For Immediate Release
Friday 15 November 1996
Contact: LtCol. Edward (Ted) Schober
NJ Wing Civil Air Patrol
609-546-0134
ted.schober@compudata.com
Fort Dix, NJ - Fourty Nine CAP members from New Jersey and Pennsylvania Wings assisted
over twenty units from all branches of the Military Reserve and National Guard in the Joint
Training exercise OPERATION BLUELIGHT 96. The exercise began on Friday 1 November
1996 and continued through Sunday 3 November.
BLUELIGHT is one of two annual exercises brought together by the Joint Training Task Force 1
(JTTF1) to prepare our reserve and guard forces using joint exercises to provide low cost, high
fidelity training that corresponds with likely mission scenarios.
BLUELIGHT 96 focused upon the defense and evacuation of an "Embassy" on Fort Dix, a
convoy of the evacuees through the countryside to a safe house, helicopter evacuation, and
medical treatment of the casualties. Additional training in search and rescue, reconnaisance, base
and perimeter security, assault, infiltration, and air cover was conducted at the Air Force's Warren
Grove Range.
Civil Air Patrol provided communications for the JTTF1 controllers or referees, "Embassy"
Radio, a safety network, and for the Naval Weather unit. CAP used a combination of voice and
digital packet radio base stations established at "Aircraft Carrier" "USS" Aviation Dix, Warren
Grove Range and NJ Wing Headquarters along with mobile stations and an expediently
constructed base station at the "Embassy" to keep the operation's command staff aware of the
field situation and progress.
CAP Cadet LtCol Jess Hamilton served as communications aide to Army Reserve Special Forces
LtCol Gilchrist, the overall operation commander. Cadet Hamilton said, "We were always able to
keep LtCol Gilchrist up to date on the mission, so that he could keep it on the time line and make
sure all the units got the training".
CAP Cadet 1st Lt Mark Farren and CAP LtCol Ted Schober rode with the embassy staff in a
convoy Friday to the "Embassy" location in a field building about 12 km from "USS" Aviation
Dix. Cadet Farren served as communications aide to US Naval Reserve Captain Childs who
headed the controller staff at the "Embassy", while LtCol Schober constructed the "Embassy"
radio station. The radio station was used by the "Ambassador" to request support and finally
evacuation, and by the controllers to keep the commander current on the defense of the embassy.
It was also used to report the minor injury of an Army participant who was burned by a practice
pyrotechnic.
Early Saturday morning some embassy staffers were made up with moulage and medivaced by
helicopter. A convoy was formed to evacuate the remaining embassy staff and the defense force.
CAP provided a team of "local police" to interact and accompany the evacuation convoy. These
local police interactors under the command of CAP 1st Lt Ismael Lugo and CAP LtCol. Boyko
are actually law enforcement officers and speak spanish. Along the way, the convoy passed
through Bastogne Village, a simulated village on Fort Dix. Civil Air Patrol members interacted
with the convoy as demonstrating villagers unhappy with the presence of an armed force in their
village.
Simultaneous with the evacuation convoy, the 7th Fleet Hospital established a field hospital in the
unused floors of the Walson Medical Center at Fort Dix. CAP dispatched cadets and seniors to
act as casualties. They were moulaged and processed, and some were helicopter medivaced to
Warren Grove.
Two CAP aircraft located a simulated downed military aircraft at Warren Grove Range, and
located the pilot who was carrying an ELT. When the CAP aircraft had cleared the area, military
helicopters dispatched special forces teams to the coordinates provided by CAP to rescue the
crew of the "downed aircraft", while evading "hostle" forces in the area. Pennsylvania Wing CAP
provided the communications at Warren Grove working from the mobile command post
developed by Pennsylvania Wing Communications Squadron 3102.
The communications task continued until the last flight operations were completed. CAP's radio
watch let the commander follow the progress of the exercise, the weather or any safety issues.
CAP provided over well over 1200 volunteer man-hours of assistance in helping to make JTTF1's
OPERATION BLUELIGHT 96 an unqualified training success.
Pennsylvania Wing and New Jersey Wing CAP assisted in OPERATION BLUELIGHT 95, and
OPERATION BULLFROG 96, and will be participating in OPERATION BULLFROG 97 again
this June. LtCol. Gilchrist remarked, "Communications were always troublesome in these
exercises. When Civil Air Patrol began providing the communications service it improved our
training effectiveness. It has been a pleasure to work with the CAP volunteers as a valued partner
in these exercises. I am particularly impressed with the professionalism of the CAP cadets and
hope that we can attract some of them into the military service of our nation."
By participating in these exercises, CAP supports the military in fulfilling its training and readiness
mission. Reliable communications support makes for a better controlled and safer exercise. CAP
interactors make for a higher fidelity exercise, and contain costs since it decreases the number of
military participants needed to facilitate the exercise and not receiving training.
Civil Air Patrol benefited from Operation Bluelight 96 in several ways. Communications training
in field expedient radio stations is essential, as well as message handling in tactical environments.
OPERATION BLUELIGHT is an ideal environment for this training, with high traffic loads,
many different addressees and relatively long distances to cover. Mission management lessons are
also learned with nearly fifty personnel at seven distant locations all needing registration,
instructions, supervision, food, water, shelter, rest and transport. This environment is ideal to
train CAP to be an effective responder in civil emergencies.
Through OPERATION BLUELIGHT and OPERATION BULLFROG Civil Air Patrol is demonstrating once again its ability to perform missions for America. CAP's tradition of assisting the military with training, which grew from aerial gunnery target towing and preparing military pilots through the Cadet Program are continued through BLUELIGHT and BULLFROG.
- CAP cadets and seniors await their "wounds" at the 7th Fleet Hospital field trauma training.
- CAP cadet awaits air medivac training while CAP LtCol Singer helps prepare helicopter cabin with District of Columbia National Guard
- Cadet LtCol Hamilton and CAP LtCol Schober update Senior Chief Petty Officer XXXX on "USS Air Dix" the simulated flagship of Operation Bluelight 96.
- Cadet Major Christine Tobias receives a moulage excised eye and other wounds from USNR 7th Fleet Hospital technicians.
- CAP Cadets received very realistic simulated wounds to test and train USNR 7th Fleet Hospital personnel for combat trauma medicine.