I've recently had some members express interest in being trained for radiological monitoring. They reported that there are a couple of local agencies (including a weapons lab that could do the training) that think this would be a good skill set for local CAP units to have and would be willing to do the official training for CAP.
My question is "What are other CAP units doing in terms of radiological monitoring?" Is this an area that exists only in the CAP culture for historical reasons at this point, or have units found something useful that they can offer to agencies from a HLS perspective? I have seen some mentions of CAP training for this sort of work in the press, but am skeptical that this is something that CAP actually would get tasked with given the strength of resources available from the Federal government to address issues like the radioactive Boy Scout incident.
Quote from: dbaran on June 22, 2009, 06:15:24 AM
I've recently had some members express interest in being trained for radiological monitoring. They reported that there are a couple of local agencies (including a weapons lab that could do the training) that think this would be a good skill set for local CAP units to have and would be willing to do the official training for CAP.
My question is "What are other CAP units doing in terms of radiological monitoring?" Is this an area that exists only in the CAP culture for historical reasons at this point, or have units found something useful that they can offer to agencies from a HLS perspective? I have seen some mentions of CAP training for this sort of work in the press, but am skeptical that this is something that CAP actually would get tasked with given the strength of resources available from the Federal government to address issues like the radioactive Boy Scout incident.
In my almost 10 years in, I've never heard of us being used for any form of Airborne or Ground Radiological Monitoring. I believe it's a back in the day kinda thing during the cold war where they could spool us up to take readings after all the bombs are dropped.
Today, there's no real need. If there's a hot zone that requires radiological monitoring, odds are it's isolated and someone better trained, like a NEST team, would be better equipped and safer to handle it.
Yep - nothing.
Like slow-scan video, rad monitoring is so "last-century".
Not too long ago I found a bunch of the gear in original boxes, some of it looking like it had never been opened and/or rarely used, including, as I recall, some aircraft mounts, etc.
I'll agree with the rest of the crew. We haven't performed work with monitoring equipment since the 60's. There was a "test" done shortly after 9/11 to determine if we could perform aerial monitoring however, OPSEC prohibits me from spouting out what happend. >:D
Needless to say, we don't do that in CAP. ;)
When I was active in the Iowa wing we had a very active rad mon program. With three nuclear power plants in our area our state very actively coordinated emergency response to these incidents.
Don't get me wrong this program does not put CAP members in the Hot zone.
CAP's role is to transport samples to the university hygienic lab for testing. These samples should not have a measurable amount of radiation on them. To ensure that CAP members were trained to use monitoring equipment, and KI.
About 8-9 years ago, PAWG required all mission pilots to undergo 2 days of radiological monitoring training.
If a mission pilot did not complete the training, he lost his credentials as MP.
Two days of class room training.
There was a flying component of the training, but the Wing never got that act together.
We still have two people on our roster with ARM ratings (they don't seem to expire...), but the GRM rating seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet...
Can't say we've had a call for that service in a LONG time, despite having a nuke plant and all...
QuoteCAP's role is to transport samples to the university hygienic lab for testing
I am aware of a similar role for CAP in a Wing with a nuke plant.
But, I agree with everyone else that the old style civil defense-related radiologoical monitoring mission is long dead.
Now, I think it was our good friend DNall (where has he been?) who has proposed here equipping some CAP planes with sophisticated radiological detection equipment for anti-terrorism purposes (flying over highways and cities during high-threat periods looking for radiation sources that could be related to dirty bombs or nuke weapons). That may be a mission with some legs.
Dead for CAP maybe
Active where I am training still provided by the EM and nuke plant consortiums.
CAP involved as long as they know they are support. Used in noneval and evaluated drills.
No real airborne deals up here for CAP. Far from dead as long as CAP Wings APPROACH the EMA world and see where they can fit in.
But I would suppose how many CAP legal types will see this as a major malfunction in the real training world
The participation in the program is completely dependent on the wing commander's willingness to participate in the program, and more so his willingness to approve such activities in writing.
My group was approached a few years ago by the local power plant as a result of an NRC inspection. They didn't have enough people on site that could conduct surveys outside the fences. My wing commander decided that was not a risk he was willing to accept and the program never got off the ground.
At one time there was a published list of states that participated in the "technical skills" listed in 60-3. I've had no luck finding an updated one though.
I read on CAP News that a squadron had done some rad-mon training in support of a nearby power plant (LINKY (http://members.gocivilairpatrol.com/news/cap_news_online/index.cfm/minn_unit_participates_in_dress_rehearsal_for_radiological_scare_3580)). It looks like in 2006 Minnesota Wing supplemented 60-3 to bring back the ground rad-mon qualification. So it really seems to be a niche thing that if a wing can get an in then it could be a viable mission. Though we haven't done it in a long time, we still have eight shiny new geiger counters and we house a CAP Cub that they flew through the mushroom clouds after the nuke tests.
For the most part, I just don't see much of a viable role for CAP in this sort of response mission given the proliferation of local HAZMAT teams, the new National Guard Civil Support Teams, and other state and federal resources geared towards this very specialized area.
We should have some general involvement in planning and reaction for these sort of accidents/attacks, but more in relation to our traditional roles (aerial recon over evac routes, shelter management, etc.).
Techically you would need a lot of equipment: Protective masks, suits, decontamination facilities (aircraft, vehicle, & personnel). I remember this from my cadet days back in the mid 60's. Guess at that time we would use a garden hose & some brushes to decontaminate the aircraft. Don't recall what we did for personnel. Generally I guess we were basically 'dead ducks" so to speak after the mission, especially if the Russians attacked us. :-[
RM