WINFIELD, MISSOURI - Amid the rumble and dust of heavy tractor flatbed trailers hauling countless sandbags to shore up local levees, and the frenzied activity of hundreds of volunteers, the Missouri Wing of the Civil Air Patrol consolidated its mission base and communications center to the centrally located Winfield High School late yesterday.

Throughout the day, CAP volunteers continued their sandbagging efforts, assisted in traffic control, and coordinated communications between ground teams and aircrew. 

CAP aircraft flew two flights yesterday taking hundreds of reconnaissance photographs of the flooded upper Mississippi river and tributaries from St. Charles to Keokuk, Iowa, on behalf of the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.  Flights will continue today with more scheduled for the next several days if needed.  Additional CAP aircrews from Kansas City arrived early this morning to assist with today's flights, including flying State Representative Ed Schieffer for an overview of the flooding in his district that includes Lincoln County.

Efforts in Lincoln County will continue over the next several days until CAP's assistance is no longer needed, or needed elsewhere in the state.

The Missouri Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is composed of over 1,000 members organized in forty-three Squadrons located throughout the state.  

The Civil Air Patrol was founded on December 1, 1941, less than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. CAP, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 95 percent of inland search and rescue missions, as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 103 lives in 2007. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the almost 22,000 young people currently participating in the CAP Cadet program.

Civil Air Patrol has been performing missions for America for over 66 years.

To learn more about the Civil Air Patrol, please visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com (CAP National Headquarters' website), or www.mowg.cap.gov (Missouri Wing website).

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Media Inquiries

Maj. David A. Miller, CAP

Mission Information Officer

314-623-0831 Cellular

314-988-6782 Pager