S.D. Civil Air Patrol Exercises Saturday in Sioux Falls area

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASED: 16 May 2012
S.D. Civil Air Patrol Exercises Saturday in Sioux Falls Area

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.—Dogs, airplanes, and high-technology will converge on the Sioux Empire Saturday as the South Dakota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol holds a training exercise in Sioux Falls.

The SAREX, short for “search and rescue exercise,” will feature not just CAP members from across the state, but also search dogs and their trainers from the Brookings area, the use of the S.D. Air National Guard’s state-of-the art Mobile Emergency Operations Center, and the wing’s Cessna 172s and 182s from across South Dakota.

“The exercise is intended to provide participants with a realistic simulation environment in which to develop their mission specialty skills and accomplish evaluation of skills for completion of Emergency Services qualifications,” said Lt. Col. Donald Barbalace of Aberdeen.  Lieutenant Colonel Barbalace, a fifty-year member of the CAP, will direct the SAREX as incident commander.

This SAREX will feature inter agency cooperation with the S.D. Air Guard and private non-profit organizations as well as CAP components.  As in last year’s numerous flooding missions, the CAP typically works in conjunction with local, state, federal, and tribal governments, and private agencies.  Sometimes the CAP plays a “force multiplier” role and sometimes it brings special skills like aerial photography to the disaster relief or search and rescue effort.

CAP members will check into mission base by 9 a.m. at the Sioux Falls Composite Squadron’s headquarters at 3401 N. Aviation Lane at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.  Aircraft and ground teams will be deployed throughout the morning and afternoon in the Sioux Falls vicinity. The S.D. Air Guard’s mobile ops center will be located near the mission base.

For additional information prior to the SAREX, contact Capt. Todd Epp, S.D. Wing Public Affairs Officer, at 605.351.5021 or at eppcap@gmail.com. 

The South Dakota Wing of the CAP has approximately 310 cadet and adult members with squadrons in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Aberdeen, Pierre, Brookings, Custer, and Spearfish.  In 2011, the wing flew numerous photo reconnaissance missions for the state of South Dakota and FEMA during flooding across South Dakota and received the national commander’s commendation for its efforts.  The wing’s website is at http://sdcap.us.  

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide, operating a fleet of 550 aircraft. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 54 lives in fiscal year 2011. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to nearly 27,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet programs. CAP received the World Peace Prize in 2011 and has been performing missions for America for 70 years. CAP also participates in Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans.