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Towson members partner with Lutherville Fire Dept for first aid training

Fifteen members participate in training

By 1st Lt. Malcolm K. Halliday, CAP
Public Affairs Officer, Towson Composite Squadron

3/6/2010–Lutherville, MD–Fifteen members from Maryland Wing’s Towson Composite Squadron recently received first aid training from the Lutherville Fire Department.

Lt. Adam Zoltowski is a career fire fighter, EMT and a trainer on the executive staff. He provided training on general first aid, CPR and use of the AED (automatic external defibrillator). The training lasted a full day and was well received by all attendees. The Captain and Commanding Officer, Steve Weatherby, authorized use of the facility.

Civil Air Patrol member Tom McGrath, stated the following: “The ground team members need to be fully prepared and qualified to go on a mission. This training supports the cadets achieving Ground Team Level III. The program made clear that the rescuer is number one and they need to ensure their own safety first. Their primary mission is to bring themselves and their buddies home safe. Then, they need to secure the scene and worry about victims and injured individuals. This was an important aspect of the overview. The trainer did a great job and definitely enjoys teaching.”

Parent, Martha Yalov, mentioned, “He was a knowledgeable guy and does first aid classes three times per week. He is a 13 year veteran of Baltimore County and teaches for fun. Hopefully, if called upon, they can use those skills learned to save someone’s life”.

Cadet Master Sgt. Marc Friedman was quoted, “The First Aid Class was really informative. We had an amazing instructor. We got a lot more information than we expected. We did CPR on dummies and learned the basics of first aid”.

Cadet Airman Basic Ericka Brooks explained, “I had a lot more fun than prior First Aid Trainings that I have taken. The fireman was a lot more knowledgeable and had many experiences to share. These first hand experiences were very real.”

Overall, this was a terrific opportunity for all of the cadets and a very worthwhile learning experience. In addition, they achieved additional requirements needed for their ground team training. The skills learned may be called upon some day. The Towson Squadron will be ready.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 58,000 members nationwide. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 72 lives in fiscal year 2009. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to more than 23,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 68 years.

There are over 1,400 members of CAP in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 42 search and rescue missions and were credited with 31 finds. For more information, visit www.mdcap.org.

The Towson Composite Squadron meets on Thursday evenings at the Towson Armory on Washington Avenue in Towson, Md. For additional details, contact Maj. Robert Goodman, squadron commander, at robpgoodman@comcast.net.