Civil Air Patrol in Washington state (Washington Wing) concluded a monthlong wildfire response mission in September supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state with disaster-assessment imagery across the eastern and north central sections of the state.
A total of 129 CAP volunteers from 37 units across five neighboring states came together to make this mission possible.
Preparing for the Mission
CAP began activating members for the disaster response Aug. 2, concentrating its specialized resources on fires outside the Spokane Complex, where additional support was needed, including the Sinlahekin, Modrite, Kaiser Canyon, Mitre Rock, and Little Giant fires.
FEMA provided hundreds of individual locations requiring assessment. CAP crews worked to collect geo-tagged imagery of fire-affected homes, businesses, and infrastructure while adapting to smoke, poor visibility, active firefighting operations, temporary flight restrictions, changing access conditions and weather.
Unlike CAP’s normal search and rescue missions that might last days, this level of response required a dedicated, long-term effort over the entire month. CAP volunteers flew, drove, operated unmanned aircraft and imaging systems, maintained communications, staffed the incident management team, supported logistics, processed imagery, and coordinated with partner agencies.
“Washington needed our aerial support to help document the fires, and our volunteers built a sustained, monthlong operation around that need. Where most of our activations are small and consist of one or two teams, here we had over 100 volunteers using multiple modern technologies beyond just our drones, planes, and comms teams.”
Coy Travers, the aerospace education officer for the wing’s Bellingham Composite Squadron, collaborates with Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Madison Kaiser to operate the new imaging system mounted to the top of a CAP vehicle. With the mobile cameras, the CAP ground teams provided useable high-resolution images in support of FEMA’s damage-assessment effort.
Mobile Imaging System in Use
One of the advanced technologies used during the mission was a vehicle-mounted imaging system capable of photographing an affected area while the vehicle was moving, rather than requiring a photographer to stop at each individual location.
“This system turns one of our vehicles into the disaster-response equivalent of a street-level mapping vehicle,” said Capt. Donald Morgan Jr., the wing’s director of emergency services. “In areas where flights were restricted, this let us continue getting photos to damage-assessment teams in a timely manner and gave planners another way to understand conditions on the ground.”
“This was the first time CAP used the capability in support of an active mission rather than training. One of our cadets helped make it operational for this effort, and that team is now building a field guide for the rest of CAP based on the lessons we learned.”
The Washington Wing ground teams also used vertical-takeoff, fixed-wing drones deployable from CAP vehicles as part of the response to wildfires in the state.
On-the-Job Training for Some
Civil Air Patrol’s mission extends beyond emergency services. Its congressionally chartered cadet program develops young people through leadership, aerospace education, fitness, and character development. Qualified cadets can also train for and participate in appropriate emergency-services missions alongside adult members.
Cadet Senior Master Sgt. Madison Kaiser from the wing’s Columbia Basin squadron spent her first day supporting ground-team operations before learning the new imaging system from deployment through final product delivery. She helped unpack and inspect the equipment, mount and connect the camera, establish satellite connectivity, operate the control system, download and process imagery, and upload finished products. She also learned the teardown, cleaning, inspection, and storage procedures needed to prepare the equipment for its next deployment.
Kaiser deployed alongside two ground teams composed of members from the Fort Vancouver and Bellingham squadrons, and Wiley, the director of operations. Members of Bellingham’s squadron had spent more than a year training for this type of rapid-response mission, and its commander, 1st Lt. Patrick Buckley, helped lead the deployed contingent.
Together, the teams brought both ground and unmanned-aircraft capabilities, including vertical-takeoff, fixed-wing drones and a mobile technology package with satellite connectivity, independent power, and vehicle-mounted 360-degree imagery collection.
Operating in the fire-affected region, the teams are among the first CAP units in Washington to put the new ground-imaging capability into operational use, processing and delivering imagery and other useful data in support of FEMA’s damage-assessment effort.
One CAP: Working Together
The Bellingham squadron’s contribution also extended far beyond the field. One of its members, Maj. Hayley Michelson, served as the mission’s finance officer throughout the monthlong response, handling the largely unseen but critical work of tracking expenses, processing costs, and helping ensure the administrative side of the 129-person operation kept pace with the crews in the field.
CAP coordinated its operations with FEMA, tribal authorities, local incident management teams, and wildfire air-operations personnel. When smoke, airspace restrictions, or access conditions prevented one collection method from operating, mission planners shifted personnel and equipment to other methods or locations where they could safely provide value.
The Civil Air Patrol mission was separate from the Spokane Complex response. CAP remained ready to assist in the Spokane area if requested, but the strong local volunteer and nonprofit response there allowed CAP to concentrate specialized aviation, imagery, communications, and emergency services resources on other assigned fire areas.
“We do not measure success by how many places we can put CAP uniforms,” Morgan said. “We measure it by whether the people who need help are getting it and whether we are putting our capabilities where they provide the greatest value.”
Col. Sid Wiggs, the Washington Wing commander, recognized the significance of the CAP mission.
“We’d like to thank our Washington volunteers and also express our thanks to the teams from California, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon who gave their time and efforts to support us,” he said.
“This has been the largest and longest deployment that we’ve seen in Washington this century outside of our COVID response.”
Serve Your Community Through CAP
Civil Air Patrol offers opportunities for people who want to support emergency response and community resilience. Its volunteers serve in a variety of ways, including disaster assessment, aviation support, communications, logistics, and emergency operations planning.
Members come from a wide range of professional backgrounds, and no aviation experience is required. Those interested in community-focused service can learn more and connect with a local squadron by visiting whatiscap.org.
Through partnerships with FEMA and other agencies, CAP members continue to support disaster response efforts focused on saving lives, protecting property, and helping communities recover.
