Civil Air Patrol takes flight from Piper Museum in Lock Haven
By Christopher Miller
LOCK HAVEN, PA – Character building. Leadership. Aviation. Youth development. Education. These are some of the general tenets behind the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) U.S. Air Force Auxiliary which just held its first official meeting of 065 Piper Composite Squadron at their new location at the Piper Aviation Museum.
Opportunities exist for both children (age 12 and up) and adults in the Civil Air Patrol.
“There’s people from all walks of life here,” said Captain Brian Andrews of Lock Haven. “Over there – there’s an attorney, he works in IT, he’s a corrections officer, we have teachers, and people who work in finance, so there truly is something here for everyone.”
Captain Andrews went on to show videos of drone footage taken from along Loyalsock Creek from days after Christmas in 2020 with all of the snow melt.
“We can take a drone, and have someone from PEMA dial in to watch the feed live and show them destruction, or anything they may want to see from the drone camera,” Brian explained. “They can watch the drone and then ask me to pan up or down, to see specific areas that would have taken hours for people to reach from different parts of the state.”
The Civil Air Patrol was founded in 1941, six days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to be exact. It was established as the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force seven years later and is chartered by Congress as a nonprofit organization for the purposes of youth development, aerospace education, and to promote general aviation.
CAP operates the world’s largest fleet of single-engine aircraft for search and rescue, disaster relief, training, and education.
“I knew about it when I was a teenager,” said parent Natalie, a teacher in the Montoursville School District. “I knew to ask around about it for my children, and my oldest is in CAP now, and my youngest, well, he talks about nothing but the Air Force so I can tell he will join in too when he’s old enough.”
The biggest thing Natalie noticed about her oldest child in the program is the leadership and respect role he displays.
It’s weird, but nice to hear him say things like “yes ma’am, and no ma’am,” Natalie remarked.
CAP, which operates much like a JROTC program, is set up to teach children discipline and to have fun along the way.
“We have physical fitness and training aspects just like the military, but we also have fun with the kids and show them what careers or interests can be in CAP, or with the military,” said Andrews.
Captain Andrews son C/Lt. Col. Andrews and fellow cadet C/1st Lt. Herold, discussed why they enjoy the program and the major changes in their own lives they noticed since being a part of the program.
“I joined CAP on my 12th birthday, I was at my first meeting on that same day,” said the younger Andrews. “Before now, I was more bashful and didn’t speak up too often, I would barely talk to someone I didn’t know, and now I can’t stop talking about CAP and what I do, and have learned along the way.” Andrews credits hish wish to pursue a career in Emergency Services with is time and experiences in CAP.
C/1st Lt. Herold said basically the same thing in respect to CAP.
“I joined a few months after my 12th birthday and have been in it ever since,” he said. “I am thinking about a career in the Air Force or one of the armed forces, maybe ROTC for Officer Candidate School (OCS) after college…I too didn’t speak up too much before joining, and now I am confident to speak up and speak out, I feel free to speak my mind and to lead.”
Calling it “America’s best kept secret,” Group Commander Dale Williams of Milton, PA joined CAP in 2001.
“My son and I went to an air show in Selinsgrove, he was 13 at the time, and said he wanted to join up which is when the person in charge told me they are always seeking senior members to help out, like boy scouts.”
Dale had served in the Air Force for four years, so he was experienced in aviation and the military background that CAP teaches.
“I’ve just been with a group of a bunch of great people, from all walks of life and I have seen hundreds of students come and go through CAP,” Dale said.
Dale is the commander for several squadrons between Altoona and Williamsport, and logs 1,000 or more miles on his car driving from meeting to meeting, and site to site.
“We’ve had cadets go into all branches of the service, scholarships going out to them for full-rides into universities to continue their studies, and we’ve had so many students go into aerospace fields working for many aerospace companies like Boeing, General Electric, and Rolls-Royce,” Dale explained.
Captain Brian Andrews had a video playing of the CAP and a local pilot from the State College area flying a plane. It was a training exercise with the Air National Guard pretending that he was flying an unknown aircraft through restricted airspace and that the Air National Guard scrambled their fighters and were at the wings of the unknown craft within minutes.
“These fighters can go from Saint Mary’s, PA all the way down to Maryland in under 10 minutes,” Dale said.
The video can be seen here, where The Today Show was on board filming: https://www.today.com/news/see-how-air-national-guard-protects-presidential-airspace-t113573
Anybody interested in learning more about Civil Air Patrol, or attending a future meeting, please reach out to Captain Brian Andrews at bandrews@pawg.cap.gov or 1st Lieutenant Timothy Swift at capswiftypa5@gmail.com, or by visiting https://www.gocivilairpatrol.com/.
