1/25/2015–Gastonia, NC–Cadets and Senior members of the Gastonia Composite Squadron plan a monthly day hike to a local mountain and practice survival tactics which include basics like shelter building, fire starting, navigation, orienteering, etc. After a successful hike to "The Pinnacle" at Crowder’s Mountain State Park in December, the cadet staff had painstakingly put together the January hike to South Mountain State Park. Everything was in place and excitement was building until the day before. That is when everyone was informed that we were on call for a mission in the NC state-wide SAREX exercises the weekend of January 17 – 18; nothing like a real world change of plans!
Our squadron was fortunate to have Lt. Tilton of the Asheville Squadron present to instruct the cadets in ground team training. Saturday’s exercises included classroom training in equipment preparations, treating of weather and fatigue injuries, field hygiene, working with canine teams, identify missing person clues, search tactics, line and grid searching and much more.
The cadet staff was up before the sun, and managed to get outside without waking the sleeping Lt. Tilton for an early morning of drill. Great job Cadets! Sunday morning brought notification that the SAREX was complete, and they had not been called upon after all. Disappointment filled the air.
That is when the call came in from the commander; we have a mission (training of course). Cadets scrambled to ready packs and ship out within15 minutes. The group then headed for Crowder’s Mountain for a hike where the members were split into two teams and applied their classroom education by conducting search activities, radio communications, aircraft mirror signaling and surroundings awareness. The professionalism was exemplary.