Spring 2003 Issue

On Sept. 11, 2001, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Col. Rick Greenhut, the Northeast regional commander, was at home working on his computer when the phone rang. "It was my predecessor as CAP's Northeast regional commander," says Greenhut. "He said, 'Rick, I just heard the damnedest thing. A pair of F-15s just took off from Otis [Air National Guard Base, Falmouth, Mass.] and they did something I've never heard before — they went supersonic over land.'"

"While we were still on the phone, his wife told him a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We both thought it must have been a small plane, an accident, because there is a flight corridor down the Hudson River about a quarter mile from there," recalls Greenhut, a marketing consultant who has served with CAP for 12 years. "I went to the television just when the second plane hit, and at that moment the situation snapped into focus." Greenhut called his nine wing CAP commanders and put them on alert status.

Early Sept. 12, 2001, Greenhut drove to the airport in New Jersey where he keeps his own plane. Once there, he was given a number to call for his flight clearance. "I spoke with a major who gave me the flight clearances. I asked, 'Major, who are you and where are you?' and he answered, 'Sir, I'm the duty officer under the mountain.' I was talking to NORAD [North American Air Defense] at Cheyenne Mountain, and that was very sobering, indeed," he says. "I was the first airplane to take off that was not a fighter or a tanker." His route took him so close to the World Trade Center — about 2 miles north — that he says the smell of burning debris stayed in the cockpit for the trip's duration. "It is etched in my memory."

Filling the gap
CAP, a humanitarian and educational nonprofit organization, serves in thousands of communities across the nation. CAP conducts more than 85 percent of all inland search-and-rescue (SAR) operations in the United States, as tasked by the Air Force Reserve Coordination Center, and fulfills such duties as disaster response, emergency medical transport, aerospace education, and drug interdiction assistance. Since the Sept. 11 attack, however, a new, more pressing mission has been added to the list — homeland security.

By Sept. 12, 2001, CAP members nationwide were standing alert and gearing up for a coordinated response. The largest aircraft fleet in the world had begun to mobilize within hours: Card-carrying members of CAP left families and work responsibilities behind, canceled personal plans, and reported for duty.

Nowhere was the need greater than in the Northeast, including New York; Washington, D.C.; and Pennsylvania. From the Northeast headquarters in Maynard, Mass., Greenhut started working the blood transport missions. "We were flying blood by that evening," Greenhut says. "Our Cessnas could fly into the smallest airports nearest the blood banks and then transport it to JFK. They landed on that 11,000-foot runway, gave the blood to state troopers for transport to the hospitals, and still had 9,000 feet straight ahead for takeoff.

"In the Northeast region at that time, we had just under 10,000 members, and nearly one-third were directly involved with [Sept. 11] events," he adds. "If they were not flying blood, they were helping with communications or staffing. Many were sitting by the phone — as some people burned out, others were ready to take their place." CAP members flew the first mission directly over the impact area, to provide aerial photos for damage assessment for the New York State Emergency Management Office. They also provided transport for government officials.

A variety of missions
Organized along military lines, today's 61,000 CAP members are located in 1,650 units throughout America. While many of its operations are flown using 530 CAP-owned aircraft, most involve the more than 4,000 aircraft privately owned by CAP members. CAP has official uniforms, official aircraft, and official recognition by the United States Air Force as the USAF Auxiliary.

CAP was established Dec. 1, 1941, when the War Department mobilized 150,000 citizen pilots and their airplanes into a single civilian air defense group for aerial reconnaissance missions. At the time, the nation's coastlines were vulnerable, assets were thin, and CAP flew in to fill the gap. This volunteer flying club of private pilots with privately owned planes searched the seas for enemy submarines.

Despite the importance of its mission, many thought of CAP as a club for "old guys" who wore civilian clothes, flew Piper Cubs, and called in the nation's younger military fighters to take care of business when they spotted danger. While that was the perception of CAP during its fledgling years, it was less than accurate then, and it really misses the mark now.

Today, CAP's mission assignments usually are in conjunction with military services or federal agencies and can run the gamut from somewhat amusing to tragically fatal. One CAP unit, operating out of Beaufort, N.C., has experienced it all.

Because the Beaufort unit is located on the coast, many of its missions are coordinated with the Coast Guard and involve boats. CAP Maj. Fred Eldredge serves as the squadron commanding officer, and his wife, Linda, serves as first lieutenant. The squadron includes 19 members, 15 of whom are pilots; all except one has a military background. Members range in age from a 28-year-old active duty Marine to an 81-year-old pilot.

"We have two ways to respond for [SAR]," explains Linda Eldredge. "A team of three can go up in the aircraft, or we can take the van with our ground team. The van is useful when the Coast Guard needs help inside a marina because its mission area is from the seashore out."

While a marina setting is rife with opportunity for accidents, Fred Eldredge admits the need for help inside a marina usually occurs when a negligent boater accidentally triggers the "e-pirb" (emergency position indicating radio beacon), which transmits a distress signal monitored by the Coast Guard.

"At 2 o'clock in the morning, you want to be pretty sure you've isolated the signal emitter before you start knocking on doors," explains Fred Eldredge. "We have to intersect the signal with a 'differ' [directional finder], and signals tend to bounce off other boats and metal buildings."

The same scenario can occur in aircraft emergencies. Most planes are equipped with an emergency locator transmitter (ELT), a device that emits a signal if the aircraft has crashed. During one mission, the Beaufort squadron was tasked to respond to an elt signal being emitted near Lake Mattamuskeet. "We had both the van and a plane," says Linda. "I radioed the ground team from the plane to tell them we had picked up the signal and to direct them toward that general area. Then we saw what appeared to be a grass airstrip and a hangar. It turned out that the plane's owner had bought a new elt for his crop duster and left it in the armed position. It had gone off, and he didn't know it."

Other CAP missions the Beaufort unit has participated in include helping survey the devastation wreaked by back-to-back hurricanes several years ago. "We were tasked to provide damage assessments after Hurricane Floyd," says Fred Eldredge. "We did 'high bird' above the flood and then 'low and slow' along the beach to photograph the erosion, damage, and new inlets that had formed. We [distributed] the photographs in real time by downloading them. Also, we provided pre- and post-damage assessments."

CAP members also have experienced personal tragedy while on the job. Recently, two CAP aircraft were assigned to a counterdrug operation in North Carolina to search for illegal marijuana plots. Fred Eldredge was one of the pilots.

The two flight crews had lunch together before takeoff. Each plane took off with three crew members. During the mission, tragically, one of the planes crashed. "Within an hour and a half of having lunch with my buddies, I was on the ground identifying their bodies," recalls Eldredge solemnly. "I'll never forget it."

What's next?
More challenges and changes for CAP are expected with the war on terrorism and increased homeland security. "In the past our real bread-and-butter mission has been SAR. We typically save 60 to 70 lives a year, finding downed aircraft and lost hikers," Greenhut explains. But, he says, some additional missions may be coming from various federal agencies. "We can do things like radiation detection. For instance, if you need to track dirty [radioactive] bomb components on the ground, CAP could deploy 30 to 40 airplanes up and down the highways to find [them]. We can patrol nuclear plants and military bases." CAP also has increased its number of New York-wing reservoir patrols, taking surveillance officers up several times a day to check the 23 reservoirs that provide the city's water supply.

Greenhut says he also has seen a change in the national perception of CAP since the terrorist attack. "CAP is getting a warmer reception now from various state agencies [that] couldn't see a need for our 'little airplanes,' " he comments. "We seem to have a higher profile at the Pentagon, too, as general officers have embraced the concept that CAP is not a flying club and that we are the auxiliary of the Air Force."

Today's CAP members — or USAF Auxiliary members — have a long and prestigious record of valuable service to the nation. As volunteers, they receive no retirement benefits after years of service and usually no publicly acknowledged thanks from the citizens who benefit from their dedication. As the horrific events of Sept. 11 awoke the nation to the true character of firefighters and police officers, whose brave actions and sacrifice are too often taken for granted, so too should we recognize the service and dedication of the Civil Air Patrol.

Get Involved
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) is a humanitarian and educational nonprofit organization that serves and protects thousands of communities across the nation. It focuses on aerospace education, the cadet programs, and emergency services.

For adults, CAP offers a wide variety of opportunities for service — and you do not have to be a pilot to join. Many CAP volunteers help in a number of ways: assisting with search-and-rescue operations; working with the American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency during disasters; helping with the cadet program for youth; transporting time-sensitive medical materials and donated organs; running CAP's communications network, the most extensive in the nation; participating in the U.S. Customs war on drugs; and serving as liaison between CAP aerospace education and schoolrooms.

For young adults between the ages of 12 and 21, the cadet program offers a 15-step training regimen focused on aviation and aerospace activities. Ten percent of U.S. Air Force Academy appointees are former CAP cadets. While many CAP cadets learn to fly, all CAP cadets are exposed to the benefits of developing good leadership skills.

In addition to the benefits of serving in a humanitarian organization, members of CAP are able to enroll in more than 300 U.S. Air Force correspondence courses at no cost. Through CAP's supply depot, members also have access to discounted aircraft parts and equipment. A monthly newsletter, Civil Air Patrol News, comes with membership.

For more information, call (800) 359-2338, or visit CAP's Web site: http://www.capnhq.gov/.