CAP History Guide (1946)

8/4/2019 CAP History Guide (1946)

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CIVIL AIR PATROLIN }YORLD .wAR II

ARMY TIMES - - - Washinston, D. C.


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The history of the Civil Air Pa-trol contained in this booklet waswritten by personnel of Headquar-ters Army Air Forces, AFIPR,Personnel Narratives Division 52Broadway, New York 4, N.Y.,from.such official records as wereavailable at the time of writing.First published in lhe 24 August1946 issue of ARMY TIMES, AirForce edition, the history rras so

favorably received that it was in-evitable it would be reproduced aga booklet.


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Colonel Earle L. JohnsonNational Commander CAP

ITHE CIVN AIR PATROL

IN WORLD WAR IIOn July 1 President Truman signed the billthat gave the Civil Air Patrol the first nationalcharter of its type to be approved in 13 years.The proposal passed both houses without a di6-senting vote.What has the Civil Air Patrol, already anArmy Air Force Auxiliary, done to deserve theprestige it now shares with such organizationsas the American Red Cross, the Boy Scouts, theDisabled American Veterans and the AmericanLegion?The wartime record shows that the CApcame, through with a great volunteer job inthe best American "Minute Man" tradition.Organized only a week before Pearl Harboras a division of the Office of Civilian Defense,the civilian fliers and aviation enthusiasts, whoat one time numbered more than 120,000, volun-tarily performed every serviee that had.any-thing to do with aiiplanesrDuring those grim and frightening monthsin early 1942, when Nazi submarines werepumping torpedoes. into our eoastwise rqer-


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ehantmen and tankers within sight of shorg,the tiny, single-engined landplanes of the,Coastal Patrol skimmed out over the Atlanticand the Gulf of Mexico from 21 bases stretch-ing all the way fro:n Bar Harbor, 1\{e., toBrownsville, Tex.Used entirely as sub-spotters at first andlater equipped with bombs and depth charges,the rugged little puddle-jumpers and their two-man crews gave the Antisubmarine Commanda big hand in driving of the underwater killersthat at one period threatened to bottle up ourcoastal shipping in the harbors,

Varied DutiesWhen the submarine threat eyaporated inthe late summer of 1943 and the Navy tookcomplete charge of patrolling coastal waters,many of the same daredevil airmen who hadrisked their lives over the ocean graduatedinto an assignment almost as dangerous-thatof towlng targets for anti-aircraft batteries byday and tracking f,or searchlight crews atnight, And meanwhile, along the Mexicanborder from Brownsville, Tex., to Douglas,Ariz., the little-known Southern Liaison Patrolcooperated u'ith ground units to seal ofr thisdanger area from saboteurs, enemy agents andmiscellaneous undesirables.Inland, CAP courier pilots were flying more

than ?1,000 miles a day on regular scheduledruns for tlie 2nd Air Force in 1? westernstates, braving deadly mountain squalls andtreacherous downdrafts to deliver engine parts,training films and urgent mail to a far-flungnetwork of Army bases. Other courier pilotsspecialized in smashing factory bottlenecks inthe vital Great Lakes region and throughoutthe industrial East.All around the country, the former "Sundaypilots" wearing the silver buttons and redshoulder loops of the CAP on Army uniforms,were extraordinarily busy, They were spottingforest fires, acting as the air arm of the RedCross disaster service, performing hazardousmercy missions, searching for missing aircraft,agsisting in local blackout tests, air-warningmaneuvers and bond drives, and-particularlyduring the crucial months in L9l3-4a when thestrain on our air power was grqatest-recruit-ing aviation cadets and crewmen for the ArmyAir Forces at a record rate.

Acclaimed by LeadersA few of the more out-of-the-way missionsof thc CAP included such projects as huntingfor escaped German and Japanese prisoners,shooting coyotes and wolves from the air inthc plains states, riding "herd" on floeks ofwild ducks that threatened to devour a Cali-


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fornia rice field, and observing ice conditionson the Great Lakes in order to help the orsboats get off to an early start.Operating in more than 1,000 communitiesand from scores of active-duty bases, membersof the Civil Air.Patrol carried out every as*signment handed them. They did so well thatthey earned the plaudits of the late PresidentRoosevelt, Admiral King, General Arnold anddozens of other leaders.In all, 51 CAP members gave their lives onactive-duty missions. Here was an outfit thatvolunteered far more than time and energyfor the privilege of joining in the war effort.The Civil Air Patrol "grew out of the desireof the civil airmen of the country to be utilizedwith their equipment in the common defense."In every Allied couhtry with the exception ofRussia, the coming of war in 1939 hadgrounded all civilian aviation activities. Ameri-can fliers were determined that nothing of thekind should happen here, and it was up to themto prove to the military that civilians couldfit into this country's defensive setup,Prominent aviation enthusiasts like GillRobb Wilson, New York Herald Tribune avia-tion editor and then president of the NationalAeronautic Association; Thomas H. Beck, headof the Crowell-Collier Publishing: Company,and Guy P. Gannett, Maine newspaper pub-

lisher, can be credited with fathering the CivilAir Patrol. Some forerunners of the organiza-tion began to appear several years before thewar. After the National Guard air units werecalled into active service in October, 1940,Florida, Colorado and many other states organ-ized air defense units of theit own. A nation-wide plan for this country's air arm was de-vised during the spring and summer of 1941,being modelled largely dfter New Jersey'sCivil Air Defense Services, and was subse-quently approved by a board of AAF officersslected by General H. H. Arnold to pass onthe feasibility of the program. First NationalCommander of the CAP was Maj. Gen' JohnF. Curry, who was succeeded four monthslater by the present commandant, Col. EarleL. Johnson.

Pilot CommanderThen a pilot of 14 years' standing, Colonel

Johnson, come into the Army from civilian lifeafter having served for several years as Di-rector of Aeronautics for the state of Ohio.Shortly before Pearl Harbor, he caused a na-tional commotion when he became alarmed atthe way airports were being left unguardedand the ease with which an enterprising sabo-teur could steal a plane and bomb a war plant."It gave me the creeps," he said later, "to


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think what a hundred determined Germanscould do to a hundred faatories in one night,land their planes in a field, walk away, dndnever even be caught."The story goes that he took off in his planeone evening and dropped a sandbag ou a Cleve-land defense plant-after which airports were

Flaced under armed guard. All civilian pilotswere required to prove citizenship and loyalty,and no planes allowed to take ofr without first'beinE cleared.In every state the CAP Wings were ready togo when the word came' Each state had itsheadquarters staff, responsible to NationalHeadquarters. The Wings were broken downby groups, squadrons and flights' A typicalsquadron numbered from 50 to 200 persons andflights contained from 10 to 60 members.Training directives for the local units com-menced to flow out of National CAP Head-quarters almost immediately. The great em-phasis was on training, training, and still moretraining. The object of each flight and squad-ron was to give its members all the aviationground training required for a private pilot'slicense, plus a certain amount of military back-ground. It was up to every unit to become sowell acquainted with its duties that it wouldbe ready for any mission it might be called onto perform.

Call to DutyThe first call was for men and women whoeould fly or who possessed some other ready.made aviation skill such as a knowledge of

radio communications or mec-hanics. Any citi-zen of the United States over 18 years of age,of good character and proven loyalty, was al-lowed to enlist in the Civi] Air Patrol wherethere was a local unit in need of recruits. Therewere many jobs for the non-fliers with an in-terest in aviation-things like office work, drill,sentry duty, communications.Enemy submarines were sinking ships allalong our virtually unprotected coastal door-step during the early months of L942. Theentire 1200-mile sea frontier from Halifax tothe Florida Keys was protected by something'like five old Eagle boats, three ocean-goingyachts, less than a dozen small Coast Guardcutters, four blimps and a handful of airplanes.Such was the setting for the most spectacularof the Civil Air Patrol's active-duty missions-Coastal Patrol. But even with the Nazi subslying in wait for shipping in our river-mouths,there were men in the Army and Navy whowere skeptical at the idea of turning over thepatrol job to civilians in landplanes.When the arguing was over, experimental

bases were set up by the CAP at Atlantic City,|rI. J., and Rehobeth, Del., in March, 7942. L10 11


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third went into operation at Lantana, Fla., inApril.Some of the best-qualified pilots in the coun-try came to the East Coast bases with theirplanes and equipmgnt. The idea of flying overthe ocean at a few hundred feet and as far as40 or 50 miles from the shore-was somethingmost Coastal Patrol volunteers would have con-sidered sheer suicide a few months before. Butthat's what their ne.v assignment called for,and that's what they did.

Covered Hot SpotsThe "hot" spots covered from the originalstations were ship graveyards where sinkingswere almost daily occurrences. From the first,the dawn-to-dusk patrol planes, fiying in pairsfor mutual protection, spotted subs for Armyand Navy planes. Sometimes they forced U-boats to crash-dive just as they were about toattack a lumbering oiler or merchantman. Andf,rom the beginning the tiny planes saved livesby radioing the position of ships in distressand the location of survivors.Long before the 90-day trial period was up,the Coastal Patrol had proved the wisdom ofpitting civilian airmen against the undersearaiders. Eighteen more bases were built dur-ing the spring and summer of !942, providingaerial cover for shipping all the way from thcCanadian border to Tampico, Mexico.

Life wasn't easy at many of the secret out-posts, some of which had to be constructedfrom the bottom up, At Parksley, Va., a fa{m-er's house and a chicken coop were speedilyconverted into a headquarters and a barracks.A grove of trees had to be cut down-and paidfor-so a runway could be laid out. At BarHarbor, Me., a mid-winter fire destroyed theoperations and administration buildings. Maj.Jim King and his men commenced the recon-struction job in 20-below-zero weather, impress-ing the townspeople of Bar Harbor and Ells-.worth to such a degree that they donated $500to help things along. At Manteo, N. C.-siteof Sir Walter's "Lost Colony" and ancestralhome of swarms of mosquitoes-mechanics andguards were forced to rvear head nets to avoidbeing carried away piecemeal. And at GrandIsle, La., rvhere Lafitte's pirate band once ren-dezvoused, a ramshackle resort hotel providedliving quarters for Coastal Patrol personneland for a sizable colony of rats.

Common LoveTo these and other bases came the lawyers,shoe salesmen, barn-stormers, mechanics,brokers, plumbers, teachers and all the rest.There were millionaire sportsmen among theniand just plain Joes whom you'd meet on MainStreet on a Saturday night. They had in com-

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mon their love of the air and a determinationto contribute something very real to the wareffort. Many were businessmen too old forthe draft, some iwere disqualified from themilitary service for physical reasons, anddozens of the healthier specimens soon grad-uated into Army and Navy uniforms. No onewas draft-exempt because of his CAP af-filiation.A per diem rate of from $5 a day for groundpersonnel to'$8 for pilots was paid to CAP'sactive-duty tolunteers on Coastal Patrol andon other Army-ordered missions. Out of this aman or woman had to take care of billets, food,uniforms and all incidentals. And when youconsider that numbers of the men had shutdown their businesses and that most weremaintaining separate households back home,you can see that no one got rich from perdiem. Plane owners loaned their ships to thegovernment at a rental comparable to that onwartime flighi training contracts. In mostcases, this money went directly into a basemaintenance pool.To make financial matters even rhore pres-sing, per diem checirs were often as much astwo months late. There was one precariousperiod when a telegram from the AtlanticCity base arrived at National CAP Headquar-ters with the announcement:"Can't pay our bills; being evicted from ourboarding houses."

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In spite of red tape, the tardy per diemehecks were jarred loose in time to tide thebase over its rough spot. But money continuedto be scarce and it looked for a time as if theCoastal Patrol might be forced to fold up.About this time a group of the big oil com-panies, informed by their ship captains of thework the CAP was doing, came to the rescuewith a contribution amounting to $40,000,known as "The Tanker Protection Fund." Thatdonation and others from state and privateagencies kept things rolling when the goingwas toughest.Equipment Scarce

Being a civilian organization, the CoastalPatrol' had a hard time obtaining prioritiesfor needed supplies. For many months thepilots and observers flew without Very pistols,rubber suits, flares or life rafts. At Manteo,early in the war, Coastal Patrolmen made gooduse of kapok life vests taken from seven deadGerman sailors who were washed up on thebeach one night.Replacements for engine parts were espe-cially tough to get and for a long time it.wasmainly through the^Yankee inventiveness ofcertain inspired. mechanics that some of thebases rvere able to put patrols into the air.At one field in Texas the daily maintenance15


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report for a particular date showed that onlyfour of the outfit's 30 planes were in flyingtrim.The "barracuda bags" carried out to sea by

CAP crews at southern bases were originallydesigned by rum-r:unners of the Prohibition erato discourage playful sharks and hungry bar-racuda from dining on shipwrecked sailors' A"bag" consisted of a canvas bag large enoughfor a man to sit or stand in, attached to an in-flated truck-size inner tube. More often thannot, fliers who hit the "drink" had all theycould do to untangle themselves from theirplanes without pausing to drag this cumber-some flotation gear along. "Barracuda bags"were most effcctive when dropped to sur-vivors flom an escort Plane.

Poet LaureateSailors on tankers and freighters were thank-ful for the presence of the little Stinsons,Wacos and other single-engined putt-puttsover the shipping lanes. The reassuring punof their ntotors was music to the seamen'sears because it brought the assurance that aidwould be sent within a few minutes if needed'A poem written by a Long Island man who flew

at Beaumont, Texas, describes the feeling of a

ship captain as well as anything could. Oneverse goes:"When the cold gray dawn is breakingAnd the wolf Pack hovers nigh,When the skipPer scans the ocean

With a grim and woruied eYe,Then a distant sound grows louderAnd brings comfort to his soul,For he knows his ship is coveredBy the Civit Air Patlol."Late one afternoon in MaY, 1942, "Doc"Rinker and Tom Manning, flying out of Lan-

tana, spotted a sub just off Cape Canaveral' Inits haste to get away the U-boat rammed into asand bank and stuck there. The patrol planecircled helplessly for more than half an hour,meanwhile radioing frantically for bombers'By the time help arrived the sub was out of thesand and in deep water. A short time after thatPatrol planes were canying depth chargesand demolition bombs 'With General Arnold'sblessing. A bombsight rigged up from 20 centsworth of hairpins, tin cans and other scrap byan anonymous Army technician was impro-vised for the little planes and turned out tobe surprisingly accurate from an altitude ofabout a thousand feet.The actual sinking of a submarine at sea is

a difhcult matter to prove. However, CoastalTT

Irf

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Patroimen are certain they accounted for theirshare. Their main role, of course, remaine(lthat of spotting for the Army and Navy.The Coastal Patrol lasted untii Aug. 81,1943, when the Navy took over. During the18 months it was in operation the civilianfliers flew more than 24 million miles overwater; spotted 173 subs; dropped bombs ordepth charges against b?, and reported 1?floating mines, several in the paths of trooptransports. Twenty-six men lost their liveson Coastal Patlol and several were seriouslyinjured.Arncld Commends

General Arnold had this to sav when thcCAP discontinued its overwater. rnission:'iThe Civil Air Patrol grew out of theurgency of the situation. The CAp was selup and went into operation almost overnight.It patrolled our shores-per.for.med its anti_submarine tvorl< --at a time of almost desper-ate national crisis. If it had done nothing be-yond that, the Civil Air patrol would haveearned an honorable place in the history ofAmerican air power,"While the Coastal patrol was guarding ourAtlantic and Gulf sea lanes, planes of theSouthern Liaison patrol rangetl from Browns_ville, Tex., to Douglas, Ariz., to protect the

southern frontier of the United States. Thispatrol cooperated with the Mexican Govern-ment, U. S. Immigration and Naturalizationofficials, the F. B. I., and the Army to thwartillegal border crossings. Operations began inOctober, 1942, and, lasted approximately ayear,The Mexican boyder u'as definitely a poten-tial danger zone during the war. Foreignagents, saboteurs and miscellaneous undesir-ables could have filtered into this country hadany gaps been left in the protective networkalong the Rio Grande.Flying low enough to read the license num-bers of cars speeding towar.d the border, CAppilots and ohscr.r'eLs r.epor.ted all suspiciousoccurrences to stations along the Internationalboundary.Inland, CAP ccrui'ier pilots were carrying im-portant priority car.go for the Army and fordefense plants. Biggest job wbs the one takenover for the 2nd Air Force, with most of theflying done in the mountainous northwesternstates. The civilians flew ntore than a halfmilfion pountls of mail a month on regular.daily routes and schedules throughout the westbetween widely separated Army posts. A typi-eal run '"r,'as trom Peterson Field, at ColoradoSprings, Colo., to Salt Lake City, Utah, ovelthe top of the Rocky Mountains. In good18 19


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wather and bad. the Pipers, Taylorcrafts andother planes of the 65-horse-power class de-livered the goods. During the summer of 1g44s 97 per cent record for completed trips waschalked up.In the vital Great Lakes area and throughoutthe industrial East, other CAp pilots trdns-ported vital shipments both on regular rlrnsand on a standby emergency basis. The tiiryplanes carried everything from e grindingwheel, weighing 400 pounds, to a modest ship-ment of ball bearings. In many cases theirpromFt action prevented costly shutdowns.

Target TcwingTarget towing for the Army was one of thefirst volunteer missions of the Civil Air patrol,As early as March, 1942, plaies of the IllinoisWing flew over the guns at Fort Sheridan, Ill.,trailing improvised targets for the ack-ackgunners.But it was not until late 1948, after theCoastal Patrol had disbanded and many of theunits were transferred to tow-target baseson the East and West coasls, that towing forgun crews by day and tracking for searchlightbatteries at night became a major assignmertt.Army planes couldn't be spared for targettowing for ground units and the anti-aircraft

personnel were enthusiastically grateful to the

CAP fliers. The latter, eager to please in everyway, flew lower and longer over the guns thrirnservice pilots ever thought of doing.The work was hazardous. Sometimes flakwent wild and a plane would land with jaggedholes through its fuselage. In one instance, apilot discovered a sizeable fragment imbeddedin his parachute seat paek. Nor was flying forthe searchlight'crews a cinch. A pilot trackingfor the searchlights off the Atlantic coast madethe fatal mistake of looking into the beamsfor a split-second and lost his bearings com-pletely. The lights followed his plane down asit screamed out of the sky and crashed into theocean at full throttle,

20,000 MissionsMore than 20,000 missions totalling 46,000airplane-hours were flown by the towing andtracking units. Seven men lost their lives and23 planes were destroyed.A few Civil Air Patrol active-duty, war-time missions continue to a certain extent.These include the forest patrol, mercy missionsand search and rescue flights.The planes of the Forest Patrol did thework of hundreds of men during the war yearswhen manpower was at a low ebb and thenation's lumber supply was more valuable than

ever before. In many states, notably Texas,20 2L


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Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, pennsylvania,Oregon and New York, CAp Wings made ar-rangements to cooperate with state forestryofficials by spotting fires from the air. Regu_lar patrols wefe flown in some of these statesduring the spring and autumn when the firehazard was greatest; in others, flights weresent out whenever an emerg:ency arose.Equipped with two-way radios, the pilots andobservers kept wardens informed regarding thelocations. of fires of any description. Wh"nnecessal.y, CAP planes were employed to ferryfirefighters to the scene of the blaze.In Texas there are several cases on recordwhere firebugs were spotted in the act of set_ting "grudge" fires. The culprits were capturedthrough the teamwork of CAp crewmen in theair and forestry officials on the ground.The Forest Patrol is still watching over thegrat East Texas timber stands, where it worksunder the direction of the State Forestry Serv_ice., In other areas, CAp flights are no longermade on a scheduled basis, but planes and p*er_ionnel are on call in case of emergencies. Andmany of the heavily forested states are em_ploying methods learned in war to guard theirtimber in time of peace.With the country dotted with training fieldsand thousands of Army and Navy planes con-stantly on cross-country hops, it was inevitable

that some planes would be lost. Particularly inthe- mountain states, CAP pilots developedsearch and rescue techniques into a science.Thev knew every inch of their home territory,and their light, slow planes were ideal formaking minute examinations of the terrainflom the air.

Mounted PatrolIn Nevada there was a well-drilled CApIVIounted Patrol ihat co-operated with air_searchers when a plane was reported missingin the High Sierras; in New Hampshire, ski andsnow-shoe troopers supplemented aircraft inwinter operations; in Michigan, a sea-planeunit co-operated with the Coast Guard inGreat Lakes searches; and in the Florida Ever-glades, sled-like craft powered by airplanemotors and propellers (called ..Glades bug-gies") were used to skim over swamps in res_cue attempts. When search missions were attheir height, there was hardly a unit of anykind that the CAP couldn't produce fromsomewhere,The Civil Air Patrol has been flying mercymissions from the beginning, bringing aid tovictims of floods, tornadoes, explosions, bliz_zards, fires and kindred disasters.In the early months of operations, the CApoffered its services to the American Red22 ti


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Cross rvhenever the use of airplanes could beof help. The overall program, which is still ineffect, calls for advance planning in each lo-cality so the Patrol can be I'eady to act onshort notice. Especially in flood and tornadoareas, CAP units have seen repeated action.Individuals as well as entire communitieshave known the meaning of CAP mercy mis-sions. There wap the time, for example, whenEddie Drapela-1one of Colorado's foremostpilots-took off from a soggy mountain road ina cloudburst, his traveling companion a pneu-monia patient who, the doctbr had cautioned,must not be known at too great an altitudedue to his *'eakened condition. Eddie had somesnow-capped mountain ranges to cross, but hecoilehos' managed to fly betrveen them, onehand on the stick and the other steadyingthe sick man.Cadet PrcgramThe Civil Air Patrol cadet program gotunderway in October, 1942, and still ranksas a major activity in all sectors. At the out-set, in order to insure a firm foundation forthe outfit, enrollment was limited in each unitto one boy for each male seniol member in theparent squadron and to one girl for eachwoman member. Limitations were later re-moved when the cadet organization, which

vras made up of 15-17 year olds, showed itselfto be a solid bet. In the spring of 1943, whenthe Army Air Forces took over the Civil AirPatrol as an auxiliary, cadet enrollment wasfurther stepped up.About this time, the Army handed the CivilAir Patrol one of the biggest jobs of itscareer-that of recruiting aviation cadets andair-crew members for the Air Forces. Thecadet program and the recruiting were inter-twined in many ways. Cadets were givencourses in military courtesy, taught to drilland afforded a background in ground-school

subjecls such a snavigation and'meteorology.?hose who.wele about to turn 18 were treatedto a special preinduction training course thatwas designed to prepare them for life in theArmy. The screening of thousands of cadetsand of many non-member appliiants for theAir Forces saved the AAF much time'andnot a little mone)'. Young men with CAP back-ground were a hand-picked lot with little of therookie left in them. That they got the jumpover lads rvho lacked their training was evidentfrom the hundreds of letters they sent backto their homes telling of quick promotions, easyadjustments to Army life and rapid progressin their Eround-schr'ol courses.In almost every state, from Maine to Cali-fornia, Civil Air Patrol cadets are attending

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encampments this summer for the thild suc-cessive year. The period lasts from 10 days totwo weeks and usually takes the boys to anair base in their home siate. Here they geta realistic taste of military life, study elemen-tary aviation courses and engage in competi-tive sports. Seidom does a camp break up with-out a ride fol all hands in an Army plane,be it a primary trainei' ot a B-17.The cadet set-up had been stlengthenccl bvthe lecent r-etuln of uurnbers oli Aii'Forceveterans who alc being utilized as instructors.The i'eturnees rvho ale members of the Air'Reselve, also benefit, fol the AAF norv givescredii. to lrrgn who tlain ('AP t.arlets.

Flight SchclarshipsA latte r'-day r,vlinlle that has stin'ed lrpenthusiasm among the youngsters is the plac-tice of rervalding the most active carlets withflight schoiai'ships which entitle them to take

actual flying instluction ftom local opet'ators.Sorr.re of the scholarship-" are donated by civicgroups such as Kir.vanis, Rotarians :tnd Cham-bets of Commelce; others are bought throughsquadron funds.The AAF is au'ale of the tt'emenclous inr-poltance of an aviation-minded youth and isco-opelating with thc CAP to promotc its cadetunits. Church and wclfare leaders are fond of

the progrzrnr, too, fal as the FBI Chief, J,E


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raising money to carry on CAP operations.Aerial packets travel from state to state totake part in the shows and to acquaint thepublic with the very latest in flying equipment.Among the dozen or so planes that make up apacket is a B-29 Superfortress, a P-80 jet-fighter, the newest thing in helicopters anda hospital ship complete with demonstrationcrew. Army fliers supplement the civilian por-tion of the shows by staging breathtaking dis-plays of precision flying.In conferences held in Washington in Janu-ary, March and May, the AAF went to gt'eatlengths to put across to Wing Commanders thefact that the Civil Air Patrol is destined toFlay an important role in peacetime America'sdefense plans, Not all the details have beendecided, but the belief is strong that CAP/will have a close tie-up with the Air Reserve.It is interesting to note that when the WingCommanders met in March, the President,Speaker of the House, a majority of the Con-gressmen, and 48 Air Forces generals attendeda dinner honoring the CAP leaders.Aid to Air Force veterans has been listed asthe No. 1 postwar task of the Civil Air patroland is receiving full attention in most localities.Too often a veteran with valuable skills ishgnded an igferior job that fails to make useof his Army training. Through the efforts of

traveling AAF employment teams and localCAP members, better jobs have been found forIarge numbers of ex-sbrvicemen.The air-marking of every city and cross-roads hamlet is another aim of the Civil AirPatrol and is in an advanced stage in NorthCarolina, Maryland and Uteh. In North Caro-lina alone, 115 communities have already beencovered by markers which give the name of.the town, the longiiude and the latitude, A cir-e'led arrow points to the nearest airport andtells the distance. All marking is done aecord-ing to CAA specifieations.

"When the air routes are marked as well asthe highways, cross-country flying will be justthat much safer," commented Col. Frank E.'Dawson, North Carolina's Wing Commander.Sunday flights have been revived by manyunits this summer. CAP fliers assemble at adifferent airport every week or two, havebreakfast or lunch and get together for a ses-sion of "hangar-flying."With a small staff of Army Air Fprces of-ficers to assist him, Col. Earle L. Johnson di-rects the activities of the Civil Air Patrol fromNational Headquarters at Bolling Field, Wash-ington, D. C. Deputy Commander is Col. HarryH, Blee, who has served with the CAP eversince its inception. Except for the Headquar-

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ters staff and the AAF Liaison Officers as-signed to each wing. all CAp officers arecivilians who have earned their rank throughservice and are serving without piry.l[ilitary phases of CAP wi]l continue tocome under AAF supervision, but the newcharter places the ot:ganization in the hands ofthe 48 Wing Commanders. A constitution andbyJaws are currently being drafted by a com-mittee of CAP officers headed by Col. HaroldByrd of Texas.The objects of CAP under its charter are:

"_u. Io provide an otganization to encourageand aid Ameriean citizens in the contributiJnof their efforts, services and resources in thedevelopment of aviation and maintenance ofair supremacy and to encourage and developby example the voluntary contribution of pri_vate citizens to the public welfare."b. To provide aviation education and train_ing especially to its senior and cadet members;to encourage and foster'civil aviation in localcommunities and to provide an organization ofprivate citizens with adequate facilities toassist in meeting national or local emer.gen-cies,"As long as the Civil Air patrol exists_andit looks now as if its civilians with wingswill be.around for all time-community avia_tion will h4ve a staunch friend and the ArmyAir Forces will boast a powerful supporter.30

CAP History Guide (1946)

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Transcript of CAP History Guide (1946)