Iowa Wing News Online
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Last Monday, in the wee hours of the morning, Iowa Wing was notified by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center that an Emergency Locator Transmitter was going off in the Anamosa area. Colonel Gene Kellogg directed the CAP Response starting at 0130 hours. Cedar Rapids Senior Squadron provided an aircrew and East Iowa Cadet Squadron launched a ground team.
We had two initial SARSAT location which put it in the vicinity of Anamosa, IA. AFRCC supplied another SARSAT location while teams were enroute. Evidently the signal was very strong due to the aircrew acquiring the signal shortly after take off while over Cedar Rapids. The ground team acquired the signal on the south edge of Anamosa. With repeated fly-overs, the aircrew was able to direct the ground team to SE side of Anamosa near the Wal-Mart store.
The ground team was able to locate the ELT in the parking lot of a Super 8 Motel. The ELT was located inside a damaged Piper Aztec sitting on a flat bed trailer. Needless to say the new owners were not greeted by room service at 0300 hours. All crews returned home safe.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Iowa CAP flew its first Air Defense mission in support of 1st Air Force and the Northeast Air Defense Sector. An Iowa CAP Aircraft flew a profile to require that a military intercept be performed. An Iowa CAP aircrew crew went airborne yesterday morning and were intercepted and escorted to a safe landing.
CAP Operations were conducted out of the Iowa Air National Guard's 133rd Test Squadron in Fort Dodge. Our mission staff were able to watch the intercept take place in real time because we were tied in to the FAA Radar in the area. We tested the limits of our Airborne Radio Relay capabilities and helped the Air Force and FAA to stay sharp for missions of this nature.
Our aircrew landed for post-mission debriefing and were amazed to watch the radar information.
Iowa CAP can look forward to more of these types of missions in the future. However, because of the sensitive nature of these missions the officers and cadets at-large may not be aware of them until after they are complete, as was the case with this exercise.
