SAREX

SAREX = Search And Rescue Exercise
Today I went out with the squadron and some pilots from elsewhere in the wing on a SAREX (the military emphasis on acronyms will never die). The exercise is intended to provide training to pilots, observers, ground teams, and command post staff. This was a fairly small group, so everyone was involved somehow. Since I'm still not done with Level 1, I'm not cleared to fly in the CAP aircraft yet (even as an observer). Nonetheless, I was able to tag along with the cadets, who generally comprise the ground teams with SM assistance.

After a morning briefing to cover safety, weather, and communications, we waited...and waited...
Apparently, keeping even a group this small well organized and efficient still presents something of a challenge. The pilots were going over some ground briefings of their own about the airplane's avionics, there were questions about assignments of staff, and the time just slipped away. In any event, true to military standards, we eventually got going.

The ground team's job was to lay out some targets for the pilots to find. The targets are bright tarps to simulate aircraft pieces or a person's clothing. If someone were lost in the wilderness, it is expected that they will do their best to be seen, using bright clothing, geometric shapes, etc.

Then, the cadets practiced using the radio to communicate with the air team, with the air observer then simulating providing directions back to the ground team - of course, we knew where the targets were, so we had to pretend to play dumb to receive turn by turn directions, but it's educational to run through the procedures. Just as simulated emergencies in the air don't quite get your heart pumping the same way that a real fire or engine failure will, the goal is to become accustomed to checklists, flows, communication techniques, etc. The same goes for search and rescue drills.

After the air team left to do some other practice, the senior members (myself included) did some lessons with the cadets on map reading, GPS, search lines, signs of a wreck, general search strategy, and signaling. Though I haven't had any search and rescue experience, I could still contribute quite a bit to the map and GPS lesson.

I am still getting to know the cadets, but they are a bright bunch of kids. I'm still trying to figure out everyone's underlying goals for being in the program though. After I'm more involved in the system and have the authority to tailor lessons to them, it will be important to have some personal conversations to find out what their respective interests are.