Sussex Civil Air Patrol in statewide exercises
The Sussex Composite Squadron, Civil Air Patrol – Delaware Wing, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, participated in a statewide search and rescue exercise Feb. 26. In coordination with other units in Delaware, this practice exercise was to train members and to hone skills needed to perform the unit’s missions for America.
The Sussex Composite Squadron is based at Sussex County Airport in Georgetown. The unit currently has 53 members made up of 32 senior members and 21 cadets. For this exercise, 17 members, mainly trainees, came out to become fully qualified team members. Sussex Squadron launched its Georgetown-based aircraft for two sorties with two different aircrews and had a ground team of seven members out in the unit’s van. At the airport mission base in the unit’s communications trailer, radio communications were maintained between the aircrews in the plane, the ground team in the van and the other mission bases in the state.
One part of the exercise was a simulated downed aircraft in Sussex County. The aircrews were tasked to find the aircraft and direct the ground teams in the van to the location. Sussex Squadron had a successful mission in finding the practice target. Statewide, the operation involved five aircraft and five ground teams all being handled by three mission bases. This was the first time in many years that the Delaware wing was able to have three mission bases operational at the same time.
Sussex Squadron put into operation for the first time its communications trailer, which is equipped with all needed radios and personnel to operate as a mission base for the exercise. Training of the radio operators took place during the event, and the trainees were signed off as fully qualified mission radio operators by the skills trainer.
Ground teams were also trained during this event, which included cadets ranging in age from 12 to 18 who learned basic ground search skills, radio usage, teamwork and leadership. Aircrews train during every mission, and this mission saw the addition of one mission scanner and one mission observer to Sussex Squadron’s search and rescue effort.
The squadron is led by Capt. Kay Rudo. The squadron meets at 7 p.m., every Thursday, at the Army National Guard Armory, 109 West Pine St., Georgetown. All are welcome.
Civil Air Patrol, the official U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, is a nonprofit organization with almost 62,000 members nationwide. It performs 95 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue and Coordination Center. Volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to almost 27,000 young people currently participating in Civil Air Patrol cadet programs. Civil Air Patrol has been performing missions for America for more than 60 years. For more information, go to gocivilairpatrol.com
