A member of Civil Air Patrol’s Congressional Squadron helped lead the passage May 17 of a resolution in the U.S. Senate honoring the nation’s search and rescue personnel, which includes CAP’s more than 37,000 emergency responders.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., inserted text for the bipartisan resolution into the Congressional Record designating May 16-22 as National Search and Rescue Week. The measure passed unanimously.
“As an avid hiker and mountaineer, I take steps to prepare myself and minimize my risk whenever I pack for a trip,” Cantwell said. “But I understand that no amount of preparation can protect you from an accidental misstep or an unforeseen circumstance, and it is often the swift response of trained search and rescue personnel that makes the difference between tragedy and survival.
“Every day in Washington state and across our nation, these brave volunteers exemplify courage, commitment, and compassion in performing their duties. Today, we have passed a small act of recognition for their heroic efforts.”
As Cantwell pointed out in her text, search and rescue organizations across the nation are composed of paid and volunteer experts in search and rescue and disaster response. They work for military, law enforcement, and civilian organizations.
Search and rescue personnel come from a wide range of skilled backgrounds, including pilots, mountaineers, divers, urban technicians, dog handlers, backcountry horsemen, and snowmobilers.
“Civil Air Patrol has a rich history back to its very beginnings supporting search and rescue operations,” said John W. Desmarais, Sr., CAP’s chief operating officer. “Though CAP flies less in support of search and rescue operations annually now than it did years ago, we are still very proud and prepared to support search and rescue operations across the country.”
In its role as the U.S. Air Force auxiliary, CAP’s volunteer emergency responders conduct about 85% of inland search and rescue in the U.S. as assigned by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and other agencies. The volunteers are professionally trained to federal standards to find and medically assist the lost and injured.
In 2023, CAP conducted 455 search and rescue missions, which resulted in 60 lives saved nationwide as credited by the AFRCC — an average of more than one a week.
“In recent years our investments in radar analysis and cellphone forensic tools to support search and rescue operations has led to more lives being saved and missing people being located faster with fewer resources,” Desmarais said.
CAP employed its proprietary radar and cellphone technology in nearly half its searches in 2023, and just this weekend the National Radar Analysis Team was called on to assist in a search for a missing aircraft in Alaska, though the lack of ADS-B or radar data hampered the team’s efforts.
“Since NRAT’s creation 15 years ago, our goal has always been to ‘shorten the crash to rescue time’ by using CAP’s advanced technologies,” said Lt. Col. John Henderson, the team’s vice commander. “Our response time from notification to actionable intelligence has gone from several hours to minutes.
“Our programming team continues to build new and improved lifesaving tools.”
This time of year is an especially busy time for search and rescue personnel. A 2009 study showed national parks alone launching an average of 11 search and rescue operations daily. Typically, weekends are busiest, with day hikers, young men, and boaters most commonly in need of help.
Last week, Cantwell said search and rescue workers in her state — home to three of the 58 national parks — came to the aid of a snowboarder who went missing on Mount Hood. Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue volunteers worked through the night and helped Portland Mountain Rescue volunteers finally locate the missing man. And just a few weeks ago, King County Search and Rescue found an injured mountain biker near Lake Tradition.
