Emergency Services

Always prepared, both in the air and on the ground, members of the Civil Air Patrol perform emergency services for state and local agencies as well as the federal government as the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and states/local communities as a nonprofit organization. Ever vigilant, these true patriots make a difference in their communities, not only to assist in times of disaster but also to search for the lost and protect the homeland. 

Emergency Services requires the greatest training, and the utmost care because on every mission life or property is at risk.

The Civil Air Patrol is assigned missions by the Pentagon and the United States Air Force. We also work with many other federal agencies like the Department of Emergency Services, Department of Homeland Security, DEA, and FEMA.

Search and Rescue is probably the most popular function of Emergency Services among cadets, where we search for downed aircraft and/or missing persons. Each mission has Air Crews, Incident Command, and Ground Crews. Air Crews fly overhead to take aerial photographs, note ground crew positions, and search for wreckage. They send this information to Incident Command, where radio operators and incident commanders strategize the search. Ground crews search from ground level whether by foot, ATVs, or snowmobiles, for signs of wreckage or clues to meet the objective. Each ground crew may consist of four cadet or senior members.

There is a significant amount of education and training required for the varied missions Civil Air Patrol supports, and more importantly the personnel needed to accomplish those missions.

All personnel supporting missions for Civil Air Patrol start with General Emergency Services training.  This is essentially CAP's license to learn, and also provides core training needed by all members in emergency services:
General Emergency Services Materials

Safety is a critical component in all CAP operations, and thus CAP requires Operational Risk Management (ORM) training for all members as well.

Mission aircrew training is critical for the variety of aviation operations that CAP supports:
Aircrew and Flightline Task Guide and Curriculum

Ground operations are also a critical function to CAP's mission operations.  Without ground teams, there can be no rescue in SAR.  The following training is used to train our ground operations personnel:
Ground & Urban DF Team Task Guide and Curriculum

All of the above personnel need appropriately training staff to plan and run operations.  The following training is used for the personnel working in ICS staff at the mission bases for CAP:
Incident Command Staff Information

Trainees are only allowed to operate in the field under the guidance of Qualified Supervisors.

Personnel are only approved to serve in the above specialties by approved evaluators:
Skills Evaluator Training and Skills Evaluator Training Exam

A variety of external training is also available and recommended for CAP members:

National SAR School - Inland SAR Planner Course Online Application  This course is run by the Air Force to train their AFRCC Controllers, CAP Members, and other SAR professionals.  More details are available online at: http://www.forcecom.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/FORCECOM-UNITS/TraCen-Yorktown/Training/Maritime-Search-Rescue/Inland-SAR/.

Online courses available at FEMA.  These are online courses available to anyone.  They are developed and maintained by DHS.  Many CAP Personnel need to take IS-100, IS-200, IS-700 and/or IS-800 to be NIMS compliant. 

K-0419 Shelter Field Guide Course - The Shelter Field Guide Course is run through the Emergency Management Institute (EMI).  You need to register using the instructions below.  If a class has seats, EMI Admissions will enroll you and send you an acceptance notice.  If there aren’t any available seats you’ll be placed on a wait list. 

Once it gets within a week of the start date you'll receive instructions to how to connect to the course via Adobe connect.

To register for the Shelter Field Guide Course, go to EMI registration at National Emergency Training Center Online Admissions Application and complete the application.  

After clicking on the EMI link above follow the steps below to complete the application.

• Click on the “NETC Online Admissions Application” link above
• “Continue” through the Legal Notice
• If you don’t have a FEMA Student Identification click on the Link in the first blue box.
• If you already have a SID but forgot it, click on the link in the second blue box.
  • If you have your SID, click on “Continue” at the bottom of the screen.
• Click the “Acknowledge” block and then “Continue”
• Enter your SID and personal information to be Verified.  Once “Verified” click “Next”
• Enter your demographic Information and click “Next”
• In the “Please select a course:” dropdown, select “K0419 – Shelter Field Guide Training for State and Local Communities”, click “Apply”
• Select Fiscal year “2022” and Semester “1 or 2"
• You can select up to three options 
• Provide the description and then hit “Save”
• Provide your Organizational information and continue to select “Next” to complete all the information
• When you get to the end, select “Continue”
• Then select “Yes” to submit you application