Civil Air Patrol | Iowa Wing | 072nd Des Moines Metro Cadet Squadron

Iowa Wing Awards 2009

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:54:00 EDT

The 2009 Iowa Wing Awards were presented on Saturday August 21st in Fairfax, IA at the end of a very productive wing staff meeting, Commander's Call and CAC meeting earlier in the day. Several awards were presented with additional awards to be presented at squadron meetings to those who weren't able to be in attendance. Below is the first round of awards, more will be posted later when I can get my hands on the list.

Cadet of the Year 2009 - C/Capt A. Wachholz
Senior Member of the Year 2009 - Capt C. Wachholz
Flying Squadron of the Year 2009 - Cedar Rapids Senior Squadron
Non-Flying Squadron of the Year 2009 - Des Moines Metro Cadet
Squadron Squadron Commander of the Year 2009 - Lt Col A. Chilcote
Wing Staff Member of the Year 2009 - Maj L. Bertling
Communicator of the Year 2009 - Maj J. Currie
Safety Officer of the Year 2009 - Capt N. Ballard

North Central Region Conference 2010

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:53:00 EDT

Registration fee: $32

Hotel: Holiday Inn Des Moines Northwest
Merle Hay Road
$82.95 for double queen or king
515-278-4755
ask for a room in the "Civil Air Patrol" block of rooms

Arrangements are being made for Cadets to stay at Camp Dodge.

Attire for meetings and banquet: Service dress, blazer combination or civilian attire.

More details about the conference will be coming soon.

Blackshirts under the Blackbird

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:49:00 EDT

Whet your Football Appetite by Meeting Husker
Blackshirts under the Blackbird
at Strategic Air & Space Museum
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9-11am
Doors open at 8:30am

(Ashland, NE) Don’t miss this opportunity to kick off the football season under the fastest jet, the Blackbird SR-71, while meeting members of the fastest, most powerful defensive team!

In addition, THE LEGENDS Radio Show (Big Sports 590 AM) will be broadcast live from 9-10am from the Museum’s atrium. Watch and listen to hosts Jerry Murtaugh and Gary Java as they interview Blackshirts and discuss Husker football.

Please limit one item to autograph per Husker.

Strategic Air & Space Museum is located on I-80, exit 426, between Lincoln and Omaha. General admission: $10 Adult; $5 Child; Members Free; Discounts for Retirees and Military. For more info: www.SASMuseum.com or www.legendsradioshow.com.

Civil Air Patrol teaches search and rescue

Mon, 03 May 2010 10:34:00 EDT

By EMILIE NELSON, Messenger staff writer

Officers, cadets gather in FD for daylong training exercise

Civil Air Patrol Lt. Tony Shackelford, of Red Oak, helps CAP 1st Lt. Adam Wachholz, use a compass to direct their way back to their vehicles Saturday afternoon after finding their missing person on a CAP Search and Rescue Exercise, which was based out of the Fort Dodge Regional Airport. 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.

Ft. Dodge SAREX (initial press release)

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:46:00 EDT

by Capt. Cindi Wachholz
Public Information Officer - Trainee
Northwest Iowa Composite Squadron
NCR-IA-007

FT. DODGE, IOWA On May 1, 2010, the Iowa Wing of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), the auxiliary of the United States Air Force, will be conducting a Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX) in Ft. Dodge and surrounding communities.

Local units from cross the state of Iowa will be participating out of the Ft. Dodge Regional Airport this weekend to conduct practice missions including, ground and air teams, missing persons, Emergency Locating Transmitter (used for locating downed aircraft) photo reconnaissance and GPS Navigational exercises. CAP Aircraft and vehicles will be in the area for a day of training in air and ground operations. Over 50 participants are expected to take part in the exercise.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 68 years.

As Seen in Toons . . .

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:35:00 EDT

Lt. Col. Chilcote emailed me the other day to inform me that he saw CAP in the newspaper. Like the attentive PAO that I am, I immediately hopped onto nearly all of the Des Moines Metro newspaper sites hoping I'd find it there, but to no avail. Luckily he had saved me a copy of our published presence and today at lunch he handed it over to me. Turns out that my good buddy Rick Lem over at Toons in Ames had taken a few (okay, more than a few) pictures from the Ames Fly In last weekend and published several of them in his newspaper. I'm happy to report that CAP was seen in two of those pictures! The first photo (by the way, you can find these on the downloads page) is of a future cadet standing in front of the CAP plane that Maj Murphy and Cadet White flew up for the event and the second photo is of myself, Cadet White and Lt Chilcote.

Thanks Rick!

Welcome New Members!

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:02:00 EDT

We have some more new members that I'd like to welcome into our ranks, they are Cadets William Griffey, Terry Clark Jr and Tanner Lukehart as well as senior member Jennifer Koppa. Welcome everyone! As of today, our current membership count is 15 cadets and 9 senior members!