New Jersey Wing excels in Northeastern Seaboard Communications Exercise
March 9, 2022-Joint Base McGuire – A hurricane of epic proportions has swept through several Civil Air Patrol regions including, the Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, Southeast, and the Northeast regions with New Jersey Wing being one of the twenty-eight wings [states] called to action from within those regions. Storm damage has taken out almost all communications including electricity, cell phones, and VHF radio communications. When a joint operations task force was activated to assess damages, New Jersey Wing immediately went into action with planning, accessing, and establishing task force assignments including identifying an Incident Commander, aircraft, mission radio operators, high-frequency or HF radio equipment, and aircrew. That was the scenario this past Friday when New Jersey Wing [NJWG] was contacted for a planned yet surprise disaster assessment mission to evaluate mission readiness and resource availability with only having limited resources, people, and teams.
‘Going old-school’ became this mission’s modus operandi due to the limitations of only having HF radios for all communications. But even working under those conditions and with limited staffing, New Jersey Wing successfully completed its assigned tasking, reported “sortie complete” to Northeast Region, and closed down operations at the Incident Command Post in under the exercises allotted six hours.
This may sound like an easy undertaking however the planning, discussion of the scenario, assigning personnel, and allocation of resources is only the beginning of preparations before any actual tasking can begin. Initial set-ups included Major Jimy Menoutis, commander of the Raritan Valley Composite Squadron providing his meeting facility for the Incident Command Post [ICP], and Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Webster being tasked as Incident Commander [IC].
The incident command team was then established and included, Air Operations Branch Director [AOBD] – Major Wasim Baig, Mission Radio Operator [MRO) – Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Fox and MRO trainee and mission staff assistant, cadet Lieutenant Colonel Mary Moor, Planning Section Chief [PSC] – New Jersey Wing Commander, Colonel Andrew Liput, Mission Pilot (MP] – Major Sachin Adbe, and Airborne Photographer [AP] – First Lieutenant Parminder Bansil. A few of the basic resources needed to accomplish a mission such as this included one of New Jersey Wings aircraft, a Cessna G1000 equipped with HF radio capabilities as well as HF radios at the Incident Command Post.
“Great work from the New Jersey team!” wrote Lieutenant Colonel David Samuel, Northeast Region Director of Operations in an email to New Jersey Wing team. “You guys did a great job in representing the region”.
Air Operations Branch Director, Major Wasim Baig, reaching out to the team thanked them for “stepping up and pitching in on such short notice”
This current mission is yet another prime example of New Jersey Wing’s and Civil Air Patrol’s dedication to the mission, capabilities, readiness, and exceptional training when it comes to being prepared to step up to aid their communities, state, and Nation - in times of need.
