Aurora (Sept. 10, 2022) – During a Red Flag alert from the National Weather Service, Civil Air Patrol members tested their emergency radio network with success.
Highly trained volunteers from the Oregon Wing staff and the Mahlon Sweet Composite Squadron based at Mahlon Sweet Airport in Eugene, conducted test networks and successfully transferred complex information using Very High Frequency and High Frequency radios.
In real life, parts of Oregon were under Red Flag warnings from the National Weather Service. Red Flag is a situation of high fire danger due to extreme high heat, extreme low humidity and unusual high winds. Temperatures were predicted at 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Winds were predicted from 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 50 miles per hour. The humidity (moisture in the air) was 15 percent. As part of the Red Flag situation, utilities had implemented Public Safety Power Shutdowns in more than 10 areas around the greater Portland area. Electricity was shut down for many hours.
To add to the realism of the exercise, CAP was operating under a simulated commercial communications failure scenario. They were told that cell phones, texting, the internet and any normal electronic communications had failed. That is the type of circumstance that emergency services would rely on VHF and HF radios, and often Amateur radio operators commonly referred to as HAM radio operators.
“We were told to rely on the radio backbone that CAP is known for,” said 2nd Lt Patrick Wineman, Assistant Director of Communications for the Oregon Wing. “We knew that parts of Oregon were still recovering from the Red Flag warning and extreme fire conditions, but we decided to continue with the exercise anyway, because it was a good situation to successfully test our system and abilities.”
Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, uses radios provided by the Air Force to use in emergency situations. VHF radios are for local, line-of-sight transmission, while HF can communicate over hundreds or thousands of miles.
A core team of radio operators gathered at the Aurora State Airport, which is where Oregon Wing of Civil Air Patrol maintains an Incident Command Post. They included Wineman, as Communications Unit Leader, and several other adult members with one cadet, Cadet Technical Sergeant Evelyn Wineman. They talked with CAP staffers in Eugene and successfully transmitted formal traffic which had to be received word for word.
“Having the proper training really does test our capabilities,” said Lt Wineman. “Those conditions are conditions we could really experience. We performed our duties safely and we did it well.”
Wineman in his civilian life is Division Chief of Operations for Forest Grove Fire & Rescue. He often leads wildfire fighting teams throughout Oregon and at time in other states. He is a member of the Washington County Composite Squadron that meets at the Hillsboro Airport.
CAP does emergency drills often in its effort to professionally assist its community, state and nation. Plans are already under way for the Communication Exercise for 2023.
Established in 1941, Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and as such is a member of its Total Force. Acting as a Total Force partner and official civilian auxiliary of the Air Force, CAP helps First Air Force rapidly respond to nonmilitary threats domestically in a Defense Support of Civil Authorities capacity to save lives, relieve suffering, prevent property damage, and provide humanitarian assistance.
In its auxiliary role, CAP operates a fleet of 555 single-engine aircraft and 2,250 small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) and performs about 90% of all search and rescue operations within the contiguous United States as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Often using innovative cellphone forensics and radar analysis, CAP was credited by the AFRCC with saving 108 lives last year.
CAP’s 58,000 members also perform homeland security, disaster relief, and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. As a nonprofit organization, CAP plays a leading role in aerospace education using national academic standards-based STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education resources. Members also serve as mentors to 24,000 young people participating in CAP’s Cadet Programs.
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