Professional Documents
Culture Documents
February 2009
Preparation, Execution, Doing of hours studying emergency procedures
the Right Thing and practicing them in simulators. He
Gen. Stephen Lorenz obviously continued this practice as
Air Education and Training Command commander he transitioned to the airlines. One
definition of integrity is doing the right
RANDOLPH Air thing when no one else is looking, and
Force Base, Texas — Sullenberger made himself a better pilot
Earlier this month, by studying and practicing when no one
our nation was else was paying a lot of attention. His
inspired by the foundation of knowledge and skill was
actions of a brave strong because he put in the time and
pilot — an everyday effort required to build it. But preparation
American who wasn’t enough. When faced with a crisis,
reminded us of who Sullenberger had to execute. He didn’t
we are and who we panic. Instead he focused on what he had
can be. to do to save his plane and his passengers.
It just so happens that the pilot of US Ditching a large aircraft is an incredibly
Airways Flight 1549, Chesley “Sully” difficult thing to do, and Sullenberger was
Sullenberger, is a classmate of mine. We able to do it safely. He executed his
both graduated from the Air Force responsibilities with excellence. Once the
Academy in 1973. When I saw his picture aircraft stopped in the cold waters of
on the news, I immediately looked him up the Hudson, Sullenberger continued to
in our 1973 yearbook, and there he was, care for his passengers and crew. New
looking sharp in his cadet uniform. York Mayor Bloomberg described how
Sullenberger learned how to fly in our Air Sullenberger walked the aisle of the
Force, and he served out his seven‐year airplane twice to make sure everyone was
commitment as an officer and pilot. He out. In doing so, he put service to others
then began a 29‐year career as before his own personal safety. In the
an airline pilot and safety expert. When middle of incredible stress and strain,
you throw in his time as a cadet, he had Sully chose to do the right thing. In media
more than 40 years of training, education parlance, the story of Flight 1549 had
and experience to prepare him for the “legs.” Even as the historic inauguration
challenge he would face last week. approached, people remained fascinated
He prepared himself well. Like all Air with the incident, hanging on every detail
Force pilots, Sullenberger spent hundreds
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 1
as recounted by the passengers, ferrymen Indiana Wing Color Guard
and rescue specialists. Perhaps this can be Info provided by: Capt Jennifer Derr
explained by the sheer drama of the crash Jasper Cadet Squadron Commander
and the fact that it happened in our Congratulations to the teams who
largest city. I think there is something competed in the Indiana Wing Color
deeper here, however. I believe that, in Guard competition!
the face of all the negative news we
have endured in recent months, we are One point separated the top three teams,
looking for a hero — or in this case, a placing them as Weir Cook at first, Jasper
“Sully” — who will do the right thing in Cadet at second and Anderson at third.
the face of adversity. Americans love Congratulations to Titan Squadron in
heroes, especially “ordinary” people who fourth.
do extraordinary things, because one of
our core ideals is that everyday people C/MSgt Al Martin of Jasper Cadet won
can make a difference. “Outstanding Overall Cadet” and “Written
Examination” Congratulations!
On a very cold day in New York, Sully
made a difference. He did it by living Jasper’s Guard won “Inspection” and
according to our core values of integrity, “Outdoor Practical” Congratulations
service and excellence. We didn’t invent Jasper Cadet Squadron!
the core values in the Air Force. They The Jasper Squadron consisted of C/SSgt
came from the American people that we Amanda Drew, C/A1C Lindsay Ernst,
serve. Although the headlines may be C/A1C Dillon Ameling, C/MSgt Al Martin,
filled with stories of fraud, greed and and C/Amn Lane Merkley.
waste, it is important to remember that
there are millions of Americans who
choose to live by these values. Whether it
is the teacher who chooses to stay after
class to help a troubled student or the
policeman who chases the thief into the
dark alley, many Americans choose to
live according to integrity, service and
excellence.
The story of Sully Sullenberger reminds
us of this. In these challenging times, it’s
good to remember what makes our RiverCity Responds in Wake of
country great.
Severe Ice Storms
Capt Alex Whitacre
To Sully, my old classmate: Thanks for RiverCity Cadet Squadron Commander
landing Flight 1549, walking down the
aisle twice and setting an example for us RiverCity Cadet Squadron assisted the
all. Southwest Indiana Chapter (SWIC) of the
American Red Cross with the largest shelter
operation in the Chapter’s history.
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 2
Evansville, Indiana – The weather in Shelter operations are not glamorous and
Southern Indiana can be very are nowhere near as exciting as being in
unpredictable and most people take a “I the woods looking for a missing airplane,
will believe it when I see it” approach to but as RiverCity learned the week of
weather forecasts in Southern Indiana. January 27, 2009, it takes a lot of work to
This was the case the evening of January organize and run a shelter. Red Cross
27, 2009. However, as dark approached personnel and volunteers quickly become
that evening, ice was beginning to build stretched to the limit as large scale
up in record amounts. Power went out to shelter operations move into their third
more than 75,000 people in Vanderburgh and fourth days of operation. Mindy
County. Across the river in Kentucky, the Morrow, SWIC Health and Health and
power outages set record numbers. Lying Safety Administrator told Captain
in bed that night, one could not escape the Whitacre having reinforcements from
sound of breaking limbs and the bright CAP “saved my back [side]”.
flash of blue light as the static charge in a
branch was released when the branch
broke. C/MSgt Sierra Parsons stated that
“it sounded like bombs going off all night
long”.
In July 2008 the Red Cross gave a shelter
operations class to RiverCity Cadet
Squadron. At that time, no one could have
guessed that within seven months, SWIC
would have to run the largest shelter RiverCity Cadets receive shelter
operation in its history. Planning paid off operations training from the
because RiverCity was trained and ready Red Cross in July 2008.
to assist. Along with moving and cleaning
the 4H shelter, RiverCity helped prepare
and serve meals, helped organize and
maintain a recreation center at the Army
Reserve Center shelter, and helped clean
and pack more than 150 cots and supplies
for deployment to Owensboro and
Henderson Kentucky. Other duties
included helping the elderly in and out of
the shelters, shoveling snow, and general RiverCity Cadets serve meals to shelter residents
cleanup.
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 3
USAF Academy Invite In April, USAC will host it's 100th
Maj Jeff Young Anniversary Gala celebration at the new
Indiana Wing Cadet Programs facility. This will combine the official
opening of the facility with several events
The USAF Academy Cadet Honor Guard
paying tribute to military cadetting and
has invited all CAP cadet drill teams,
the military heritage of the area.
honor guards, and color guards to
participate in its “National Invitational There will be a Parade of Cadets on
Drill Meet” on April 18th, 2009. This Saturday 25 April 2009 to honor cadet
event is a great opportunity for CAP organizations of all services. This will
cadets to showcase their expertise in drill, include Young Marines, Naval Sea Cadets,
interact with Air Force Academy cadets, Civil Air Patrol and Junior ROTC. At this
and have fun. time, cadets and a band from Oak Ridge
Teams located around the Rockies will Military Academy in North Carolina also
obviously have the best chance of getting plan to attend. The Bourbon County High
themselves to the Colorado Springs, but School Marching band has agreed to
the Academy Honor Guard is extending participate. Bands from other area
the invitation to all CAP units across the schools have also been invited.
country.
Teams that would like to participate Such an event would not be complete
should first obtain the approval of their without the participation of the Civil Air
wing commander and then coordinate Patrol. I would ask that all units able to
directly with the Academy’s Cadet Honor participate contact me as soon as
Guard as explained in the attached letter. possible. I've also provided a link below
to the organization for your
Parade of Cadets information. Also, if any of you have any
Lt Col Michael Cooper influence with your high school bands, we
USAFR would be honored to have their
participation as well. Please give them
The United States Army Cadet Corps
my contact information.
(USAC) recently relocated its national
headquarters to Millersburg, Contact me as follows:
Kentucky. The organization purchased Spaatz630@windstream.net or phone
the old Millersburg Military Institute 859‐273‐5579. Here is the USAC 100th
which closed several years ago. In Anniversary Gala page:
bringing this proud and historic facility http://www.armycadets.org/100th/
back to life, the Army Cadet Corps is
restoring the century‐old military
heritage and identity of the local
community.
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 4
Mission 09A0158 flew over the south end of Kokomo the
Capt Thomas Elam Becker indicated that we had passed the
At about 1900 local on 3 Feb 2009 I ELT, well before reaching the airport on
received a call from Maj Brian Schmuck, the northeast of the city.
IN WG ES, requesting that a crew be Had we not received that one low
assembled for possible launch on a 121.5 altitude report we would probably have
mHz ELT search. As most of you are launched to the east or southeast toward
aware we no longer get satellite data on reports made by aircraft over Ohio. That
that frequency, but several aircraft had would have resulted in a lot of flying, but
confirmed an ELT signal was being heard. no ELT find.
Initial reports were from over western We made several passes over the signal
and southwestern Ohio. from different directions and recorded
I called Col Mark Reeves, IN WG CC and locations on the G1000 moving map
ace Becker operator, to be my MO. Trust display. It was strong and consistent, and
me on this, when the chips are down, if the locations were tightly bunched. We
you are the pilot, you want Mark in the SMS’d the location to Maj Schmuck and he
right seat. sent Grant Co. GT toward Kokomo. We
I filled out the paperwork, checked landed at OKK to conserve fuel and
weather (marginal, but safe) and waited about 30 minutes for Grant Co. to
departed for Greenwood Airport. At get closer to the location. After the wait
about 2000 I received notice that a low we launched from OKK and set up station
altitude aircraft had reported a121.5 ELT keeping over the signal.
near Grissom ARB. This turned out to be As we circled the signal location awaiting
vital information. Grant Co. we tried to visually pin down
Maj Schmuck had alerted three ground the possible sites where there might be an
teams to be ready to go. Three were put ELT. There was a hospital near the
on alert due to the potentially large area location, with a helicopter pad on top, but
that might need to be covered. in the darkness we did not notice the pad
Col Reeves and I prepped CPF 1258 for or the helicopter sitting there. Had there
the flight and discussed the situation. We been a rotating beacon we would have
decided that the Grissom hit was our best likely seen the pad, but it was just a dark
bet, so we launched from HFY direct to area with red lights on the corners.
Grissom. Grant County arrived and we made radio
The launch was not without an issue. contact. They had the ELT signal right
The Tanis heater was not hooked up and away. When mentioned the hospital as a
the aircraft battery was not quite strong landmark they asked if we saw a pad.
enough to turn over the cold engine. We Only then did we look close enough to see
used the ground power unit that is the pad and the dim outline of a
intended to power the G1000 for ground helicopter. There was our ELT!
work to boost the battery, and got it The GT had a strong signal in the hospital
started. parking lot, so they went in the front
About 10 miles south of Kokomo we door, up to the roof, and turned off the
picked up an ELT on the aircraft radio, offending ELT. We loitered in the area
and shortly thereafter on the Becker. At until the ELT was confirmed to be off by
first we thought it was at OKK, but as we our Becker DF and then headed back to
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 5
HFY. We arrived back at HFY about 1245 Operation Iceberg
local time. TFO Jessica Caplan
Lessons Learned: In this new age of no Indiana Wing PAO
SARSAT locations on 121.5 a single low February
altitude fix is worth dozens of reports by 6, 7, and
high flying jets. Just one report turned 8th
our search area from east to north, and RiverCity
likely saved many hours of fruitless Cadet
looking. We were also incredibly lucky Squadro
that the ELT was between us and n shared
Grissom. It could have been anywhere in their
a 30‐40 mile range, but we were in county
perfect position to pick it up on the first with 59
pass. other cadets and Senior Members for
We also found that sending the ELT Operation Iceberg (Lovingly renamed to
coordinates by SMS text message rather Operation Swamp Stomp ’09). This
than a radio message or cell phone call weekend long exercise helped 3 people
was highly effective. SMS eliminated any get qualified in MSA, 2 in MRO, 1 GTL, 2
possible misunderstanding of the for GTM1, 4 for GTM2, and 5 for GTM3.
numbers. Iceberg was also able to get several
The G1000 system in the 182T is people much closer to getting signed off
incredibly useful for ELT searches. on LSC, CUL, GTM1, GTM2, GTM3, GTL,
Especially at night, the situational MIO, and MRO. Maj. Brian Schmuck and
awareness it gives the pilot and MO is a several hard working cadets, including
major enhancement to mission one dedicated C/Col from New York,
effectiveness and safety. managed to keep the ground pounders
As usual, teamwork among the IC, organized and under control.
comms, ground team and aircrew was Maj. Matthew Creed out in Clark County
absolutely the key to the success of the was keeping the Aircrew in check, and
mission. It also helped that we were also managing to sign off several Mission
incredibly lucky. Scanners and Observers, qualifying one
We will very likely get involved in Air Branch Director and a Mission Pilot.
searches that will take longer and be less Both Maj. Creed and Maj. Schmuck did an
successful than this first IN WG amazing job organizing their sides of
experience with a 121.5 ELT in the post‐ Operation Iceberg. Thank you for the
SARSAT era. There are going to be many awesome job this year!!!
opportunities to learn new skills and
likely to be many long hours on some
searches.
I hope that those who made the decision
to turn off 121.5 on the SARSAT system
don’t point to this mission to support that
decision. Most of the time you are not
going to find the ELT between the launch
airport and a reported position.
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 6
Safety Corner
Major Samuel Hornbuckle
Indiana Wing Safety Director
Now for some good news! Safety
It’s time for some good Officers who have completed the on‐line exam
news. Most of what is may now be qualified to receive their
required from the units Technician Rating in the Safety Officer Specialty
in regards to Safety have Track! This exam replaced the required AFIADL
been completed. The course. For those of you who have been a
ambush of information Safety Officer for longer than 6 months, you
that was sent out may may want to look and see if you qualify for the
have been a little overwhelming. Now it’s time badge. From what I can see, a majority of you
to relax some before the next fiscal year but probably do! Safety Officers who already has
don’t get too comfortable since safety never the Technician Rating by taking the AFIADL
takes a break! There’s still a few things that course, you may qualify for your Senior Rating
need covered. at this time! It might be a good idea to look
into it as well!
There are a couple of issues with the
Safety Surveys the first being that surveys must Below is the Indiana Wing Mishap
be done on‐line through e‐services. The second Statistic report. This will be updated monthly,
is that they must have been done by 31 as needed. Since the humorous picture didn’t
January. On 1 February, they are removed from get any response, this will be put in instead.
e‐services and can no longer be put in the
system or approved.
INDIANA WING MISHAP STATISTICS
Monthly Safety Briefing Reports are due
on the 5th of each month and is to be recorded MISHAP FY FY FY
FY08
VS
in the WMU system. This is required to provide TYPE 2007* 2008 2009
FY09
the information to myself and the command
staff and safety officers for the entire echelon. VEHICLE 0 0 0 0
All activities (excluding unit meetings) AIRCRAFT 3 0 0 0
are also required to perform a minimum of 15‐ PERSONAL
0 7 4 -3
minute Safety Briefing before beginning the INJURY
activity and are also required to be placed in the
OTHER 0 0 1 1
WMU. Project Officers (or an appointee) should
input the information in the WMU through *JUN-SEPT 2007
will show up in the overall wing record as the
members who attended the activity are
compliant to participate and to cover those who
have not had a Safety Briefing that month.
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 7
CHAPLAIN’S CORNER
Capt. Dave Harness
Chaplin, Indiana Wing
There are two things that I wish to share with you this month. First,there
has been a change in plans on the Regional CSSC. It was originally
going to be in upper Ohio but now as been planned for May 04 through
May 08 at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton. Please make sure you watch
your email for further information.
Astronaut Ford was the brother of the late Senator David Ford who was a staunch supporter and
member of CAP.
This event will take place at the Anderson Preperatory Academy in Anderson, IN.
Col Ford is the shuttle Pilot on STS-129 wich should launch sometime this summer. He would
like us to plan this event a couple or three months after his flight. This event is open to all
Cadets and any Senior member who would like to attend. We are asking for a small contribution
to offset Col Ford's expenses while back home in Indiana. A dollar amount need not be set but I
am sure the Senior members can more than cover this expense.
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 8
WING COMMANDER’S CORNER
Colonel Mark Reeves
Commander, Indiana Wing
As Civil Air Patrol receives vehicles, airplanes and training funds from the US
Air Force, the expectation is that we maintain accountability for that equipment,
safeguard tests, and plan to successfully accomplish our three missions of
Emergency Services, Aerospace Education and Cadet Programs.
This year, like the previous years, we have collected the reports required to meet accountability
and planning requirements. This year we focused on
9 Signed S‐3 – List of non‐expendable assets assigned to the unit
9 Signed S‐8 ‐ List of communication assets assigned to the unit
9 Real Property Survey / Lease agreement
9 Wish List for equipment
9 Unit Communication Plan to be integrated with the Wing Communication plan
9 Unit Communications Officer appointment on a CAP Form 2a.
9 Testing Control Officer appointment on a 2a or a CAP Form 53
9 Aerospace Education Report
Congratulations to all of the units for getting their paperwork turned in on time (or close to it).
The first year I was in command, we completed our reports in May, long after the National
deadlines. This year, we were done by 15 February….thank you to each of our unit commanders
and their staff for meeting these requirements Every year, we do a little better job of getting
these reports in and I appreciate it!
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 9
FROM THE PAO
FO Jessica Caplan
Indiana Wing PAO
Alright everyone, the PAO corner is now going to be reserved for
cadet milestone promotions.
Congratulations go to Cadet Aaron Thomas Redfield from
Valparaiso Squadron for becoming the third Spaatz Cadet in just
several short months in INWG. Great Job C/Col!!!
Also congratulations to Cadet Nash Jones for passing his Billy
Mitchell!!! He was presented his award by the Mayor of Jasper. Congratulations!
Cadet Drew Sheehy from Lutheran High School also made his Billy Mitchell.
Congratulations C/Lt Sheehy!!!
Indiana Cadets, you have done an amazing job this month getting your tests done and
getting your promotions. Keep up the amazing work!!!
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 10
WING STAFF VACANCIES
Indiana Wing Headquarters is currently seeking applicants for the following positions:
Director of Operations
Director of Professional Development
Aircraft Maintenance Officer
Please contact Major Matt Creed, Indiana Wing Chief of Staff at mcreed@inwg.cap.gov if you are interested in
any of these positions.
Also Available
Indiana Wing is accepting applications for the positions of:
1) Emergency Services Training Officer
2) Search and Rescue Officer
Interested officers or NCOs should submit a resume with applicable experiences and a letter of interest to
Major Brian Schmuck, Director of ES at bschmuck@inwg.cap.gov. Contact via e-mail.
CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS (CHECK OUT THE FULL CALENDAR AT INWG.CAP.GOV)
Got News? If you have news, information, or photos for publication in the next wing
newsletter, please send them to the wing’s Public Affairs Officer, TFO Jessica Caplan at
jcaplan@inwg.cap.gov
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol – 3010 N. White River Parkway East Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46208
Indiana Wing Civil Air Patrol Page 11