OREGON DISASTER AIRLIFT RESPONSE TEAM

After Action Report

Each year ODART conducts a full-scale exercise (called
Whale Run – WR.) The effort is intended to improve general aviation assistance to emergency management in a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) event. The After-Action Report (AAR) summarizes results of Whale Run 2026 (WR26) to learn and improve performance to be better prepared for an actual CSZ disaster.

Noteable for ARES/RACES:

Significant difficulties with non-commercial (Ham Radio) communications were encountered. The analysis begins bottom of page 7 in the report linked below

“Borrowing communications resources from other organizations (unless that jurisdiction sets aside an ODART comms interoperability team) is not sustainable during an actual incident.  In the absence of an interoperability approach, ODART will need to recruit and train its own dedicated communications personnel.”