On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 06:18:06 GMT, Larry Dighera
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 03:58:48 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote in
Y5Ebe.24371$r53.23845@attbi_s21::

CAP can be a lot of military gobbledy-gook, but it's great for cadets, IMHO.
Sorta like the Boy Scouts -- but with a real purpose.

And that purpose would be, drug interdiction? :-)

No, as a matter of fact -- CAP's primary mission is Search and Rescue.
CAP is the primary agency for ANY missing aircraft SAR, whether it be
civilian or military.

An second equally important mission is tracking down any noisy ELT.
All control towers and U.S. satellites pick up any ELT that goes off.
DF from towers or general location pinpoint from a satellite calls out
the nearest CAP unit to investigate.

A third important mission for CAP is disaster evaluation and recovery
effort support. I know the local unit here in San Antonio deployed
with multiple teams and flew dozens of hours searching for remains of
the destroyed shuttle a few years ago. Lately, the State of Texas has
repeatedly used CAP to perform near-real-time distasters evaluations
so they can respond appropriately. A good example is CAP flying photo
recon missions two/three days in a row when that bad weather rolled
through Dallas last fall and broke some dams.

Now, this doesn't address the Cadet mission at all. The whole system
for young people is geared to teaching aerospace subjects, learning
discipline/responsibility, and producing leaders. As someone said --
somewhat like the Boy Scouts. Or maybe JROTC would be a better
comparison.

So, no -- CAP does NOT have a "drug interdiction" mission. In fact,
CAP members are specifically reminded OFTEN that they are not in any
official position, cannot lend a hand to law enforcement personnel
(even if asked by them), can't be armed in any fashion, have no
authority to detain people or even go onto private property without
the owner's permission.

The "Real Purpose" -- Search & Rescue.



Chuck