Search and Rescue Planning Course Graduation
On Friday February 15, 2013, ten students graduated from the "Search and
Rescue Planning" course at the Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA) in
San Antonio, Texas. The training concepts taught in this course focus on
planning for a search and rescue mission, and include how to hone a distress
signal, how to coordinate search and rescue efforts with other agencies, the
mathematical calculations on how wind, sea currents, or debris drift affect
a lost vessel or airplane, and how to manage a search and rescue command
post. The newly-graduated students come from the Mexican Navy, Mexican
Federal Police, Panamanian Public Forces, Colombian Air Force - and for the
first time in IAAFA's 69-year history - a student from the Royal Moroccan
Air Force. This course emulates the Maritime Search and Rescue Planning
Course taught at the U.S. Coast Guard's Maritime Search and Rescue School.
The only significant difference is that this course is taught in Spanish, as
IAAFA's 33 other courses. These graduates now join an elite club of more
than 44,000 alumni of the academy. (U.S. Air Force courtesy photo)