South Dakota Wing, Civil Air Patrol, joined in a multi-agency search and rescue exercise (Aug. 22, 2024) coordinated by Ellsworth Air Force Base. The exercise simulated searching for B-1 aircrew members who had ejected after an inflight emergency.
“Civil Air Patrol played a critical role in the Ellsworth search and rescue exercise with their knowledge and capabilities they contributed,” Senior Airman James Ball, a survival, evasion, resistance, and escape specialist from the 28th Operations Support Squadron. “We got to see their air and ground assets put to the test, and they effectively used their equipment to assist in the aircrew recovery. It was great to see multiple agencies all come together to work towards and succeed at a common goal.”
Sixty-one personnel across all agencies participated in the exercise. After the simulated ejection, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Department search and rescue team assumed the role of on-scene commander. The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department SAR team also supported the exercise. CAP contributed ground search team leaders and members, communication support, and drone search and photography capability to the overall search efforts.
The simulation, conducted near Sturgis, included aircrew training for evading capture after ejecting in enemy airspace as well as the aircrew seeking rescue in friendly territory. After-action analysis will help guide future Air Force training.
“Civil Air Patrol is the civilian auxiliary of the USAF, but we don’t often have the opportunity to have CAP members work directly with active-duty members of the USAF,” said CAP Lt. Col. Craig Goodrich, project officer for the CAP part of the exercise. “I think we worked together very well to accomplish the mission.”
Having volunteer searchers assist with the search provided valuable and rare training for the team leaders to work with untrained volunteers, Goodrich said.
“The goal behind Ellsworth Air Force Base including Civil Air Patrol and other local assets is to practice personnel recovery off-base in the event of an ejection because they would be the primary agencies involved in an incident like that,” said Ball. “We want to build relations with those local entities and see if there are any improvements we can make when working together in the future.”
Courtesy photo.
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