South Dakota Wing Civil Air Patrol
07/08/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/08/2026 09:43
Beason Wins National Award
Col Mike Beason, former SD Wing Commander, earned the Outstanding Instructor award at CAP's annual National Emergency Services Academy in June for his training in the Incident Command System School.
Beason was one of seven instructors in the small Uncrewed Aerial Systems (sUAS) classes, teaching the first-ever Enhanced Mission Pilot course.
He was one of 25-30 instructors in the academy. Beason has attended the sUAS classes since 2021 and has served as an instructor there since 2022. Beason was selected to teach the enhanced course of five students due to his extensive use of drones in SD Wing, including eight actual missing person searches and the 2-year SDSMT project using the multispectral camera on a Wingtra drone. He also participated in the photo mission of the Ellsworth AFB B-1 crash and is currently coordinating on a mission with the SDANG and another mission mapping 50 miles of river in Idaho for the School of Mines.
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