Smith Hopes for 'Slowly, Carefully Lifting' Restrictions
|
|
Civil Air Patrol’s senior leaders anticipate that “perhaps sometime soon we can begin slowly, carefully, lifting the restrictions we are currently operating under” during the coronavirus emergency, Maj. Gen. Mark Smith, CAP National Commander and CEO, writes in his latest letter to members and staff.
They’re reacting to “that small glimmer of light on the horizon that perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic is peaking and even diminishing in some areas of our nation,” Smith says.
Meanwhile, “we are engaging subject matter experts to help us shape what our actions should be going forward. Most likely, what we craft will be a set of organization-wide directives that are important for all of us to follow, along with criteria that wing commanders can follow for establishing an appropriate level of participation at the wing level,” the national commander says.
He hopes “to have our new set of directives to you within two weeks,” Smith tells his readers. “Rest assured that our directives will be tightly focused on the safety of our people.”
|
|
Cell Phone Team Records 1,000th Find
|
|
CAP’s National Cell Phone Forensics Team has achieved its 1,000th find, as awarded by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.
The milestone involved a 29-year-old hiker reported missing on the western slope of Colorado, occurred nearly 14 years to the day team co-founder Maj. Justin Ogden conducted his first-ever cell phone forensics mission for CAP on April 26, 2006.
CAP began using cell phone forensics as a last-resort tool for locating missing persons and overdue aircraft. It has since evolved into a primary resource for search and rescue. In fiscal 2018, CAP was credited with a modern record of 155 lives saved in a single year. Most of those saves — 147, or 95% — involved the cell phone team.
Missing aircraft as well as lost and stranded hikers, snowmobilers, skiers and boaters have been found with the help of cell phone data. “It’s not just where the phone last was, but we can get a picture of a stream of events over time,” said Ogden, who built and improved the software the team uses.
Technology has changed how we operate,” said John Desmarais, CAP’s director of operations. "What used to take days of laborious searching is now done remotely using technology to find more people and find them faster."
The team consists of four fully qualified cell phone forensics analysts on the team — Ogden, Col. Brian Ready and Majs. Jerad Hoff and John Schofield
—
and Lt. Col. Vic LaSala as an analyst trainee, with Capt. Margot Myers, public information officer, serving as the sixth member.
|
|
Air National Guard Thanks N.C. Wing for Support
|
|
North Carolina Air National Guard officials met April 27 with members of CAP's North Carolina Wing who were serving at a supply warehouse in central North Carolina, thanking them for their support.
The Air National Guard's commander, Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Mallette (second from left), and command chief, chief Master Sgt. David Rodriguez (right), toured the warehouse and spoke with North Carolina Wing members —
including Chaplain (Capt.) Thomas Marshall (left) and Maj. Tim Bagnell (third from left) —
about their role supporting the COVID-19 response mission.
“It is very gratifying for the wing to be recognized by both North Carolina Emergency Management Director (Mike) Sprayberry and by Brig. Gen. Mallette of the North Carolina Air National Guard,” said
Capt. Robert Call, wing incident commander.
“The North Carolina Wing is honored to be acknowledged and thanked so publicly for our work on this mission.”
During the warehouse tour, Mallette noted that he had been a cadet in the wing’s Charlotte squadron in the 1980s.
Twenty-eight days into the COVID-19 mission, the wing continues to staff the state’s supply warehouses and is on standby to make deliveries as needed. To date, 99 members from 27 squadrons statewide have participated in the mission.
|
|
Flights OK'd for Engine Preservation, Pilot Proficiency
|
|
Maj. Gen. Mark Smith, CAP National Commander and CEO, has directed weekly flights of 1½ to two hours for CAP planes “until we return to normal operations,” both to help protect the aircraft’s engines and to preserve pilot proficiency.
“Textron Lycoming provides guidance for aircraft owners whose aircraft are only flown occasionally, and the majority of our fleet has Lycoming engines,” Smith notes. “Engines that sit idle are subject to damage, the result of condensation from moist air combining with combustion products that attack cylinder walls, bearing surfaces and other engine components.”
He cites a November 2001 service letter from Textron Lycoming that “states engine temperature and length of operating time are crucial to controlling rust and corrosion in aircraft engines. The desired flight time for air-cooled engines is at least one continuous hour at oil temperatures of 165°F to 200°F at intervals not to exceed 30 days, depending on location and storage conditions. This one-hour flight does not include taxi, takeoff and landing time.”
Only one mission pilot will make the flights, without passengers or other crew, and disinfection procedures must be followed before and after each flight.
|
|
Historian: 'Save Our Story' During COVID-19 Pandemic
|
|
The National History Program’s Col. Louisa S. Morse Center for CAP History is seeking members’ help in saving the “array of records, imagery and physical artifacts” being generated during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, says Col. Frank Blazich, center director and former National Historian.
Blazich’s memo this month calls on unit commanders and historians to “save pertinent emails, photographs, news articles, memoranda or PowerPoint slides related to the virus response.”
For their part, photographers are asked “to save your imagery and provide as much metadata as possible about the images.”
And “should you or your unit design any distinctive items to commemorate this event, please set aside a copy or sample of the graphic, patch or challenge coin for CAP’s National Archives and Historical Collections,” Blazich says.
“Other objects we are interested in run the gamut of possibilities,” he writes. ‘If you or your unit are making face masks, please save one for us. If you have created a piece of equipment or a tool or used a particular object specifically for the virus response, we would love to include this with the national collection.”
Meanwhile, “keeping with social distancing, we request that nothing be shipped to the Morse Center at the present time. We ask instead that you save artifacts and set them aside for now. The same policy applies to all photographs and digital files mentioned previously. Once the pandemic has passed and we can safely resume our normal routines, information about sending information and artifacts to the Morse Center will be disseminated,” Blazich advises members.
|
|
2020 National Conference
CAP's 2020 National Conference is scheduled for Aug. 13-15 in Louisville, Kentucky. Our conference theme is "Sustaining Excellence." We have some great new in-house events planned, along with the chance to attend the Thunder Over Louisville airshow!
|
|
|
If COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, do you plan to attend the National Conference this year?
|
|
Yes, I will definitely be there!
|
|
|
|
|
Interested, but I am undecided at the moment.
|
|
|
|
|
Not this year, but maybe next year.
|
|
|
|
|
Unsure, as I am not familiar with this event.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coronavir
us & CAP
-- Stay Informed
Make sure to watch for the Special Bulletins that National Headquarters has been emailing the membership to announce CAP's latest actions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the organization's policies and activities.
|
|
"Getting Into Any U.S. Military Service Is a Feat.
This N.J. Teen Got Into Three"
(Barnegat, New Jersey)
"Student Selected as Cadet Commander"
(Fairborn, Massachusetts)
"The Woodlands Freshman Creates 'Kicking 22 Challenge' "
(Conroe, Texas)
|
|
CAP Marketing & Strategic Communications
877-227-9142
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
