‘Flying Minutemen’ Stand Ready to Defend Homeland
Best known for search and rescue, the Civil Air Patrol is
poised to play a crucial role in defending the home front.
BY MAX MACAULEY (VFW Magazine, Jan 2003, Vol
90, No.5)
 Ready
to help in
America
’s homeland defense is a little-known civilian auxiliary of the Air Force
called the Civil Air Patrol (CAP). It includes 3,000 volunteers who pilot
their own planes.
Having distinguished themselves during WWII in defending
America
’s shores, what are CAP volunteers doing today? What role can CAP play in
thwarting terrorism? How will it fit into homeland defense plans?
CAP pilots perform four peacetime missions: search and
rescue, disaster relief, assisting law enforcement and providing cadet training
for young people ages 12 to 20. The young cadets learn leadership skills, and
many who take flight training later become civilian and military pilots.
With congressional approval of the Homeland Security
Department, CAP will add homeland defense as another important mission. CAP will
carry out airborne reconnaissance of isolated areas, borders, remote landing
fields, coastal zones, power plants, ports and harbors, bridges, roads and
highways to identify suspicious activity.
In addition, CAP members also will provide training in:
civil defense, first aid, terrorist threat indicators and preparations for
nuclear, biological and chemical threats.
Originally conceived in the 1930s by aviation advocate Gill
Robb Wilson, the first CAP volunteers were organized on
Dec. 1, 1941
, just a few days before the first sneak attack on Americans that fateful day at
Pearl Harbor
.
Honoring the Sacrifices
These days, defending his country comes easily to northern
California
resident Steve Taylor, 43, a typical CAP volunteer pilot. A career state
government employee, Taylor has been flying since he was 16. He joined CAP as a
cadet when he was 13 or 14. He flies his own four-passenger single engine
Cessna, mostly carrying out search and rescue missions.
Taylor
says nearly half the CAP pilots he knows are Air Force veterans. “We’re
expecting to play a major role in the new homeland defense plan when it’s
approved’ said the family man with two children. “We’re looking forward to
it.”
CAP pilots like
Taylor
are among today’s “Flying Minutemen” and women, serving much like their
predecessors during WWII. In those days, CAP pilots flew more than 500,000
hours, logging 24 million miles in their own planes. They lost 64 aviators and
90 aircraft flying often dangerous missions around the country and offshore.
They spotted 173 enemy submarines, attacked 57, hit 10 and sank two.
| North Carolina Wing’s Lt. Col. Linwood Barkley surveys the damage
after one of the Wing’s Cessna C-172s crashed into a cotton field on
July 17, 2002
. Two Wing members and a sheriff’s deputy were killed during the
counter-drug mission near
Edenton
,
N.C. |
 |
Air Force records on CAP casualties since its
reorganization in May 1948 are sketchy and unreliable, according to Gary
Woodsmall, CAP’s safety chief.
“There were 14 fatalities between 1996 and August
2002,” he said. “Two CAP flyers were killed in
North Carolina
as recently as
July 17, 2002
, and three more on Aug. 10 in
Tennessee
. All were engaged in Air Force-sponsored missions?”
Sacrifices made by CAP aviators killed have been recognized
by memorials around the country. The principle one is at
Arlington
National
Cemetery
in
Virginia
, dedicated
Dec. 1, 1992
. (It does not list names.)
Vital to Homeland Security
Leading CAP’s homeland security mission is a career Air
Force officer.
“Civil Air Patrol is uniquely positioned to assist in
homeland security efforts:’ said national CAP Commander Air Force Brig. Gen.
Richard Bowling. “We have more than 530 aircraft, 950 vehicles and thousands
of trained volunteers. They stand ready to meet the challenge by preparing,
preventing and responding to internal and external threats to the
United States
.”
From CAP’s national headquarters at Maxwell Air Force
Base in
Alabama
, Bowling commands a civilian flying force of 60,000 trained volunteers in 1,700
units in the
U.S.
and
Puerto Rico
. CAP’s air and ground outfits perform 85% of the Air Force’s stateside
search and rescue missions.
Flying is second nature to John J. Kittle, 55, a retired
Air Force colonel and Vietnam War veteran who flew 210 combat missions. Kittle
serves as CAP’s chief of Counterdrug and Homeland Security from his office in
Alexandria
,
Va.
He’s held that position since 1998, serving as liaison between CAP and federal
agencies in the nation’s capital.
Father of three children, Kittle said, “CAP will play a
major role in homeland security. There is enthusiasm in Congress for CAP to
get involved. Senators Tom Harkin and Joe Biden are strong supporters of our
involvement. We can field an aircraft with highly trained volunteer air crews
for an average cost of only $90 per flying hour?’
Indeed, the most active CAP member in Congress is Iowa
Senator Tom Harkin, commander of CAP’s Congressional Squadron.
According to Kittle, “CAP also may receive funding at the
state level for homeland security as well as at the federal level since the
Department of Homeland Security has been approved?’
Kittle said CAP can provide support for each of the six
critical missions in the President’s national security plan: intelligence and
alarm warning, border and transportation security, domestic counter-terrorism,
protecting critical infrastructure and key assets, defending against
catastrophic threats and emergency preparedness and response.
One man who made a career of CAP service is Richard
Greenhut, Northeast Region commander, who oversees nearly 11,000 volunteers on
the Eastern seaboard.
Greenhut, 52, and his wife of 25 years, live in
Manhattan
. A CAP pilot since he was in high school more than 30 years ago, he began
working for CAP in 1990.
As Greenhut pointed out, in fiscal year 2002 alone, CAP was
directly responsible for saving 91 lives in the 50 states and
Puerto Rico
. He’s confident CAP will get the support it needs to help with homeland
defense. “Our supporters in Congress and the Air Force” Greenhut explained,
“have always provided funding for us to get the job done?”
Membership information is available from: CAP National
Headquarters, 105 S.Hansell
St.
, Bldg. 714, Maxwell Air Force Base,
AL
36112-6332 or online at http://www.capnhq.gov.
For potential sponsorship of Cadet groups or squadrons, call (334) 953-2828.
[MAX MACAULEY is a free-lance writer based in
Sacramento
,
Calif.]
| 
