Maine Wing - Mar 2006

8/9/2019 Maine Wing - Mar 2006

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March 2006

THE NEWSLETTER OF MAINE WING, CIVIL AIR PATROL, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE AUXILIARY

Arlington, 2005 It all started four years ago when MajWayne Merritt of the Machias ValleyComposite Squadron was asked by

Mr. MorrillWorcester,owner ofWorcesterWreathCompanyto partici-pate in thelaying ofholidaywreaths atthe Arling-ton Na-

tionalCemetery.The first

year, one CAP Van went to Arlington.This year, 3 CAP Vans and a POVmade the trip to participate. The pro-

ject started with the decorating of thewreaths at the Worcester Wreath inHarrington, Maine where 18 membersparticipated in boxing, decorating andloading wreaths on to a truck boundfor Arlington. Machias Valley(Machias), St Croix (Calais) andCounty (Presque Isle) CompositeSquadrons, Civil Air Patrol left for Ar-lington National Cemetery during theearly morning hours on December 14,2005 to prepare to lay over 5,000Holiday Wreaths on veterans grave-sites. Now in our fourth year of partici-pation, we had three squadrons and45 members participating. We alsohad additional members from Bangor-

Brewer, Augusta and CumberlandCounty Composite Squadrons partici-pating. SM Curtis Slininger (Bangor-

Brewer) and Capt Anita Cheney(Augusta-Gardiner) were volunteerdrivers for the Augusta CAP Van thatcarried the County Composite cadets.Greg and Eric Madore (CumberlandCounty) drove their POV and followedthe convoy.

Maine Wing members were guests ofCol Kay Walling (Maryland Wing,Commander) and 1Lt Eric Hughes(Easton, Maryland Composite Squad-ron Commander). They providedlodging and food for all of the mem-bers of Maine Wing who participated.In addition, this year the Easton Com-posite Squadron sent ten members toArlington with the Maine Wing to helplay the wreaths.

This was a very moving experiencefor all of those in attendance. Many

members would lay the wreaths andthen stand and salute the veteran be-fore moving on to the next one. Each

year this project gains new interestand more and more members areparticipating. Thanks to WorcesterWreath who donates the wreathseach year and to the Maine State So-ciety for the work they do to make thisproject possible.

After the project was completed, allmembers attended a wreath layingceremony at the Tombs of the Un-known Soldiers and watched theChanging of the Guard. Plans are

already underway to participate in thisprogram next year and with the inter-est still at a high level, we are going totry and rent a bus down and back sothe senior members can rest and nottake so long to recover next year. Majors Wayne Merritt & DennisMurray

Cadets & Seniorsworked from the start of

decorating the HolidayWreaths ..

To placing the wreaths onVeteran s Graves ..

To admiring a Job Well Done foras far as the eye can see.



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Maj Douglas W.Grosso receiveshis Gill Robb Wil-

son award fromCivil Air Patrol.Major Grossostarted out in theCivil Air Patrol sCadet Program in1970 where heearned several

promotions and awards as a cadet.This learning to become a leaderhas enhanced his desire to help otherpeople to get ahead in life. With theencouragement of his employer,

Johnny s Selected Seeds, in Winslow,ME, Major Grosso returned to theCivil Air Patrol as a senior memberthree and a half years ago. True to hisword, Major Grosso has attained thehighest level in the Professional De-velopment Program for senior mem-bers and has helped both cadets andseniors to advance in CAP. He hasbeen very active in the WatervilleComposite Squadron, CAP and iscurrently Commander. He has beento several disaster areas serving CAPas a communications and computerexpert, helping to map out areas hit

Maine Wing OverMaine Wing Over Wing Commander

Col Mitch Sammons

Vice Commander

Maj Chris Hayden

Newsletter Editor

Maj Dennis Murray

Headquarters

Maine Wing, Civil Air Patrol

PO Box 5006 Augusta Maine, 04332-5006

Editorial Office: 207/427-3421

Headquarters: 207/626-7830

The Maine Wing Over is an unofficial newsletter

published quarterly in the interest of members of theMaine Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. Any opinions

either expressed or inferred by the writers herein are

their own and are not to be considered official expres-

sion by the Civil Air Patrol or the Department of the

Air Force.

Maj Doug Grosso Receives Gill Robb Wilson

by several hurricanes so first re-sponders knew where to go first. Dur-ing this last tour of service, he hasdirected a Corporate Learning Coursefor senior members and taught at sev-eral Squadron Leadership Schools.

His Gill Robb Wilson certificate isnumbered 2,368, which means he isamongst a small group of people whoadvance to this level. Douglas Grossohas worked for Johnny s SelectedSeeds for ten years and currentlyserves as the Chief Information Offi-cer. Through the encouragement andgenerosity of his employer and hisfamily, Major Grosso has been veryactive in the missions of the MaineWing, Civil Air Patrol. Douglas Grossoresides in Vassalboro, ME with hiswife Maryann and daughters, Lauren,Kristen and Amanda.Maj Dennis Murray, PA Maine Wing, Civil Air Patrol

Cadet In the NEWS

Lt. Christopher D. Look (MachiasValley Composite Squadron) Re-ported for duty 01/05/06 at Fort Jack-son, So. Carolina. He is there to re-ceive 9 weeks of basic training in theU. S. Army (Maine National Guard).Upon completion of Basic he is to re-

port to Fort Hustus, Virginia for 16weeks of further training in UH-60maintenance and repair.UH-60=Blackhawks. In June he willreturn to Maine to report to the 112thMedical company in Bangor to takehis place with that unit as a mainte-nance specialist. It is his intention toreturn to U of M Orono to completehis education and ROTC, while serv-ing concurrently with the 112th. If allgoes as planned not long after receiv-ing his degree in engineering (or per-

haps before) he will apply for pilotsschool in order to fly the Blackhawks.Not a bad ambition for a 19 year oldkid. Thanks CAPCapt. Timothy C. LookAEO MVCSPS: his college education will be100% paid by the US Military. plus asizeable financial bonus just for sign-ing up.

CAP Members in the NEWS

Here is a photo of a couple of MaineWingers in exile at Bagram Air Base,Afghanistan. CPT Joshua Broder andLT Mike Paquette. Capt Josh Broderis in his last week of a year long de-ployment in Afghanistan running thetactical satellite communications net-work in Central Asia. Lt MikePaquette is here working for the intel-ligence guys. Our thoughts andprayers are with you. -Editor

Capt Josh Broder, U.S. Army andLt Mike Paquette, U.S. Navy in

Afghanistan

A first for the St Croix CompositeSquadron. Stephen Lincoln, Jr. isthe first C/1st Lt to serve in thesquadron since it was chartered in

2000. C/1st Lt Lincoln has servedas the Cadet Commander and iscurrently the Cadet Executive Offi-cer for the Squadron and CAC rep-resentative. Shown during thepinning ceremony is Stephen

Lincoln, Sr. (proud father) andRyan Lincoln (proud brother). Con-gradulations from all of us.



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Why we have a CISM Team. As search and rescue volunteers we allbelieve we are tough and can take whatever stress the mission has to throw asus. Our usual SAREX s can be stress-ful, but do not compare to a live mis-sion; especially if the outcome results inloss of life or when hundreds of person-nel are involved over two or more days.That is why Maine Wing has estab-lished a Critical Incident Stress Man-agement (CISM) team. Mission related

stress is insidious and if the initial signsare left unchecked could lead to mentaland physical trauma affecting both workand family life. When we leave a mis-sion of any kind we are on a high fromall the activity and the involvement ofsearching to save a life. But three orfour hours later or the next day, whenwe are home and relaxed, the stressbegins to catch up with us and mani-fests itself in several ways: we lose ourappetite, cannot sleep and even be-come intolerant of family members. Asthe days become weeks this can grow

in other more dramatic ways: we forgetnames, misplace or lose items andeven stumble over our speech. If stillleft uncheck this stress can lead to seri-ous psychological or physiologicalharm, even breakdown. To prevent thisfrom happening to anyone in MaineWing, we are making CISM an integralpart of our mission training. CISM is apeer program, not a mental health pro-gram. In other words, the CISM teamconsists of fellow CAP members ratherthan outsiders. The principles of CISM

are simple: realize stress is normal,recognize the signs of stress and usethe advice of the CISM team to put thesymptoms in check. This stress man-agement process begins at the end ofeach mission day or mission. Beforerushing home, all mission personnel willattend a short out-briefing or informa-tional debriefing that provides a 30 min-

ute break for mission personnel tocollect their thoughts, chat with fel-low members, have a snack and hotor cold drink As inconvenient as thisappears, it is the first step in elimi-nating stress and assuring a safe

return home. The CISM team willassure members that stress is nor-mal after any mission; they will iden-tify the normal symptoms of stressmembers may experience withintwenty-fours of returning home andask them to call one of the team ifany of the listed symptoms persist.The team members are trained torecognize these situations and willeither provide non-clinical advice orrefer the member to a licensed clini-cian. In the event of a major disasteror a mission that involves the loss oflife of Wing personnel, the CISMteam is trained to provide adefusing . This is also peer driven,

but is provided in seven distinct andstructured phases as triage for themission personnel. It is conducted insmall groups within hours of a crisisto quickly mitigate acute symptoms.Each member of the CISM team isassigned to small groups of missionpersonnel in a quiet and privatearea. Here the CISM team membersets the tone of the meeting and

asks each group member to de-scribe what happened from theirperceptive. They are then asked fortheir first and most prominentthoughts and then they are asked todescribe the worst part of the inci-dent from their perspective. Thisprocess gives everyone a chance tovocalize their thoughts, concernsand worst fears while the others lis-ten and discover they all feel muchthe same way and thus they realizewhat they are experiencing is very

normal. This is followed by the famil-iar out-briefing that identifies thesymptoms of stress, tells how tocorrectly deal with the symptom andfinally re-entry through a questionsand answers session to tie up anyloose ends. In the event of a large-scale disaster involving a hundredor more participants including multi-

ple agencies across the state, theCISM team will hold ademobilization . Even though the

Maine Wing CISM has been trained toconduct demobilizations, this is morelikely to be provided by a larger state

agency or military CISM team. Demo-bilization is simply a large scale out-briefing. National Headquarters real-ized the needs for CISM teams follow-ing a major airline accident in Detroita few years ago when CAP personnelwere activated by the NTSB to securethe accident area. This exposed bothseniors and cadets to very gruesomeand tragic scenes resulting in trau-matic stress for a large portion of theunit. The National Commander at thetime designated Lt Col Sherry Jones,an EMS nurse with many years ex-perience in CISM and a participant inthe Detroit accident cleanup. Lt ColJones immediately prepared and in-troduced CAP Regulation 60-5, whichoutlines the CISM system for CAP. InOctober of 2004, Capt MerrieKnightly, Capt Andrea Hayden,Capt Peter Goss, SM Bruce Torreyand Major Chris Hayden attendedan intense two-day training sessionprovided by Lt Col Jones in Connecti-cut. Since then the Maine Wing teamhas conducted out-briefings at several

SAREX s including the EVAL in Cari-bou last May. Nationally the numberof CISM teams has grown dramati-cally in the past year with manyWings and Regions establishingteams. Also the number of trainershas increased with CISM instructorsnow located in NER, GLR, SWR andSER. The NHQ CISM office is in theprocess of including CISM as a CAPF101 qualification. Those interested in

joining the team will need to completethe two-day training and should con-

tact Major Joan Coughlin, NER CISMClinical Director at

[email protected] or Lt ColVan Don Williams, NER CISM Direc-tor [email protected] to get thetraining schedule for NER members.Maj Chris Hayden Vice Commander

CISMTeams nowpart of CAP

under CAPR 60-5



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Augusta/Gardiner Squadron wel-comes our new Commander Maj.Douglas Grosso, and look forward toworking with him. While we say goodbye to Capt. Dale J. Fellows as ourCommander, we are very happy thathe is staying with us in many othercapacities. We would like to welcomethe following new cadets: C/AB Mi-chael Johnston, C/AB Alexis Scott

and C/AB Alex Stonier. We wouldlike to congratulate the following ca-dets on their promotions: C/SrA SethHansen, C/SSgt Michael Simmonsand C/A1C Keenan Vann. All ourcadets and Senior Members continueto work hard in all their endeavorsand were proud of you all.SM Laura Minoty PAO

Cumberland County Composite Squadron

Waterville Composite Squadron

Augusta-Gardiner Composite Squadron

2ndLt. Jennifer Turgeon cuts the

cake commemorating her success-ful Private Pilot Certificate check

ride.

Cumberland County CompositeSquadron Honors Newest Pilot

Second Lieutenant Jennifer Turgeonof Cumberland County CompositeSquadron earned her Private PilotCertificate on the 10th of December,2005. Her achievement was markedby her squadron members with thepresentation of a cake (in the form ofrunway 25/7 at Sanford) and a set ofCAP wings. As soon as she is able,Second Lieutenant Turgeon will takethe CAP Form 5 check ride so thatshe may wear the new wings. Afterworking on her Private Pilot Certifi-cate for nearly three years, SecondLieutenant Turgeon took her checkride with FAA Pilot Examiner DonMartel at the Sanford Airport. Sheflew a Piper Warrior for the test thatbegan in the late afternoon and lasteduntil after sunset. As with many of us,her road to completion was filled withweather, aircraft, paperwork and timeproblems. A steady resolve and the

encouragement of friends saw herthrough. Once again: CongratulationsJennifer!1st Lieutenant Robert S. Baker

1Lt Charles Browne (L) takes overCommand of the Waterville Squad-ron from Maj Doug Grosso (C)while Col Mitch Sammons, MaineWing Commander, expresses hiscongratulations to both members.

In a recent ceremony, the WatervilleComposite Squadron, CAP passedthe Command Position to 1Lt.Charles Browne. Lt. Browne has along history with CAP and MaineWing as a Cadet in the WatervilleSquadron and is now in command ofthe unit in which he started. He knowsthe history of the unit and how well itcan perform. Lt. Browne has been anintegral part of the squadron for some

time now and we look forward to see-ing his continuing excellent work. Out-going Commander, Major DougGrosso, has provided outstandingduty performance since his joining theMaine Wing. Major Grosso has con-tributed greatly to many of the suc-cesses that Maine Wing has enjoyed,from squadron events to Wing mis-sions, both actual and training, as wellas at the Region and National levelswhere he has excelled in the StaffColleges. Major Grosso has become

a key member to Maine Wing. Wethank him very much for all that hehas done to promote Maine Wing andto preserve its fine history. MajGrosso was presented a Command-ers Commendation Award by ColMitch Sammons, Maine Wing Com-mander.Maj Dennis Murray, PAO

The Cumberland County CompositeSquadron is pleased to announce the following promotions and MitchellAward. These promotions were made

on February 2, 2006 during the regu-lar meeting with the assistance of Col Sammons our honored guest.Cadet Ben Lariviere promoted to C/Amn.Cadet Jon Labbe promoted to C/

A1CCadet Niell Belcher promoted to C/SSgt.Cadet Bruce Richards promoted toC/TSgtCadet Erick Ribeiro promoted toC/2d Lt AND received the MitchellAwardCongratulations !Capt Marc Brunelle

C/2Lt Erick Ribeiro receives theBilly Mitchell Award from ColMitch Sammons, Maine Wing Com-mander.



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Promotions for the last quarter includeJerry Palmer, Maurice Boisvert andJolene Clark to 1Lt. Cadets AnthonyDileo to C/Amn, Kira Lane to C/Amn,Kimberly Lane to C/Amn, BobbyOliver to C/A1C, Todd Clark to C/ CMSgt, Curtis Brown to C/MSgt,Shelby Cilley to C/SSgt, Chris Bar-buto to C/TSgt. In the Cadet officerrank we had Stephen Lincoln, Jrpromoted to C/1st Lt and Joseph Mar-torano promoted to C/2nd Lt. All pro-motions were followed by a Pinningceremony where cadets had familyand/or friends pin on the cadets newrank.

moted to Cadet Airman, Cadet Air-man First Class Matthew Williamswas promoted to Cadet Senior Air-man, Cadet Staff Sergeant StefenBlanchard (Cadet Executive Officer)was promoted to Cadet Technical

Sergeant, and Cadet Senior MasterSergeant Elise Pusey (Cadet Com-mander) was promoted to CadetChief Master Sergeant. Thanks toPilots 1Lt Ken Varian and Maj JohnRiley, four cadets have recently hadO-flights. For C/Amn Alex Deprengerand C/Amn Hannah Pusey this wastheir first flight. On one flight, tosharpen their skills, C/MSgt. TinaDavis and C/Amn Hannah Puseyused a map to find the coordinates oftheir homes and then, using thosecoordinates, found them - quite accu-rately, too. And speaking of airplanes,The Cadets have been enjoying excit-ing Aerospace presentations fromtheir new Aerospace Instructor, Sen-ior Member Chris Conner. SeniorMember Conner has further en-hanced our Squadron's Aerospaceprogram by starting a cadet lendinglibrary."C/CMSgt. Elise Pusey and C/MSgt.Tina Davis, Cadet Commander andDeputy Cadet CommanderPANCO's for the Downeast Patrol

Squadron

"On the second Tuesday evening ofFebruary four cadets were promotedat the Downeast Patrol Squadron.Cadet Basic Hannah Pusey was pro- NO REPORT

Lewiston-Auburn Composite See LA Times

Sundown Composite Squadron

Machias Valley Composite Squadron

St Croix Composite Squadron

NO REPORT

County Composite Squadron

See Newsletter

Bangor Brewer Composite Squadron

Pinetree Senior Squadron

NO REPORT

On December 14th, 2005 C/SMSgtAlex Parks was appointed CadetCommander. C/Parks has been anactive member of the Bangor/BrewerSquadron since May of 2002. CadetCommander Parks has selected thefollowing cadets to serve on his staff:C/TSgt Anthony Griffin, ExecutiveOfficer; C/Keith Larby, Flight Com-mander; C/SMSgt Chris Slininger,1st Sergeant. He has also imple-

mented several element leader posi-tions to allow more cadets the oppor-tunity to experience a leadership role.Good luck to all in your new positions.LTC Jim Jordan and Maj. DickHunter will be directing and co-directing the Squadron LeadershipSchool to be held at the BangorSquadron on March 11th and 12th.They have also been busy planningthe Maine Wing Conference to beheld at the Four Points Sheraton inBangor on April 22nd. Be looking for

further details soon.Cathie Spaulding, 2Lt., PAO

C/Larby, Flight Commander; C/TSgtGriffin, Executive Officer; C/SMSgtAlex Parks, Cadet Commander. Not

shown: C/SMSgt Chris Slininger,1st Sergeant.

Downeast Patrol

NO REPORT

NO REPORT

C/2nd Lt Joseph Martorano re-ceived the Billy Mitchell award at aregular squadron meeting the end ofDecember, 2005. Commander, MajDennis Murray presented the awardand promoted Cadet Martorano at thismeeting. A Pinning ceremony tookplace immediately after the promotion

where Steve Martorano (father) didthe honors of pinning his son. Con-gradulations to C/2nd Lt Joseph Mar-torano on your promotion and award. Capt Judy Murray, PAO

Take the time to visit the MaineWing Web site under Public Affairs/Squadron Newsletters. You can getadditional information from severalSquadrons on this site.-Editor



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12/08/05 The ELT ordeal that beganon Tuesday has hopefully come to an

end. I have many members to thankfor their efforts in this very challengingmission. SM Nate Fellows consis-tently worked this mission all threedays! Capt Dale Fellows and Maj Pel-lerin assisted on Tuesday evening.Major Scott Higgins and Lt CharlesBrowne worked UDF with Nate onWednesday. Aircrews from Tuesdaywere Captains Barker and Ledoux.Aircrew from Wednesday was CaptSaucier and Lt Coyne. Today, CadetJoe Burns with Nate Fellows locatedand silenced a Mini EPIRB in theKennebec river with the assistance ofan inflatable boat provided by the Au-gusta Fire Dept. The Ground Teamreported that another audible signalexists in the same general area, how-ever, the sun had set and the boatwas now out of service due to dam-age to its jet drive from ice. AFRCCdoes not have any SARSAT mergesfrom this device and there is no signof distress, therefore, the search hasbeen closed at this time. Good nightand thank you again to everyone who

supported this mission.Capt Marc Brunelle CAP MEWG ESO

Emergency Services Missions

Volunteers Serving America

That is the theme of this year s MaineWing Conference to be held at theFour Points Sheraton in Bangor,

Maine April 21-23, 2006. The Bangor-Brewer Composite Squadron hasbeen working for months on thisyear s conference to make sure it isone of the best yet. Early registrations

are encouraged and if received byMarch 22, 2006, you could be one ofthe lucky members chosen at randomto participate in a KC 135 refuelingmission. This year s conference withfeature a hands-on experience with astatic display of the glass cockpit aswell as many other workshops andhands-on cadet and senior activities.

Friday night will feature a Cadet PizzaParty as well as a CAC, Movie andCommanders Call Meeting. Checkyour emails and snail mail for the reg-istration brochure. All events andtimes are listed in the brochure.

Pick your desired meal for the ban-quet. Choose between NY Sirloin,Baked Haddock, Cranberry-Cornbread Stuffed Chicken or Vege-tarian Lasagna. Something for justabout everyone s taste.

Prices for the conference full registra-tion is $45.00 senior members and$30.00 for cadet members. Roomrates for the Sheraton are $60.00 pernight plus taxes. You can reserve aroom at the hotel by calling 800-228-4609 at this special CAP rate. Seebrochure for additional details.

Come and join us for a fun filledweekend where we honor theVolunteers Serving America.

Wing Conference Committee, 2006 Bangor-Brewer Composite Sq. LTC Jim Jordan, Commander

If for no other reason, you shouldattend the Wing Conference to ex-

perience Maj Chris Hayden s YearIn Review This is something eve-ryone looks forward to each year.Who knows, you might become astar at the show.

01/13/06 Maine Wing CAP was re-quest Thursday afternoon by SSOSouthwest Harbor (Coast Guard) forassistance in locating an EPIRB thatthey had been trying to locate for acouple of days. The flight crew of Lt.Schertenleib and Maj Riley estab-lished that the beacon was at the

Hinckley Boat Yard in Southwest Har-bor. After landing the aircraft theywent from aircrew to ground team andmade contact with employees atHinckley who told them they knew itwas going off but could not find it.The ground team narrowed thesearch down to one particular buildingholding 16 multi million dollar yachts

(Continued on page 7)



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but could not find the offendingEPIRB before retiring for the evening.The EPIRB was one of the new 406models with a data burst containedwith the SARSAT signal. This data

burst contained the make, model, se-rial number and various other infor-mation (except the name of the ownerand the gps location). Upon returningto his residence Lt Schertenleib usedthis information received from theAFRCC and using the internet foundthe manufactures web site (they arein Britain). He e-mailed them aboutwho he was and what information hehad and requested any informationthe company might have on this par-ticular EPIRB. When the Lt woke upthe company had replied to his e-mailwith the name of the owner and thevessel that the EPIRB was assignedto. The ground team of Lt. Col. Gold-stein and Lt Schertenleib returned tothe Hinckley Boats bright and earlythis morning and requested to see thesailboat Misconduct. After checkingthe onboard EPIRB it was determinedthat was not the offending EPIRB soLt. Col. Goldstein set about doing hisexcellent DF work and found the sec-ond EPIRB on board the Misconductwrapped in the life raft. Once un-

wrapped the beacon could be seen. Itappears that the EPIRB was defectiveas the manual switch was in the offposition and the battery expirationdate was 2008. Thank you to all whotook time out of their busy lives tomake this happen.Capt. Merrie Knightly, IC

(Continued from page 6 ) ES Missions

01/14/06 Thanks to Captains Libbeyand LeClair from our newest Squad-ron in Lewiston/Auburn an ELT wasfound and silenced at the Knox

County Airport this morning. GreatJob! Capt Marc Brunelle

02/18/06 At 2023 local on Fridaynight, AFRCC activated MEWG tosearch for an ELT signal in Rockland/ Thomaston area. By 2130 local CaptDale Fellow of Augusta Squadron and

1Lt Charles Brown of WatervilleSquadron formed the ground teamand were enroute to the area toprosecute to mission. Due to the highwinds no aircraft were launched. Bymidnight the GT members had nar-

rowed the search area to the junctionof Route 97 and Route 1 in Thomas-ton. Due to the late hour and the dark-ness the mission members retired forthe night. Saturday morning the sameGT returned to the scene and quicklyidentified a lobster boat in a drivewayon Summer Road, but could not lo-cate the owner. With the assistance ofa neighbor in the area, the GT wereable to locate the grandmother of theowner who gave the team permissionto enter the boat and shut off theEPIRB. The mission was closed at16:10z (11:10 local). AFRCC werequick the thank our GT for anothersuccessful mission.Maj Chris Hayden, V-Commander

Lonely Pluto How would you like to be 6 billionmiles from Earth, surrounded by dark-

ness and freezing cold, and no oneever comes to visit you? Think aboutit. That's what it's like to be Pluto.When astronomers discovered Plutoin 1930, they were amazed to findsuch a tiny planet so far from the sun.Other planets out there are giants;Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptunecould swallow Earth whole. Yet Plutois smaller than Earth's moon. It's anoddball, so tiny that even the HubbleSpace Telescope can't see it clearly.Pluto is a world of mystery. DoesPluto have weather? Does it evenhave air? What about mountains andcraters? Scientists would love toknow. Yet, while NASA has sentspaceships to all of the other planets,Pluto has not been visited even once. Pluto, get ready for company! January 19, NASA launched a space-ship called New Horizons, and it isgoing to Pluto. No one is onboard;

New Horizons is a robot. The trip willtake 9 years. A sixth-grader now willbe in college when New Horizonsreaches Pluto in the year 2015. OnTV, spaceships always go into orbitaround planets they visit. But New

Horizons will not orbit Pluto. The shipwill fly by Pluto, like a car driving byyour house but not stopping, takingpictures like crazy. Many of the pic-tures will show Pluto's three moons.When New Horizon beams the pic-tures back to Earth, we'll finally knowwhat they look like. Why not stop andstay? About 15 years ago, astrono-mers began to find other tiny worldslike Pluto orbiting the sun beyondNeptune. New Horizons is going to tryto visit a few of them. Is the outer so-lar system filled with tiny planets?Maybe Pluto isn't so lonely, afterall. Find out what else we know alreadyabout Pluto at: spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/pluto.This article was written by Dr. TonyPhillips. It was provided by the JetPropulsion Laboratory, California In-stitute of Technology, under a con-tract with the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration.

This artwork shows howPluto and two of its possiblethree moons might look from

the surface of the third moon.Credit: NASA/ESA and G. Ba-con (STSci)

As I would not be a slave, so IWould not be a master. This ex-presses my idea of democracy

- Abraham Lincoln



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from the experience.

For myself, it wasn t the mostcomfortable night of sleep that Ihave ever had, but knowing that it

can be done, when done right,helps to prepare me to have theright attitude should events findme in such a situation.

I would also urge our flightcrews to take the course ifthey have not already. Thenext time you fly north andwest of Bangor, look down atthe rugged terrain belowand then think of how you

would get out of there aliveshould you find yourself inthe middle of all thosewoods. This kind of trainingis the key.

Mitch Sammons Col. CAP Commander Maine Wing

Members of MaineWing

I would like to echothe comments ofCapt. Brunelle re-garding the wintersurvival training this

February 24-25. This kind oftraining does indeed open a per-son s eyes as to what it would taketo come out of the wild aliveshould you become lost or havecrashed in unfriendly terrain.Thanks to the experienced guid-

ance of Lt. Col. Higgins, MajorDay, and Major Schwab, I thinkthat all who attended the trainingare better prepared to survivesuch an event.As was pointed out during thetraining, a survivor needs the rightattitude the will to survive tomake it through the experience.

NONPROFIT ORG.

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

PORTLAND ME

PERMIT NO 203

HeadquartersCivil Air Patrol, Maine WingPO Box 5006Augusta, ME 04332-5006

Commander s Corner From what I could see, all whoattended listened closely to theinstructors and all stayed in thefield throughout the very coldand windy winter night.

Some looked a bit frazzled andworse for the wear the nextmorning, but I am sure that theyhave learned critical lessons

Yes, we will find you eventually. Ques-tion is can you survive until we getthere? Winter Survival Training is foreveryone. Editor

Maine Wing - Mar 2006

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