The Search Masters: The Civil Air Patrol is often the first to find those who are lost or in distress - Statistical Data Included

Airman, Dec, 2001 by John B. Dendy IV

The master pilot and his untested Civil Air Patrol search party orbited the Alaskan bush between Anchorage and Mount McKinley. All eyes were on the ground, looking for evidence of an aircraft wreckage.

Two hours into their sector -- full of bears, leafy brown plains and brisk Memorial Day air traffic -- the team spied the speck of a wreck from 1,500 feet.

The search team honed their skills in this aerial confidence course. Someday members might fly an actual emergency mission over Alaska, sometimes called the inland aerial search capital of America.

Airmanship, courage, vigilance and sacrifice pervade Alaska -- the sprawling land where many citizens own private airplanes. And where one-third of the CAP's forces never have served in the military. No problem. They're serving humanity with their civic duty today.

The Civil Air Patrol is the official Air Force auxiliary -- a nonprofit and federally chartered corporation of nearly 60,000 people age 12 and up. Their storied and aggressive start was in 1941. As a flying "neighborhood watch with bombs," they were on patrol against Nazi subs and other menaces to national defense a week before Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Since that dark time, the United States' need for this volunteer group has increased, although the mission has changed.

Floats and skis

The Alaska Civil Air Patrol flies 31 corporate fixed-wing search planes -- some in stock trim. Others are custom-outfitted with floats or skis. Each hauls a crew of three, four or six on air hunts.

Searchers find crash sites and radio their findings to a dispatcher. Then other agencies pick up the survivors. In Alaska that process amounts to about 100 "saves" yearly.

A commercially rated pilot flies the aircrew within an assigned inland search grid. A "scanner" crew member -- who sits in the rear seat of the single-engine aircraft -- looks for wreckage and other air traffic. In the right front seat, an "observer" primarily navigates and picks up distress signals.

On the ground, volunteer airfield operators brief people and schedule other missions.

The CAP, for example, can have several search aircraft teams orbiting Alaska's sprawling land mass. Their senior members work closely with the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center at Camp Denali on Fort Richardson. This interagency organization responds to about 400 rescue calls each year.

The center is also the CAP's mission-based planning staff in Alaska. While a team at Camp Denali does much of the flight following, planning and directing, the CAP focuses its missions for the center's time-sensitive searches. Such a support structure is particularly helpful during costly, and often overlapping, multiday searches that require several rescue craft.

"This is unlike other wings. The amount of saves they do is probably double or triple what the 'lower 48' does," said Lt. Col. Randy Mathis, the Civil Air Patrol-Air Force Pacific Liaison Region commander at Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

Credit for all lives saved in Alaska is about equally divided among Civil Air Patrol, Air Guard, Army Guard and municipal forces, he said.

Special arsenal

Seventy-five feet of wood planking squeaked and swayed with friendly familiarity under the weight of Bob Brouillette's brown Wellington boots. Shock waves in the water underneath the dock obscured an upside-down view of what could be called the wettest U.S. government airfield -- the Alaska Civil Air Patrol's floatplane base and maintenance facility at Lake Hood in Anchorage.

Broulliette flies and manages the CAP facility that maintains 31 aircraft and five gliders. His staff includes three full-time mechanics. He learned about the CAP when he retired from the Air Force in 1970.

"I was always interested in making civilians proud of the military," he said. "This fulfills that requirement."

Two of the patrol's float planes are always ready for duty for Alaska's many lakes and 17,500 miles of inland water ways -- even during winter. This includes the state's 28,000 miles of glaciers.

Aircraft from Alaska's state law enforcement and National Guard are also in the search chain. But -- logistically and financially -- the Civil Air Patrol is the area's first search force.

Growth from within

Across town in Anchorage is the bright blue-and-white Polaris Civil Air Patrol compound at Merrill Field. CAP leaders tweak the curiosity of 12 young cadets.

Cadets don't fly searches, but many do learn to refuel and fly aircraft -- and discourage drug use among peers. These are forms of "cadet education," said Capt. Stanley Bolling, the Reserve's individual mobilization augmentee to squadrons in Alaska.

Bolling is a native of the state and a former active-duty air weapons instructor. He teaches technology, aerospace and math at Anchorage's Bartlett High -- subject areas that help him motivate cadets who attend the school.

Just 25 air miles from Merrill Field stands a flight meeting center where members practice aerospace education. The town, airport and auxiliary derive their natural name -- Birchwood -- from the surrounding trees