JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Saturday, August 25, 2007 12:00 am
The work can be tedious and dangerous. It requires hours of training and offers no pay and little recognition from the public.
Still, members of the Civil Air Patrol's Wyoming Wing readily take to the sky in search of missing people and downed aircraft.
"My philosophy is, if I go down, I'd want somebody to look for me," said 1st Lt. Roy Baughman, commander of the Casper squadron. "So I do the same."
Baughman is one of about 250 people who make up the Wyoming Wing. During emergencies, they are called upon for a variety of tasks, from searching for lost hunters to performing flood watches.
"There is a whole mix of people who are interested in doing what we can do to help our community," he said.
The normally low-profile organization became front-page news on Monday when a Civil Air Patrol plane crashed during a search mission in the Big Horn Mountains, killing three members. Although it was the first time the Wyoming Wing suffered a fatal crash during a search, the incident highlighted the danger that comes with the work.
"We do not intentionally take a lot of risk. We try to ensure there is always a margin of safety," said Capt. Bruce Lessig, a private pilot and Civil Air Patrol member since 1980. "I knew all three of those people and we are all wondering what happened, what possibly had gone wrong."
Even with Monday's crash, the Civil Air Patrol has a better safety record than general aviation, which includes non-military and non-commercial flights, said Wyoming Wing Commander Col. Stan Skrabut.
"We have about a third of the accidents they have for the same amount of hours," he said.
The Civil Air Patrol is a volunteer organization and auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force that flew almost 2,000 sorties nationwide last year, Skrabut said. The Civil Air Patrol has three primary missions: search and rescue, aerospace education and a cadet program for young people that's similar to the ROTC.
The Wyoming Wing has squadrons based all over the state, from Rock Springs to Sheridan to Casper. Some members are retired commercial pilots or ex-military, but others don't even know how to fly.
"They come from all walks of life, from professors to housewives," Skrabut said.
Of the Civil Patrol's three missions, searches are the Wyoming Wing's "bread and butter," according to its commander.
"This is what most of the folks sign up for," he said.
Flying a search differs from piloting a normal flight, according to Lessig. Pilots must fly slow and somewhat low over the target area, sometimes for several hours or days.
"A professional pilot who is used to flying from point A to point B would probably not do well to do a search cold turkey," he said.
The searches themselves can be tedious, said Lessig, a mining engineer who's performed more than 50 such missions.
"It is not real fun," he said. "It is exciting when you find them, but if you spend four to five days searching, that's tedious," he said.
It can also be frustrating. Lessig remembers one search in the Powder River area for a man wearing a black shirt.
"The place was full of black Angus cattle," he said. "It tended to drive you nuts."
The work can also be gratifying.
"On occasion, you make a difference," he said. "You do find somebody."
A few years ago, Lessig helped find a lost driller south of Rawlins. Another time, members of the Wyoming Wing found a downed pilot, who was later rescued.
"It's just something that makes them feel good, that they are giving something back to the community," said Baughman, who's been flying for 40 years and a member of the Civil Air Patrol for 17.
Skrabut offered a variety of reasons why people join, including altruism, personal tragedy and the leadership skills the Civil Air Patrol provides.
"I've been called out in the winter. I've been called out in the heat of summer. I've been called out at 2 o'clock on the morning," he said. "What motivates me is there is somebody out there who is not as comfortable as I am now."
Reach Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@casperstartribune.net.