Operation Pulse Lift — Civil Air Patrol’s longest and largest humanitarian/disaster relief mission, and its largest mission since World War II — marked both its eighth operational year and a fifth-year surge since the COVID-19 pandemic with its first multiwing “Medical Red Flag” exercise in April, which collected more than 300 units of blood.
Operation Pulse Lift began April 14, 2017, as one of three blood drives hosted annually by the Arizona Wing in both Mesa and Scottsdale. On April 18, 2020, the mission conducted its first surge mission in Glendale as part of the organization’s response to the pandemic.
Since its beginning, the mission has supported 665 Blood Donor Center events at 85 sites in 32 wings, collecting nearly 49,000 units of blood and countless units handled in nearly 2,000 emergency blood transports.
The mission has involved thousands of CAP members, who have donated 15,300 units of blood in every wing.
To celebrate, Operation Pulse Lift conducted its Medical Red Flag exercise during the April anniversary period.
Eight squadrons in seven wings participated:
Arizona Wing
Deer Valley Composite Squadron
Falcon Composite Squadron 305
Georgia Wing
Newton County Cadet Squadron
Missouri Wing
Springfield Regional Composite Squadron
Oregon Wing
Washington County Composite Squadron
Puerto Rico Wing·
Kingdom Cadet Squadron
Texas Wing
Alamo Composite Squadron
Virginia Wing
Leesburg Composite Squadron
“This extraordinary coast-to-coast response, by over 7,000 CAP members across the nation, has potentially saved over 151,000 lives, and [according to recent research] affected the lives of over 1.3 million family members and hundreds of thousands of friends around the nation and the world,” said Lt. Col. Robert Ditch, Operation Pulse Lift director.
“It has also found its impact during a dozen wildfires, hurricanes, tornado outbreaks, floods, other disaster responses, and U.S. military contingency operations both in the United State, and combat zones overseas, saving innumerable military wounded,” Ditch said.
He expressed gratitude to members who “both personified and operationalized” the CAP mission statement of “Volunteers Serving America’s Communities, Saving Lives, and Shaping Futures” over the last eight years.
In addition to his Operation Pulse Lift role, Ditch is Rocky Mountain Region emergency services officer and Wyoming Wing health services officer. He’s also director of the National Emergency Services Academy Mobile Training Team and CAP liaison to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s education and training centers and the International Association of Emergency Managers.
