Fort Dix, NJ -
Forty 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, reconnaissance, 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 seniors and cadets also served as
simulated casualties for exercising the Navy 7th Fleet hospital's mass
casualty field hospital.
A Press Release and Photos are available
On
the evening of 7 September a Piper PA28 took off from Sussex airport in
Northern New Jersey. The pilot regularly went on short evening flights. When
he did not return the following morning, CAP was alerted and began a search.
Ground Fog and bad weather hampered effectiveness on the first day of
searching, although a number of sorties were completed. The search continued
on Monday. The aircraft was located by hikers on a ridge early Monday
afternoon. The crash was in Stokes State Forest near the Appalachian trail.
The PA28 burned, and the pilot, the only occupant did not survive.
CAP provided crash site security until Tuesday morning at the request of the National Transportation Safety Board. New Jersey Wing used its full complement of corporate aircraft, as well as several privately owned airplanes in the search. Several ground teams were deployed to staging areas awaiting clues. One of the ground teams provided the first shift of crash security, Three additional teams relieved them in shifts.