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Friday, November 20, 2009
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CAP puts training to use
Staff Writer Early Saturday morning, Dale Armstrong, commander of the Crow Wing Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, got the call to begin the search for missing pilot Andrew Lindberg.
Lindberg, 32, Farmington, left a Lakeville airport Friday on the way to Hallock in northwest Minnesota. His airplane, however, never made its destination and his last known contact with anyone was a text message sent to a family member near Staples.
The weather was poor Saturday morning, so a Crow Wing Composite Squadron crew of four drove from Brainerd to Wadena County to begin a ground search, Armstrong said.
"This is what we train for week after week," Armstrong said.
By the end of the day Saturday, the Crow Wing squad building at the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport was bustling with Civil Air Patrol personnel when it was transformed from a local headquarters to the base of operations and staging point in the search for Lindberg.
Not only did Crow Wing Composite Squadron members - two airplanes and two ground crews each day - continue their work with the search but they needed to provide logistics for more than 100 people and 18 aircraft.
"It was not just busy it was hectic trying to keep people fed, getting gear for them, this and that," Armstrong said.
This and that included making sure enough fuel was available for all the airplanes, accommodating Lindberg's family, communications space at the Crow Wing Composite Squadron building, sleeping arrangements for the Civil Air Patrol volunteers and finding food for everyone.
The Crow Wing Composite Squadron was up to the task, Armstrong said. Along with aerospace education, search and rescue is the Civil Air Patrol's main function. It's also what they train for every week of the year.
"Search and rescue is the big dog, really," Armstrong said. "It's the one everybody wants to get involved in. They want to feel like they've really done something to give back the community. That's why most of us are here, to give something back."
The wreckage of Lindberg's airplane was spotted Tuesday afternoon by a private pilot in Clearwater County about 22 miles east of Mahnomen. On Wednesday afternoon, search teams, including Civil Air Patrol members, made their way to the site and recovered Lindberg's body.
Though Lindberg's airplane wasn't found by Civil Air Patrol members, Armstrong said there's a sense of satisfaction in serving as the lead squad in the search and helping Lindberg's family.
Still, a job well done by the Crow Wing Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol doesn't take away from the fact that rescuers didn't find Lindberg alive.
"You always want to do the rescue part as well as the search. You always want to do the rescue, to find them and bring closure to incident," Armstrong said. "It's always brutal when you go to the fatal site."
The Civil Air Patrol's Minnesota Wing appreciated the Crow Wing Composite Squadron's efforts and its facilities for conducting the operation.
"The great thing about the facility in Crow Wing is it's designed to serve as a mission base for events like that. It's a facility with electricity, phones, Internet access and plenty space for everybody to work," Maj. Al Pabon of the Civil Air Patrol's Minnesota Wing said. "It met everybody's needs with no problems."
Search and rescue, while probably its biggest mission, is one of several services the Civil Air Patrol provides. Norville Pervier, finance officer for the Crow Wing Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol said other services include helping law enforcement, searching for missing people and taking aerial photographs for weather and flood damage.
"We have a varied and interesting mission," Pervier said.
MATT ERICKSON may be reached at matt.erickson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5857.
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