Several members of the Iowa Civil Air Patrol may only be in their teens, but Maj. Leo Bertling, of Cedar Rapids, said the well-trained young men and women really "know their stuff."
"Some of them might only be 16 years old, but they're good at what they do," said Bertling, who served as the incident commander for a CAP search and rescue exercise at the Fort Dodge Regional Airport Saturday. "I know if I was missing, they're the ones I'd want out there looking for me."
The daylong training exercise drew around 60 CAP officers and cadets from Fort Dodge, Des Moines, Red Oak, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Burlington to the airport where they participated in simulated ground- and air-exercise missions to locate missing people and downed aircraft.
After their morning briefings, several cadets, ages 12 to 21, set out to participate in a missing person "rescue" on the Three Rivers Trail north of Humboldt. Along the way, they looked for clues, such as clothing, footprints and water bottles that might lead them to the person's location. Bertling said that on a real search and rescue mission, CAP members work to get as much personal information about the missing subject as they possibly can prior to starting a search.
"In a real situation, we'd find as much good information about their person as we can get," he said. "The more we know the easier it is. It's a matter of seeing things on the ground and recognizing them as clues. That's where this type of training comes in."
After walking the trail and finding a discarded water bottle marked "CAP," the cadets knew they were getting closer to the missing person. Using a GPS device, they marked the global coordinates where the bottle was found, and a few hundred yards down the trail, found their subject. At that point, they also documented where they located the missing person to report back to their headquarters.
"In a real scenario we'd relay this back to a mission base and to law enforcement to receive direction on what to do next," Lt. Tony Shackelford told the group.
The Civil Air Patrol, which is a division of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, provides aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency services. It is often called upon to help provide homeland security, assist with FEMA disaster missions and help with missing person and aircraft searches.
Each cadet goes through preparatory skill and classroom training before going on mission exercises. Before a cadet can take part in a real search and rescue mission, they must complete two search and rescue training exercises, Bertling said.
"Every time they go out, they're practicing their skills for an actual event," said Cindi Wachholz, squadron commander of the Northwest Iowa Composite Squadron of the CAP in Fort Dodge.
The Civil Air Patrol has more than 300 members in Iowa, but Bertling said there is always room for more.
"Anyone who is interested can get in touch with us," said Bertling.
Contact Emilie Nelson at (515) 573-2141 or enelson@messengernews.net
