(From left) Senior Member Joel Mason and Capt. Carl Foster of the Huntsville Composite Squadron and Lt. Col. Talmadge Butler, Gadsden Composite Squadron commander, plan a flight during a training mission at Madison Executive Airport.
(Photo by Maj. Patricia Mitcham)
Maj. Patricia Mitcham
Public Affairs Officer
Alabama Wing
ALABAMA – Members of four squadrons joined for a training exercise Aug. 14-15 at Madison Executive Airport in Meridian, concentrating both inside the classroom and out in the field on expanding their search and rescue skills.
In all, 23 members from the Gadsden, Huntsville, Muscle Shoals and Redstone composite squadrons participated in the session, which was planned and supervised by the Redstone squadron’s commander, Capt. Mark Adams, and deputy commander for seniors, Capt. Ande Boyer, and by Maj. Anthony Beresford, Huntsville commander.
Training began with a classroom session the evening of Aug. 14. Instruction and debriefings continued the next day classroom training on Friday evening at the airport. The mission base was open by 7:30 the next morning, with participants signing in to obtain initial qualifications for mission aircrews. Some pilots, observers and scanners flew to keep their mission ratings current.
Scenarios were designed to provide training in various methods of flight search patterns and communication with simulated survivors of a downed aircraft. The Redstone ground team, portraying the ground team members, used signal mirrors and communication panels while flight crews used expanding squares, creeping line search and other methods to increase the probability of finding and communicating with them.