Emergency Services
Growing from its World War II experience, CAP has continued to save lives and alleviate human suffering through a myriad of emergency-services and operational missions. Perhaps best known for its search-and-rescue efforts, CAP flies more than 95 percent of all federal inland search-and-rescue missions directed by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Langley Air Force Base, Va. Outside the continental U.S., CAP supports the Joint Rescue Coordination centers in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Just how effective are the missions? Nearly 100 people are saved each year by CAP members! Another important service CAP performs is disaster-relief operations. CAP provides air and ground transportation and an extensive communications network.
Volunteer members fly disaster-relief officials to remote locations, and provide manpower and leadership to local, state and national agencies. CAP has formal agreements with many government and humanitarian relief agencies including the American Red Cross, Federal Emergency Management Agency, FAA, National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Coast Guard.
CAP flies humanitarian missions— usually in support of the Red Cross—transporting time-sensitive medical materials including blood and human tissue, in situations where other means of transportation are not available.
It’s hardly surprising that CAP performs several missions in direct support of the U.S. Air Force. Specifically, CAP conducts light transport, communications support, and low-altitude route surveys. CAP also provides orientation flights for AFROTC cadets. Joint U.S. Air Force and CAP search-and-rescue exercises provide realistic training for missions. CAP joined the “war on drugs” in 1986 when, pursuant to congressional authorization, CAP signed an agreement with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Customs Service offering CAP resources to help stem the flow of drugs into and within the United States.
CAP has come full-circle by being called upon to be a major contributor to our country’s critical Homeland Security efforts. We have 60,000 well-trained volunteers in 1,700 communities nationwide. Our members have excellent air/ground observation and communications assets at their disposal. CAP can provide aerial reconnaissance, photography and transportation, radiological monitoring, disaster and damage assessment, and much, much more. Congress gave CAP its original coastal patrol charter during World War II, and we are ready to step forward to assist our nation again.
