Boy in balloon floating over Fort Collins Colorado

[Hoorah]

Boy found alive.

Hiding in the attic in garage at house.

[Nick]

Well, you know what they say ... CNN is the Classified News Network.

Mashcraft: It did get assigned a mission -- 09-M-0911A, but it was for radar forensics.  No air sorties.  No ground sorties.

[Spike]

Boy found alive.

Hiding in the attic in garage at house.

The Family needs to go to Jail.  They did this all for publicity.  They were on the television show "wifeswap", and have a "rap group" that needs funding.

When the hippie neighbor got on and said the family was on "Wifeswap", a quick Google confirms it.

Now.....they should pay for everything and DAD and MOM gets to spend 1 year in Jail for pulling crap like this.

Who the CRAP was assigned to this case locally?  Obviously Mall Guards, cause a kid hiding in a box in the garage would surely be a place a real professional would start a search.   

[Flying Pig]

Im going to speculate that he was never in the baloon.  There, Ive said it.

Yes, your welcome. :clap:

[Pingree1492]

^^^^^^

UHHOHHH  that classified / OPSEC BS flag flyin' high again,huh??

I called someone I asked they hung up.

I believe that someone might have been me.  I would HIGHLY recommend that you review your GES and IS100 courses.  Calling a random CAP Member asking for information about an ongoing mission is NEVER appropriate.  Also, refusing to identify yourself other than to say that "I'm a CAP Member" is again, not acceptable.

Anytime there is an active mission, most folks GTL and above are very busy on the phone coordinating a LOT of different things with different people, especially a mission like this one where the primary is an outside agency.  Wasting someone's time for your own curiosity is not acceptable.  This is why we have alert rosters, and clear chains of authority.  I would advise you to follow them in the future.


OK, changing topics:

This was a good learning experience for us.  We have been working on getting an official MOU with Larimer County in order to make it easier for them to call us out in aid of the county's own high-quality search team.  Today would probably have been a lot less waiting on standby for a mission number, etc. and a whole lot more action had this been in place.  Our biggest hang-up working with them recently has been getting a mission number and approval in a timely manner, which hopefully the MOU will solve in the future.  So, yes, there was some involvement and communication with them, which is why I believe it was briefly reported on the news (at least local news) that we were part of the search parties, but we never deployed on the mission.

Again, COWG Group 2 was on standby, but NEVER deployed on this search.

[wuzafuzz]

Well, you know what they say ... CNN is the Classified News Network.

Mashcraft: It did get assigned a mission -- 09-M-0911A, but it was for radar forensics.  No air sorties.  No ground sorties.

I didn't think to ping CAPTalk earlier today.  I hate when my "job" interferes with goofing off and CAP.   

We were in fact paged to assemble COWG Group 2 ground teams but shortly thereafter we were told to standby while coordination was figured out.  As far as I know no one actually left home for a mission.

My squadron commander did talk to the Denver news folks a lot since he is a balloon pilot.  I didn't hear them credit him as a CAP member, but he wasn't speaking on behalf of CAP either...AFAIK.  The news did mention CAP a few times in passing.  Apparently they thought we could be useful.

The "UFO" launch was about a mile from my house.  Maybe I should start wearing my tin foil hat and look for small creatures in my attic 

[Pingree1492]

The "UFO" launch was about a mile from my house.  Maybe I should start wearing my tin foil hat and look for small creatures in my attic 

Does make you wonder what they were building it for, doesn't it?

[wuzafuzz]

The "UFO" launch was about a mile from my house.  Maybe I should start wearing my tin foil hat and look for small creatures in my attic 

Does make you wonder what they were building it for, doesn't it?

If it was me that balloon would be a tethered tactical repeater platform!

[James Shaw]

Boy found hiding in house attic.

[lordmonar]

Boy found hiding in house attic.

Thank the FSM for that!

[ol'fido]

In the late  50's or early 60's, there was a Timmy and Lassie movie in which they "accidently" took off in a balloon. There was even a scene with a CAP plane looking for the balloon and then scenes of a  Canadian search for it. I don't know the title or any of the particulars. I do remember that it was in color. Wonder if the kids family got the idea from that if it was a hoax.

[EMT-83]

I just had to look it up: http://episodes.lassieweb.org/lassie09.htm

Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

[Hoorah]

^^^^^^

UHHOHHH  that classified / OPSEC BS flag flyin' high again,huh??

I called someone I asked they hung up.

I believe that someone might have been me.  I would HIGHLY recommend that you review your GES and IS100 courses.  Calling a random CAP Member asking for information about an ongoing mission is NEVER appropriate.  Also, refusing to identify yourself other than to say that "I'm a CAP Member" is again, not acceptable.

Anytime there is an active mission, most folks GTL and above are very busy on the phone coordinating a LOT of different things with different people, especially a mission like this one where the primary is an outside agency.  Wasting someone's time for your own curiosity is not acceptable.  This is why we have alert rosters, and clear chains of authority.  I would advise you to follow them in the future.


OK, changing topics:

This was a good learning experience for us.  We have been working on getting an official MOU with Larimer County in order to make it easier for them to call us out in aid of the county's own high-quality search team.  Today would probably have been a lot less waiting on standby for a mission number, etc. and a whole lot more action had this been in place.  Our biggest hang-up working with them recently has been getting a mission number and approval in a timely manner, which hopefully the MOU will solve in the future.  So, yes, there was some involvement and communication with them, which is why I believe it was briefly reported on the news (at least local news) that we were part of the search parties, but we never deployed on the mission.

Again, COWG Group 2 was on standby, but NEVER deployed on this search.

Sorry if it was I asked outside sources but they refused to say.

[JayT]

Which outside sources?

[Hoorah]

Which outside sources?

Larimer County Search and Rescue, Larimer county Sherriff's.

[Eagle 1]

Just tuned in.  I really don't think anyone is in there.  It wouldn't be listing at 60 degrees with a 100 lb payload - nor would it be lifted by that little amount of gas.  Notice a couple of compartments have deflated.  That much weight with that much loss of gas would have brought it down by now.

To do what? There won't be any searching necessary with all of those cameras watching it, and the rescue group is going to be in place LONG before that balloon ever touches ground.

Silly question, but as a Cop who has spent hours looking for lost kids who ended up being found next door at their aunts house, did they confirm hes actually in it?

It's likely the kid is hiding because he thinks he's in trouble.

CAP really needs to take over the media. Reading through this topic, every post above was the logical thought process, and the correct thought process, while the media went on its series of assumptions and "experts" (though every now and then something useful was aired).

I am NOT going to miss the Daily Show tonight.

Wow, so I'm not alone in that thought. I really was thinking about that right in the middle of all this. Definitely concerned for the kid, but with the media coverage (especially Fox - I like Fox News, but today's coverage was ) I've got to watch tonight.

^ Do you have a reputable source for that?

Yes my friend announced it on Facebook.

That made my day.


In all seriousness though, it was interesting to see the entire country was keeping an eye on the situation concerned about just one person, and the massive air and ground response that was made. Fact that the kid was in the attic kind of hints that the locals didn't exactly search hard enough, but watching everyone on the ground swarm the area when it hit the ground was pretty impressive.

[ltcmark]

Well, you know what they say ... CNN is the Classified News Network.

Mashcraft: It did get assigned a mission -- 09-M-0911A, but it was for radar forensics.  No air sorties.  No ground sorties.

Not that I doubt you, but I just checked WMIRS again, still no mission in the system.

[James Shaw]

In the late  50's or early 60's, there was a Timmy and Lassie movie in which they "accidently" took off in a balloon. There was even a scene with a CAP plane looking for the balloon and then scenes of a  Canadian search for it. I don't know the title or any of the particulars. I do remember that it was in color. Wonder if the kids family got the idea from that if it was a hoax.

Lassies Journey Season 9 (1963). I have the movie on VHS. It is a pretty good episode.

[Hoorah]

Well, you know what they say ... CNN is the Classified News Network.

Mashcraft: It did get assigned a mission -- 09-M-0911A, but it was for radar forensics.  No air sorties.  No ground sorties.

Not that I doubt you, but I just checked WMIRS again, still no mission in the system.

Cause didn't.

[Hoorah]

In the late  50's or early 60's, there was a Timmy and Lassie movie in which they "accidently" took off in a balloon. There was even a scene with a CAP plane looking for the balloon and then scenes of a  Canadian search for it. I don't know the title or any of the particulars. I do remember that it was in color. Wonder if the kids family got the idea from that if it was a hoax.

Lassies Journey Season 9 (1963). I have the movie on VHS. It is a pretty good episode.

cause all were on standby thats why.