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WEST HOUSTON
AIRPORT, Texas –
During the weekend
of Oct. 9-10, Texas
Wing, Civil Air
Patrol staged a
special Distributed
Search and Rescue
Exercise to
demonstrate CAP’s
procedures and
methods to James
Anthony Cowan, the
Chairman of Sky
Watch, the United
Kingdom’s equivalent
of CAP. Mr. Cowan (a
Retired RAF Squadron
Leader) and his wife
visited the DSAREX
on West Houston
Airport, seeking to
gain experience on
how things are done
on this side of the
Atlantic.
He learned how CAP
interfaces with the
Air Force Rescue
Coordination Center,
the National
Operations Center,
and the online Web
Mission Information
Reporting System. He
also observed some
of the recordings
made by the hyper
spectral imaging
technology system
called ARCHER, which
has been successful
in finding targets
that were otherwise
nearly impossible to
detect.
During his stay in
Houston, Mr. Cowan
visited the Harris
County Office of
Homeland Security &
Emergency
Management, as well
as the Houston
Police Aviation
unit. Later,
Assistant Incident
Commander Lt. Col.
Brooks Cima
presented Mr. Cowan
with a basket of
Texas souvenirs. In
return, he presented
Texas Wing Commander
Col. Joe R. Smith
with a Sir Winston
Churchill
Commemorative Crown.
Mr. Cowan’s
description of Sky
Watch activities in
the UK parallels
some of the ways in
which the
newly-created Civil
Air Patrol had
operated in the
United States during
the WWII years, when
CAP members flew and
maintained their own
airplanes as they
patrolled the
coastal areas in
search of enemy
submarines, as
described on the CAP
history website at
http://www.caphistory.org/
. After the war,
receiving its
Congressional
charter, and
becoming the
Auxiliary of the
U.S. Air Force, CAP
acquired its own air
fleet, as well as
essential operating
funds.
1.
2.
3.
4.
[1]
James Anthony Cowan,
the Chairman of Sky
Watch.
[2]
The Sky Watch patch.
[3] Texas Wing
Commander Col. Joe
R. Smith, Mr. Cowan,
and Director of
Emergency Services
Lt. Col. Brooks Cima
holding the mementos
she is about to
present to Mr.
Cowan. [4]
Mr. Cowan gives Col.
Smith a Sir Winston
Churchill
Commemorative Crown
as a token of his
appreciation.
(Photos:
Maj. Robert Brecount,
CAP)
In the Civil Air
Patrol’s beginning,
the U.S. Government
leased the members’
airplanes and
reimbursed them for
oil-and-fuel. The
government of the
United Kingdom, on
the other hand,
furnishes neither
airplanes nor fuel
to their Sky Watch,
so the burden of
flying search and
rescue sorties falls
on the membership.
Some UK members have
built their own
airstrips and
hangars. In the
beginning, America’s
Civil Air Patrol
negotiated the use
of existing land on
which some units had
to build or improve
existing buildings,
a task that local
businesses generally
financed.
A more complete
description of the
Sky Watch
organization’s
activities and
operations may be
found on their
website at
www.skywatchcivilairpatrol.org.uk
.
In 1996, Mr. Cowan
commanded a flight
of two De Havilland
Chipmunks in
commemoration of the
50th anniversary of
these planes’ flying
in the RAF,
completing an
expeditionary
circumnavigation of
the northern
hemisphere through
Russia, across North
America and the
Atlantic. For his
success, he was made
a Member of the Most
Excellent Order of
the British Empire (MBE),
as well as a Fellow
of the Royal
Institute of
Navigation (FRIN).
Of his service to
Sky Watch he writes,
”In 2005 I joined
the Sky Watch Civil
Air Patrol, a UK
charity, as a
Trustee and Chief
Pilot; in 2008 I was
elected Chairman. I
retain my pilot
qualification as a
member of the RAF
Volunteer Reserve
and I hold a UK
Commercial Pilot’s
License.” He is also
a police aviator and
an air ambulance
pilot.
Maj. Robert Brecount,
CAP, Wing PAO |
