Nevada pilots to provide reconnaissance in border region

[ande.boyer]

Saw this article posted over at CAPblog.

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060811/NEWS10/608110431/1016/NEWS

If CAP crews are really about to start flying these border missions, I gotta ask....can AZ, NM, TX, NV, and CA supply enough crews to fly these?  I imagine this mission will require at least a half dozen sorties a day....and 10-20 sorties a day probably wouldn't be overkill.  I'm cetainly up for volunteering for a few days if the local wings need the help.

S!
-ande

[TDHenderson]

From what I understand it is a matter of $$$ reimbursement.  For example, the Iowa National Guard will deploy to California to assist if needed.  They have discussed using IA Wing to support the IA Guard but the big hang-up is how to reimburse us.  Since California would be the requesting "agency" they would have to setup timely reimbursement before we could head down there to assist.

It's much easier for the border wings to assist than us up north or east because the support costs are much lower.

[Psicorp]

*evil thought ahead*

Create a new "Border Patrol" specialty track...charge members $175 for a two week "encampment" and i doubt there'd be a lack of volunteers willing to spend their own money. 

Okay, I was mostly kidding.

In all seriousness though, is there a provision allowing one Wing to loan another Wing aircraft and support items?   If so, then could a Wing which would like to support the mission but does not have the approval (financial and otherwise) be allowed to loan aircraft, support items, personnel, etc., to a Wing which does have such approval and be reimbursed by that Wing?   

It seems to me that if C.A.P. is serious about fulfilling this mission then not only is it a huge undertaking, but also a more long term one.    I can see National requesting personnel nationwide almost in the same way that National Guard units are being rotated to fill that role.

Just a thought.

[flyerthom]

We've been told we were to be used but have tobe assigned.

TC

[CAP428]

I read this article and the National Commander's address about this, but I'm wondering:  what exactly are they supposed to be doing?  the way I understand it, they're looking for immigrants in distress, etc.?

If we were to find such immigrants, what would we do?  We couldn't exactly land the plane and start helping them firsthand b/c 1)I doubt all the CAP members flying the missions speak Spanish, and 2)Some (not all) of the immigrants crossing the borders can be hostile, especially if they are drug runners.

Somehow, if I was a) an illegal immigrant and b)running drugs through the border (or perhaps guiding other immigrants), seeing a bunch of people land a plane and hop out in camo would not please me.

I read an article in some magazine (I'll try and find it and link it or something) about how some Border Patrol agents were running into drug runners and being shot at.

So, what can CAP do without having direct interaction with the immigrants which could possibly compromise safety (against safety pledge of CAP to have an "uncompromising safety environment")and still help the border security issue?  would we simply report the sightings of immigrants in distress?  If so, who would we report to?  Border Patrol, perhaps?

[mawr]

It's called a radio and then the debrief. 

We will report what we see so that those poor souls wandering in the desert get the attention they deserve.

[RiverAux]

From Aviation Daily Oct. 3, 2006:

Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pa.) is urging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to talk with the Air Force about expanding the Civil Air Patrol's (CAP) mission along the Mexican and Canadian borders.

In a letter to Chertoff released Friday, Dent urged the secretary to negotiate with the Air Force, which oversees the volunteer Air Force auxiliary. Dent, who sits on both the Homeland Security and Transportation committees in the House, says he was "disturbed and surprised" to learn during a recent trip to the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas, that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents don't have access to enough aviation assets to help "counter the influx of illegal aliens migrating across the Rio Grande."

Local CAP members in Pennsylvania told Dent there was a pilot project underway along the Mexican border in which CAP assets are deployed to assist CBP personnel in "humanitarian" activities: watching for stragglers stranded in the desert. Dent says local CAP officials told him that CBP in Erie, Pa., is also asking for CAP assistance to monitor boat traffic on Lake Erie. "Apparently, this operation is on hold while the CBP and the Dept. of the Air Force negotiate the terms of CAP participation," he wrote Chertoff.

The CAP unit in his district is "eager to participate in America's homeland security mission," Dent says, adding that the cost of flying and maintaining CAP aircraft is relatively inexpensive, "at least as compared with other DHS and DOD aviation assets," and the pilots are experienced. "While I applaud the CAP's being used in a "humanitarian" capacity," wrote Dent "I believe that these aircraft can also be used to provide critical information on attempts to penetrate our borders by groups of illegal aliens, both small and large." -John M. Doyle