Emergency Services

Civil Air Patrol performs services for the federal government as the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and for states and local communities as a nonprofit organization.

Emergency Services Information

Best known for its members’ work in search and rescue and disaster relief missions, CAP is expanding its role in the 21st century to include an increasing number of homeland security operations and exercises.

• CAP conducts 90% of inland search and rescue in the U.S. as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and other agencies.

• Through the use of advanced technology like CAP’s cellphone forensics and radar analysis, 108 lives were saved in 2021. 

• Has 5,731 aircrew members and more than 32,000 emergency responders trained to FEMA standards.

• Provides over 1,000 chaplains and character development instructors who minister to youth and adult members and help comfort survivors and victims of disasters.

• Provides aerial photography for homeland security.

• Provides air intercept training, impact assessment, light transport, communications support, and low‐level route surveys for the Air Force.

• Furnishes disaster‐relief photography and support to local, state, and national agencies.

• Transports time‐sensitive medical materials, blood products, and body tissues when commercial resources are unavailable.

• Assists federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in the war on drugs.

• Maintains an extensive VHF and HF communications network.

Providing COVID Support

Civil Air Patrol’s response to the COVID‐19 pandemic has become the organization’s largest mobilization since World War II. During the pandemic, more than 40 CAP wings have been tasked with COVID‐ related duties, such as delivering personal protective equipment, building temporary hospitals and other facilities, staffing emergency operations centers, delivering or serving meals, hauling mobile command centers, expediting test samples to labs, and using unit locations for blood drives, as well as delivering vaccines. In all, CAP members have contributed more than 40,000 volunteer days in response to the pandemic.

You Can Make a Difference

As the auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, CAP’s vigilant citizen volunteers are there to search for and find the lost, provide comfort in times of disaster and work to keep the homeland safe.