GIVING BACK

Police Department allowed him to also fly fire surveillance
for a smaller fire northeast of Gainesville.
In Georgia, Lt. Col. Marl McCracken, director of
operations for the Georgia Wing, continually answered
calls for help from the Georgia Emergency Management
Agency. “Air
“
support
included camera
missions
taking pictures
of the fire sites,
flying their
repeater for
better communications
and
transport of
Forestry
Department
personnel to and from the (GEMA) base in Jesup,” he
said.
McCracken said Georgia units participating included
the Middle Georgia Composite Squadron in Macon and
the Brunswick Senior Squadron in St. Simons Island,
Ga. “A total of nine sorties were flown for 13 hours,” he
said.
Maj. Mike Mitchell with the Brunswick squadron
participated in one of the photo missions,
transporting three fire marshals. “It was a
chance for them to figure out how the
fires progressed, what they did right and
how they might improve (in fighting the
fires),” said Mitchell, who is director of
operations for CAP’s Southeast Region.
Larry Morris, a spokesman working in
the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Joint
Information Center in Waycross, said the
effects of “the largest fire within a single
perimeter in the southern 48 states” will
be assessed long after the thick haze and
the smell of burning wood are gone. He
was thankful, however, there were “no
fatalities to our firefighters or our citizens.”
Firefighters, meanwhile, expressed their gratitude for
the hundreds of volunteers who pitched in to support
them — people like Cathcart, one of the five CAP
cadets who helped move the seven tons of water from
the fire station in Lake City.
It was no
big deal,
I think this shows how CAP working with
the community can have a positive impact and our
willingness to use our resources to help resolve what could
have been a much more dangerous situation.
according to
Cathcart.
“We’re there
if anybody
”
needs us,” he
said.
“Our mission
is to support
the community,”
said
Cindy
Sweitzer, whose husband, Mark, summed it up with this
comment:
“To me, the best part of the whole operation —
besides simply being able to help — was to have a
forestry official see me in my CAP uniform in a local
store and come up to me and thank me,” he said.
“That shows CAP’s efforts were both recognized and
appreciated.” ▲
— Lt. Col. Fred Swearingen, deputy commander,
Florida Wing’s Group 2
Photo by Lt. Col. Doug Kelley, Florida Wing
U.S. Civil Air Patrol pilots provide a check of a
back-burn attempt in northern Florida. The aerial
photo provides a real-time look at firefighting
efforts, allowing ground personnel to move
quickly to prevent the spread of wildfires.
U. S. Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 22 July-August 2007