BROWNSVILLE — Monday morning, just outside the Brownsville South Padre International Airport, cadets from the nonprofit Civil Air Patrol trained for various emergency situations as part of the Lone Star Emergency Services Academy South training school.
Lt. Col. Juan Arredondo said this week marks the eighth year the academy has provided such training.
“It first started off small, mainly cadets from Brownsville who got together to hone our search-and-rescue skills, and over the years it has grown from a localized ground team training to national cadets special activity,” Arredondo said.
The training sessions include search and rescue, urban direct finding, communications and basic medical skills.
Arredondo explained the communications training is aimed at preparing cadets to become mission radio operators by using different types of communications systems, including a long-range high-frequency communication system, which could be used in case of a disaster.
According to Arredondo, in emergency situations many times telephone lines and normal means of communication will fail.
“We have these radios not just mounted on poles but in our vehicles, and we can literally take one of those vehicles out to a disaster zone and provide communication,” Arredondo said.
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