Most kids spend their weekends playing sports or video games, but for 27 local youth weekends are a time for search and rescue training and scouring the wilderness for simulated airplane crashes. Late last month, the Civil Air Patrol conducted a ground team-focused Search and Rescue Exercise at the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area. More than 200 people — many members of the CAP’s cadet program for youth between the ages of 12 and 20 — from across Georgia spent three months preparing for the exercise, which is considered by the project officer, Capt. Ross Statham, to be a “graduation exercise.”
Civil Air Patrol conducts search and rescue training mission
Cadets train for emergencies in the wilderness