is key for crews to remain current and proficient, and CAP is an integral part of that process for the fighter units across the country. CAP is supporting more and more exercises every year as well, and that leads to more and more opportunities for CAP members to serve.”

Such training helped to prepare for the extensive security measures undertaken for major events like the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans (which hosted over 70,000 attendees) in 2013, and the annual Kentucky Derby held in Louisville.

It was at the request of the Department of Defense that 250 CAP members helped provide security and traffic observation at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“CAP was already scheduled to support the 2002 Winter Olympics before 9/11, but with just some basic emergency planning flights each day, and emergency response flights available if needed,” Demarais recalled. “After 9/11 that plan quickly changed to have us flying with law enforcement observers to provide overhead imagery of 100 sites 6 times a day throughout the entire Winter Olympic and Paralympic games.”

Prior to the games, crews took photos of various sites as baseline pictures in the event of a terrorist attack. CAP pilots flew 179 sorties, and contributed 2,232 aerial photos using high-resolution digital cameras and single frame video downlinks system, which were uploaded on a limited access website for security agencies. Those 534 hours of reconnaissance resulted in at least one law enforcement action a day.

“That put us at the table with the key players from agencies across the country, and allowed us to not only highlight how professional our crews are, but to really show that we can provide a sustained capability to respond since we had personnel onsite supporting the events leading up to the games and the games themselves as well as closing activities for months.

I definitely see us doing more of this in the future. CAP has been flying these types of missions for a long time, but continues to fly more of them every year.”

Ready-made FEMA Partner

CAP has been in business much longer than the Federal Emergency Management Administration — more than 40 years, in fact. Both organizations strive to respond to, and prevent, man-made and natural disasters. With the blessing of their parent service branch, the air force, CAP began its relationship with FEMA in 1996 through a memorandum of understanding.

That collaborative relationship was strengthened following a 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri. Following established protocol, CAP sent planes to observe and photograph the extent of the damage in the worst-hit areas before forwarding the pictures and information to their FEMA partners. A delay of several days presented a logistical issue, and a lesson learned for the future.

The following year, representatives of the two groups sat down to brainstorm solutions that would get the important photographic material to those who needed it in the speediest manner possible. By utilizing crowd sourcing, an online damage rating procedure that is performed by hundreds of people at the same time, along with developing quicker photo processing and delivery times, CAP was able to overcome the obstacles impeding swift CAP-FEMA collaboration.

Addressing and resolving such issues came at an opportune time for real-world application, as the end of 2012 proved to be a busy and trying year for CAP. Air and ground crews went into action shortly after Hurricane Isaac hit coastal Louisiana in August, and it wasn’t long before craft were photographing damage again following flooding and the overflow of the Biloxi River. Thanks to CAP, FEMA was able receive more than 3,100 pictures. In late October, wings from the Great Lakes, Middle East, and Northeast Regions assisted following the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy along the Atlantic seaboard. Members were able to take 158,000 photographs along a 300-mile coastline, sending the imagery to FEMA and other agencies. Despite a few hiccups, the new procedures developed after the 2011 Joplin tornado were largely successful.

Desmarais described 2014 and 2015 as “relatively slow disaster years in terms of flying,” with 644 hours logged for Air Force Assigned Missions for Disaster Relief in 2014, and then only 255 in 2015. That trend has reversed in 2016, with 1,023 hours flown so far. Personnel have been active in South Carolina, Louisiana, and other southern states.

Even when a federal disaster is not declared, FEMA still has an interest in working to assist the states. According to Desmarais, FEMA hosts all of the disaster imagery collected by CAP as it gives them situational awareness on what is happening in real time.

“CAP is often times providing some of the first airborne imagery for any event as we are located out in the communities across the country,” Desmarais said. “The imagery we collect not only helps first responders make good decisions locally, but also allows FEMA and other federal agencies supporting disaster response to plan. We’ve literally seen our initial imagery become part of the briefings to the President of the United States and other senior government officials, and help them decide how best to respond during the disaster.”

FEMA would be hard pressed to find a more appropriate partner than CAP. CAP is the ideal organization to handle aerial observation, documentation, and photography after a major event because their light craft are much slower (typically between 80 and 100 knots) than military planes, allowing for clear, low-level photographs and video footage to be taken. CAP is also more cost effective, giving clients more “bang for their buck,” operating at approximately $150 per flying hours, instead of the thousands of dollars it could potentially cost to use military or commercial planes.

“Our relationship continues to grow, and FEMA knows we are ready to respond,” Demarais said. “Even during those slow times, we take the time to improve our processes, train together, and better prepare for the next event. It’s not a matter of if another disaster will happen that we will have to work together on, it’s a matter of when. It will happen.”

Radar/Cell Phone Forensics Innovation

Technological advances and the establishment of the National Radar Analysis Team, also known as NRAT, in 2009 meant that search and rescue missions that once took days or weeks could, in some cases, be reduced to a matter of hours. Founded by Lt. Col John Henderson and Capt. Guy Loughridge, the group is based out of CAP National Headquarters and provides a formalized structure and operational procedures for the organization’s radar forensics.

With a primary goal of developing tools and procedures to reduce crash-to-rescue time, a critical element in any positive outcomes for crash survivors, the team is composed of 11 handpicked specialists, experts in radar and weather analysis, and software development.

Henderson, NRAT Vice-Commander, said, “Of our eleven team members, six are mission-ready radar analysts. We are spread out across the country. Upon mission activation, a minimum of one radar analyst is required to perform the mission, and we rotate on-call a week at a time. We have the perfect sized group right now for what we are doing.

On a typical mission, we have the primary on-call analyst along with several others that join in as available, then the lead delegates tasks. This has worked well for us, and we are able to start the process within minutes. We typically produce results within 30–60 minutes, depending on the complexity of the mission. We have an NRAT web-site that we use to collaborate, and use chat to pass mission information between our team, the cell phone team, the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and CAP incident commanders. We also brief our analysis results on here with team-built mapping tools. We are constantly working to enhance our tools and build new ones, which is a slow, methodical process being we are all volunteers.”

The team works constantly to improve flying safety and develop better tools to help locate downed aircraft and missing persons by narrowing search areas from thousands of square miles to just a couple.

“Our wing has successfully used the National Radar Analysis Team in many of our missions,” said Col. Jonathan Neidfeldt, Utah Wing Commander. “In almost all of the cases, their estimated location was within a mile of the actual location of the incident. Like most wings, with the advancement of better GPS and radar capabilities, most aviation accidents are not ‘missing’ for very long.”

The team has participated in 423 missing aircraft missions, is credited with 173 finds, and 23 lives saved since it began. Working in conjunction with CAP incident commanders, cell phone forensics team, and the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, NRAT participates in about 60 missing aircraft missions each year.

Radar analysis is just one tool and part of the team. A small team lead by Major Justin Ogden and Colonel Brian Ready support cellular forensics missions. Cell phone forensics proved to be vital in saving a Nevada family who went missing in the snow in December 2013. Over a two-day search period, 4 CAP planes and 14 members participated in the effort to locate the family.

Capt. Robert Rinne, of the NV Wing and CAP member since 2005, was one of the mission pilots during the search. “The widespread use of mobile devices has helped in tracking missing persons by providing a last known position. That added information can quickly narrow a search area and make a search and rescue mission much more efficient.”

The six family members were found on the second day, marking the mission a success. They had been able to avoid frostbite by starting a fire. With exposure to the elements a major concern, the amount of time until rescue could have meant the difference between life and death.

Rinne is quick to point out that technology cannot win the day alone. “Even with improved technology, piloted aircraft still play an important role in CAP missions. The all volunteer air crew provides a cost effective means of quickly launching to areas not easily reached by ground transportation.”

Radar analysis and cellular forensics technology has had an incredible impact on CAP’s search and rescue missions. In 2014, 662 search and rescue missions were supported, and 1,925 hours flown. In 2015, 920 SAR missions took place, and 1,827 hours were flown. So far in 2016, CAP is at 851 SAR missions and counting, with 1,483 hours in the air, and is credited with 83 lives saved. Over CAP’s history, the average has been 79 lives saved. In recent years 80% or more of the lives saved each year are supported by CAP’s cellular forensics experts, radar analysts or both.

“Even though the hours we are flying are going down, we are still saving a lot of lives,” Demarais said. “Actually, this year has already been above average, largely due to cell phone and radar analysis and forensics support. The technology helps for sure. On more than one occasion, the members supporting this work have told me that they get frustrated if they are not able to bring missions to closure in less than 24 hours, and normally a few hours.

Considering that just 10 years ago we still ran many missions a year for missing persons or aircraft that went on for a week or longer due to the lack of information, this is a vast improvement. Those teams are not resting on their laurels. They are not only training new members to support, but are also working to improve their tools so that they can respond faster and provide better results to the responders in the field searching for survivors.”

LOOKING FORWARD

What does the future hold for CAP?

Demarais said the answer is simple, “Change. CAP’s missions continue to change to adapt to our customer’s needs.”

Fulfilling those needs means gradually moving into Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operations. CAP has been conducting escort missions for large UAVs for several years, escorting them between restricted areas as is required under current operating rules for the national airspace. A large mission performing UAV escorts on nearly a daily basis was recently added in Syracuse, New York, with a potential to spin off into other missions at other locations.

CAP is also in the process of developing mini UAVs to augment their existing operations.

“Our goal is to have a true operating capability for mini UAVs in each wing by 2020,” Desmarais said. There are currently 8 wings, one in each of the 8 regions, that have fielded initial UAV units. Training is under way in order to establish test cases. “As the rules are being developed along with processes to integrate these systems, it is taking some time to do it right, but we should have a good product in the end.”

Collecting imagery for incident response is one of CAP’s bread and butter missions, and the utilization of mini UAVs are expected to help fill the gap with what ground teams collect, especially during inclement weather, when aircrews might be prevented from flying to collect the needed imagery.

Desmarais envisions using mini UAVs to cover smaller post-disaster impacted areas, such as a tornado going through a neighborhood. “The mini-UAVs could be used in the field to collect imagery over an area, approximately 2 square miles, in short 30 minute operations, and that imagery could be stitched together to quickly provide a clear picture of damage to an area.”

As technology and equipment continue to evolve in all areas, training and mission focus will likewise change into the foreseeable future.

“I’ve been a member since 1987, and an employee since 1995,” said Desmarais. “There are many things that we do now that I could not imagine we would be doing back when I started. I’m sure that will be the case long term.”

*Originally published in CAP Volunteer Magazine