Basic SAREX
Capt Luis Rivas
Photos by Luis Rivas
Twenty three members of Group 2 participated in a Basic
SAREX exercise with a scenario designed to practice, refresh and renew emergency
services ratings. The clubhouse at Buchanan Field in Concord
 |
| Lt Col Suter Delivering the Morning Briefing |
The trainees included an Incident Commander, aircrew, ground
teams and base staff searching for an “overdue aircraft” that departed Gnoss
Airfield in Novato enroute to Los Banos Municipal Airport
 |
| Aircrew Flight Planning |
 |
| Maj Brown Preflighting the C172 |
The newest Group 2 aircraft, a Cessna 172 with a modern glass cockpit, supported two Urban Direction Finding (UDF) teams in the search.
 |
| Communications Team C/SSGT Patil, Maj Gadd |
The aircraft began searching from the point of departure of the overdue
aircraft, and detected the beacon over San Ramon, significantly narrowing down
the search area.
 |
| UDF Team briefing |
The UDF teams were dispatched from Buchanan Field and directed
to conduct ramp searches at the Livermore, Oakland, Hayward and Reid-Hillview airports.
Utilizing clues generated by the aircraft, the UDF teams,
working together, tracked down the practice beacon to a location near Lake Del
Valle. The beacon was hidden beneath a tree near a plywood silhouette made to
represent a downed a downed aircraft from the air.
 |
| UDF Team finds overdue aircraft |
 |
| SM Wilson finds ELT |
Lt Col Suter was the Incident Commander trainee, and he was quoted as saying “This exercise was a great training opportunity, particularly adjusting the mission to cope with constantly changing challenges. Overall a small but successful SAREX." His mentor Lt Col Deford remarked "We had a very educational exercise both in its successes and lessons learned."
