Join us this Thursday as one of our squadron member shares his experiences in World War II!

Join us this Thursday 1 March, 2018 as our very own Maj. Alexander Smith will be sharing about his experiences serving in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. Major Smith has been a valuable member of Civil Air Patrol since 2004 and currently serves as the squadron's logistics officer and assistant safety officer.

Maj. Alexander Smith (L) is pictured here receiving a certificate from squadron commander Maj. David Powell

We will also be conducting a short monthly safety briefing, so you can keep "safety current" and hear Major Smith's story. It will be a great meeting and we look forward to seeing you there!

CAP Radar, Cell Phone Analysis Lead to Discovery of Downed Plane in Tenn.

(Originally published on www.CAP.news on 31 January, 2018)

Radar results A Google Earth map created by the CAP National Radar Analysis Team shows the search area arrived at through the team’s tracking of a downed Beechcraft Bonanza in Scott County, Tennessee.

A downed airplane with two passengers was located early today near Huntsville, Tennessee, with assistance from Civil Air Patrol’s National Radar Analysis and Cell Phone Forensics teams.

U.S. Department of Agriculture crews found the plane, with one survivor. CAP worked directly with the Tennessee Army National Guard after being called on by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center once the aircraft was reported overdue from its planned arrival.

Lt. Col. John Henderson, vice commander of the radar team, explained CAP’s role in the search: “The NRAT team was activated for a missing Beechcraft Bonanza scheduled to fly from Venice, Florida, to Urbana, Ohio, a distance of 800 miles. In concert with the Cell Phone Forensics Team, six members of our team were able to find the proper radar track, produce products to help the searchers, and distribute to the field.

“The crash site was found 1½ miles past the last radar hit, with one survivor. It was a true team effort, where high levels of collaboration between the CAP teams and AFRCC pulled all the clues together very quickly for actionable results.”

Maj. Justin Ogden, a member of the CAP National Cell Phone Forensics Team, said that within 30 minutes of being activated his team was able to locate clues from the phones on the Beechcraft that narrowed the search area from six states to a single county in Tennessee.

“Additional review of cell phone clues produced a final recommended search area of 2.6 square miles,” he said. “This allowed local search teams to concentrate their efforts.”

CAP’s Tennessee Wing deployed two aircrews to Scott County, providing aerial support for the overnight search.

“Our teams received a call late last evening and were deployed within two hours,” said Lt. Col. Ande Boyer, incident commander.

"Once again, Tennessee Wing has answered the call to serve and has done so quickly and professionally. I am proud to serve with this dedicated group of volunteers," said Col. Dent Young, Tennessee Wing commander

"While we are thankful that our efforts and the efforts of our partnering agencies were able to locate the site and the surviving passenger quickly, our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the pilot," Boyer said.

Aerospace Education Special Presentation

Join us this week for a special Aerospace Education presentation by Maj. Jerry Civalleri. The program will consist of wide screen photos and a narrative describing his overnight deployment on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70).  Carl Vinson was conducting several weeks of complete war time simulation and was located about 250 miles offshore from Mexico.  

Photo Credit: U.S. Navy

Major Civalleri was delivered on board by a tail hook cargo and personnel delivery aircraft known as a COD.  His tour group was permitted access to every space on the carrier except the nuclear power plant.  The tour included flight deck and bridge observations during both day and night operations.  He lived in officers quarters, ate with the pilots in the officers mess and observed a preflight briefing in the pilot ready room.

Don’t miss this one of a kind presentation prepared from a visitor’s point of view.  It was a very intense non stop 36 hour event.  You will find it to be very interesting!

We'll see you there!

Airborne Photography Training Exercise

Members of Squadron 150 participated in a Disaster Relief Training Exercise on 13 January, 2018, with a focus on airborne photography using the Garmin VIRB and Nikon DSLR cameras. Civil Air Patrol airmen completed a total of nine training sorties, in addition to a one and a half hour ground school training on 11 January, 2018 and a two-hour training on the day of the training exercise.

Airborne photography in support of disaster relief/emergency services missions is a growing mission for Civil Air Patrol nationally and for California Wing, so the opportunity to receive hands-on experience with both the Garmin VIRB and Nikon cameras was very valuable to all members involved.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Sunrise at Fullerton Airport
Photo by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan

Photos by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan

Garmin VIRB on the wing of a Civil Air Patrol aircraft
Photo by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan

Angel Stadium
Photo by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan

John Wayne Airport
Photo by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan

In-flight operations
Photo by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan

The airborne photographer in the aircraft
Photo by 1st Lt. Rommel Anacan