Flying fur
Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit (IMSARU) dog handlers pose with CAP mission staff assistants – (from left) Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Ethan Alexander, IMSARU staffer Tom Kearney, Terabyte. IMSARU staffer Rory Olsen, Daytona and Cadet Chief Master Sgt. Owen Klein. Photo courtesy Donald Morgan.
Daytona sits securely in her safety harness attached to the seat belt connector in the CAP plane. Photo courtesy Donald Morgan.
Civil Air Patrol Capt. Donald Morgan Sr of the Coeur d'Alene Composite Squadron participated in the multi-state training exercise last month as a public and media relations personnel. Photo courtesy Donald Morgan.
It was not a bird up in the sky, but it was a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 206 airplane transporting search dogs from Boise to Ogden, Utah, for an unusual multi-state exercise.
Members of Idaho’s multiple wings of the Civil Air Patrol, a United States Air Force auxiliary, along with the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit, came together on September 20 to participate in a virtual and in-person training event.
Coeur d’Alene CAP Composite Squadron’s Public Affairs and Assistant Emergency Services Officer Captain Donald Morgan Sr was called onto the activity to strengthen communication lines between CAP units and simulated press. This was the first mission Morgan’s been on where search dogs were used, which are deployed in specific situations when needed.
“Search dogs come in three different specialties, some are good at water tracking, some are good at land and smell tracking, and some are good in the art of finding people who are deceased,” Morgan said. “It depends on the nature of the mission and how we are tracking.”
Just one type of U.S. Air Force training types, the exercise prepares CAP members for responding to large scale disasters that could occur across multiple states around the Rocky Mountains. Of the 63 people who volunteered on the ten-day exercise, Morgan said 61 were CAP personnel, and two were search and rescue handlers.
“Volunteers come from a whole bunch of backgrounds, often they were cadets themselves, but we also get prior military folks who after a lifetime of service they retire and want to give back,” Morgan said. “We also get doctors, nurses, lawyers and financial creditors.”
In addition to Idaho and Utah CAP squadrons, affiliates from Montana, Wyoming and Colorado lent their aid to the program. While combined efforts from multiple divisions are not a new concept in the CAP, Morgan said the agency had made a constant effort to adapt with the times, including integrating technology.
“In the 1960s and 70s, we saw an electronic evolution and safety becoming more of an issue,” Morgan said. “Cell phone connection and technology became something we could use to help. Now the Air Force and Civil Air Patrol use it all the time.”
Goldpoint, the code name for their training practice, was designed to test the CAP’s virtual and remote abilities, Morgan said, with many of the participants never seeing their counterparts across state lines.
“It was interesting to be remote because usually when you’re in the mission base, you’re in the midst of everything, seeing what the controllers are doing, hearing the radios, steering the flights,” Morgan said. “When you’re working remotely, you have to be a lot more proactive to be effective, and I think that’s going to be one of the biggest takeaways.”
While he would have loved to participate in person, Morgan said the training went off without a hitch, validating the CAP’s abilities to operate effectively with modern technology.
“It was a raging success; the dogs had no trouble during the flight. I was amazingly proud. We are embracing the 21st century and are doing it using multiple toolsets,” Morgan said. “The merging of technology, aircraft people, and resources like search dogs and their handlers were amazing.”
