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Civil Air Patrol planes fly over Washington

This news was published on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 and is archived under Aerospace, Reports.

BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE, D.C. — The U.S. Civil Air Patrol’s National Capital Wing will participate in testing the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s intercept and identification capabilities during Exercise Falcon Virgo tonight. The exercise is designed to test NORAD’s intercept and identification operations, as well as procedural tests of the National Capital Region’s visual warning system.  CAP National Capital Wing aircraft, Air Force F-16s and C-38s, and Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopters, will participate in the exercise. In the event of inclement weather, the exercise will push to the next day.  Further weather delays will result in cancellation of the exercise.

Also this week, CAP’s Maryland Wing has been granted a temporary restricted airspace waiver to assist with NCR’s Joint Force Headquarters Capital Shield exercise, which will utilize CAP aircraft to conduct an aerial damage assessment following a natural or man-made disaster.

The U.S. Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the Air Force, was founded Dec. 1, 1941, less than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. CAP is a nonprofit organization with more than 55,000 members nationwide. The organization’s members perform 95 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions, as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 58 lives in 2006. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 22,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet program.

For “more than meets the skies” in the national capital area, go to www.natcapwg.cap.gov

 

Source: National Capital Wing

 

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