1,000+ Flying Hours In Nearly 500 Sorties …
And Counting
Civil Air Patrol's Deepwater Horizon Response has already
reached significant milestones, surpassing 10,000 volunteer hours
and 1,000 hours of flight time while providing aerial oil spill
reconnaissance along the Gulf Coast.
"The level of CAP members' response to the oil spill is
significant and an indication of the continued diversification of
Civil Air Patrol's missions," said CAP National Commander Maj. Gen.
Amy S. Courter, who received the news during a briefing last week
at the incident command center in Mobile.
Acting in its role as the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air
Force, CAP pilots fly the coastline daily to monitor and document
oil control efforts, while scanners onboard take photos of booms
deployed along the shoreline. The images, as many as 3,000
each day, provide valuable information to agencies managing the
response. "It is critical to (the response), because a day is an
eternity in this event," said Eric Songer, data management group
manager for Geographical Information Systems, one of several
agencies at work at the command center. "If a boom gets out of
place or is misplaced, it's not there to protect what it's supposed
to."
Courter's visit to Mobile came on the 60th day of Civil Air
Patrol's sustained operation on the Gulf Coast. Southeast Region
Commander Col. James M. Rushing, who briefed Courter on CAP's Gulf
response to the oil spill, described it as CAP's biggest mission
since World War II, when civilian pilots who founded the
organization used their own aircraft to keep German U-boats away
from America's East and Gulf coasts. CAP has made great strides
since those early days, becoming one of the nation's premier
volunteer organizations with a workforce of more than 60,000
members and one of the largest fleets of single-engine aircraft in
the world.
"It's wonderful to see the trained, experienced, competent CAP
members working shoulder-to-shoulder with their Air Force and Coast
Guard counterparts as part of the whole team," Courter said. "We
are partnered at such high levels with other services and agencies.
This speaks volumes about CAP's ability to handle incident command
structures and imagery standards."
CAP Capt. Ande Boyer In Spill Command Center
To date, CAP aircrews have launched 497 sorties in support of
the response, logging 1,099 flight hours in 33 of the
organization's signature red, white and blue planes. In all, 239
CAP volunteers have put in 10,361 hours in support of the
mission.
For now, Courter said CAP will maintain a presence in Mobile.
"From the briefings I heard today, I believe there will continue to
be a need to support the communities and environment of the Gulf
Coast and to respond with smart people who are capable of
continually modifying their responses as the crisis unfolds," she
said.