Civil Air Patrol

Grant County Journal
November 8, 2010
By Janet Warren
Journal columnist
My grandsons, Seth and Noah, lived in Baltimore, Maryland for a year. Their parents Jenni and Spencer lived there too, but they have accepted the fact that it is all about the grandchildren. If you will recall in your history lessons of bygone years, Baltimore is home to Fort McHenry which is on a peninsula in Baltimore Harbor. During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, a lawyer, was negotiating the release of prisoners aboard a British ship. As he was dining with three British officers, he learned of the imminent attack on Fort McHenry. Key was detained so he could not warn the Americans. (Where is a cell phone when you need one?) In the morning, Key saw the battered American flag still flying and he penned the words to a poem entitled “In Defence of Fort McHenry.” The poem was later put to music and renamed “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which became our national anthem.
Grandma Heaton was visiting the twins last summer and they went on a tour of Fort McHenry. They were seated in a theater and at the end of the presentation the curtains opened and a replica of the original 15-star flag was flying overhead. Grandma Heaton taught Seth and Noah, age 2, to stand attentively and place their hands over their hearts. My daughter noticed an elderly gentleman saluting the flag, but no one else in the auditorium showed outward respect for the flag.
A few months later, the twins were visiting my sister, Diane, in New Jersey. They were playing in the yard and all of a sudden they both stopped with their backs toward my sister. Diane thought perhaps they saw a butterfly or a flower, so she approached them. They were standing reverently with their hands on their hearts in front of a small flag Diane had in her garden.
Recently I attended a meeting of the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program (CAP) in Ephrata where I witnessed the Patrol’s flag ceremony. As I stood there, with my hand over my heart, I thought about my little grandsons. Just like Seth and Noah, these young men and women had been taught to honor their country’s flag. They treated it with respect and stood saluting it. I felt hope and encouragement—feelings that only increased as I learned about their program and met some of the young men involved in it.
Men and women ages 12-18 join the CAP program as cadets. One of the two adult volunteers I met on my recent visit was Colonel Boucher, “Like voucher only with a B as in bogged-down,” he quipped. Colonel Boucher has been with CAP since 1954 and was one of the original people who built the Ephrata facilities in 1971. The other adult, Lieutenant Bonneville, led me on a tour of the facilities and answered my questions. A few of the experiences the Cadet Program offers are survival training, search and rescue, disaster relief, and radio communications. I spoke to three of the Cadets, each from a different age group, and the biggest draw to this program is the flight training.
Airman Jonathan Jones is 13 years old and a student at Ephrata Middle School. His brother got to fly with the CAP program, and Airman Jones has already had an “O (Opportunity) Flight,” where he got to fly in the cockpit with a licensed pilot. According to CAP’s website (GoCivilAirPatrol.com) “CAP owns the largest fleet of single-engine piston aircraft in the nation, primarily Cessna 172s and 182s…They are hangared at strategic locations throughout the nation to be readily available when missions arise.”
Airman Jones wants to attend the Airforce Academy. Lieutenant Bonneville explained, “It is difficult to get an appointment to the Airforce Academy, but rising to the highest rank of cadet officer in the CAP program is of great assistance in acquiring a spot.” Ten percent of all Air Force Academy cadets got their start in CAP.
Airman Mark Deleon is 15 years old and attends Ephrata High School. Airman Deleon told me about attending CAP’s boot camp. He said it is like being in the military but without the physical punishment. Not surprisingly, he also wants to fly planes. He learned of the CAP program through a friend in middle school. He would eventually like to join the military and fly with the elite Top Gun pilots.
Chief Steven Hildebrand joined CAP in December 2008 and has already risen in the ranks to Cadet Chief Master Sergeant, the highest-ranking cadet in the Columbia Basin Composite Squadron at this time. He explained that it takes a two-month waiting period for every promotion and he plans on becoming an officer (Cadet Second Lieutenant) in about a month. When he joined CAP, he mapped out a plan to promote every two months and has held to that goal. Lieutenant Bonneville said Hildebrand will be the first cadet officer they have had in years. Chief Hildebrand is a junior at Ephrata High School and is well on his way to the Air Force Academy where he wants to become an F-22 Fighter Pilot. He told me he joined CAP not only for the flying, but also the opportunities for leadership and to hone his self-discipline.
These three young men are articulate, polite (it was nice to be referred to as ma’am so many times), and goal-oriented. These are the kinds of leaders we need if our goal is to keep America great. I received an e-mail from Lieutenant Ruth Peterson, Lewis County Composite Squadron. She wrote, “The program is fabulous. I have three boys who have been cadets, and it contributed greatly to their abilities to become great leaders.”
Lieutenant Bonneville is retired and spends many volunteer hours working with our Ephrata boys. I asked him why he does it and he replied, “People talk about peer pressure mostly in the negative sense. Here we have positive peer pressure. Cadets leading cadets, learning to lead as well as follow. Helping boys achieve all that they can be is worth it.”
To the cadets of the Columbia Basin Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, you are our future leaders who can make a difference in the kind of nation that Seth, Noah, and all America’s children grow up in. To you, I cover my heart.
“And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”