Scott Air Force Base, Ill. -- Illinois Wing's Group 1 Civil Air Patrol unit conducted search and rescue ground team training Oct. 1 at Scott Air Force Base.

Twelve members of the group staff, Scott Composite Squadron and 286th Composite Squadron took part in the activity. A mission control center was set up at the Scott CAP squadron's headquarters to coordinate the search for a missing person in the wooded area around Scott Lake. Prior to the exercise, members received training on land navigation and ground team search methods in the field. The CAP members learned communication and search techniques that would be used during an actual emergency.

Emergency services, which includes search and rescue, is one of the Civil Air Patrol's three primary missions. The other two are Aerospace Education and the Cadet Program. As the largest unit currently in the Illinois Wing, the Scott squadron participates actively in all three.

CAP will celebrate its 70th anniversary Dec. 1. It formed shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor and played a significant role in the coastal defense of the country during World War II.

People interested in joining the organization can contact Capt. Greg Hoffeditz at 795-1592, or stop by the weekly squadron meeting on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at the old fire station (Bldg. 3171) located next to the base fire training pit on the east side of the flightline.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 113 lives in fiscal year 2010.