The Air Force is evaluating hundreds of Civil Air Patrol members from North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia for the next week on their ability to respond to real-world emergencies, reported Virginia’s Stafford County Sun. The graded search and rescue evaluations are meant to gauge CAP members’ “response to an emergency of a magnitude requiring cooperation between multiple [CAP] wings,” according to the newspaper’s July 21 release. Many of the CAP participants are between 12 and 18 years of age. CAP ground and air teams from the three states are conducting air and ground searches, attempting to locate numerous targets. Overhead photography captured by the CAP aircrews is supporting crisis and emergency management officials in the drills, states the report. These evaluations “are a real ‘win-win’ for both the CAP and the Air Force,” said Wendy White of the Virginia CAP Wing. The evaluations began on July 20 and run through July 29. CAP is the Air Force auxiliary.
The Pentagon plans to use U.S. Air Force C-17s and C-130s to deport 5,400 people currently detained by Customs and Border Protection, officials announced Jan. 22, the first act in President Donald Trump’s sweeping promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants and increase border security.