CAPITAL CLOSE-UP

Photo by 1st Lt. Scott Bakker, Oregon Wing
Bakker is careful to point out
that CAP search and rescues are a
carefully planned team effort.
In fact, both CAP's Oregon
and California wings recently
became members of CORSAR,
the California/Oregon Regional
Search and Rescue Force, which
was organized following the wellpublicized
death of James Kim,
the father who died in the
Oregon wilderness while seeking
help for his stranded family.
CORSAR’s development was
largely inspired by the need for
Marshall Alexander’s 1956 Cessna 182 rests nose-down in the snow of Oregon’s
Cascade Mountains. Alexander lay near the airplane for more than five hours at
night, comforted by the presence of CAP Cessna 182s flying above.
greater communication and coordination
between search and rescue
teams and law enforcement at
the county and state levels during
such searches.
When Alexander became
stranded, CORSAR search and
rescue managers called on CAP
for assistance.
According to a media release
from the Jackson County Sheriff’s
Office, Detective Sgt. Colin
Fagan and dispatchers with
Southern Oregon Regional
Communications began tracing
satellite phone signals after the
accident and passed on possible
crash coordinates to CAP, which
led to the launch of Bakker’s crew
and a second CAP Cessna 182
flown by Capt. Larry Kendrick.
During the night Alexander
Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 22 May-June 2007