Welcome
to Great Lakes Region Headquarters
Defense Supply Center Columbus, Ohio
Colonel Charles L. Carr, Jr., CAP
Commanding
REGION
NEWS:
Monday, July 14, 2008
Civil Air Patrol members hone emergency services skills at academy
July 14, 2008
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. – About 500 Civil Air Patrol members, including a great many cadets, are enhancing their skills at the National Emergency Services Academy, a multidisciplinary training program held July 26-Aug. 9 at Camp Atterbury, a 35,000-acre Indiana National Guard facility in Edinburgh, Ind.
NESA was started in 1996 to offer intensive training to CAP members. The program combines task-based training with practical application and has become the standard for wings nationwide.
The academy consists of three courses – National Ground Search and Rescue School, Incident Command System School and Mission Aircrew School. Each course is divided into one-week sessions focusing on specific skillsets or tasks. A total of 12 courses, including two courses for prospective incident staff members, are offered.
National Ground Search and Rescue School gives members the skills they need to expertly perform ground searches. Incident Command System School focuses on the skills needed to be top-notch leaders and staff officers of mission resources at the incident command post and other critical operating locations. The Mission Aircrew School keys in on the critical skills needed for pilots and crew members to stay at the top of their game.
CAP members put these skills to good use. CAP performs 90 percent of all inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. – missions that call into action CAP aircrews, ground teams and incident command staff. In fiscal year 2007, CAP was credited with 103 saves.
“Major missions, such as this year’s flooding, tornadoes and wildfires, require CAP members to be professionally trained,” said Interim CAP National Commander Brig. Gen. Amy S. Courter. “Volunteers on the ground are just as essential as those in the air.”
The academy operates with a staff of about 100, mostly CAP volunteers, complemented by an CAP-U.S. Air Force reservists who monitor the training to ensure it meets Air Force standards, and instructors from several federal, state, and local agencies to bring broad experience and realism to the program. Around 250 students complete each of the two one-week training courses. The school boasts about 3,000 graduates.
The majority of cadets choose to participate in the National Ground Search and Rescue School, with the youngest participants being 13 years old. Students must be older to attend the other two schools — at least 18 to participate in Mission Aircrew School and 15 for Incident Command System School.
Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. Its volunteers perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 66 years.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
CAP members should be on alert for Internet Fraud
CAP members should be on alert for Internet fraud. Hackers of Vanguard site send e-mail requesting personal information July 08, 2008 NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS -- Civil Air Patrol members making online purchases from Vanguard Industries -- vendor of CAP uniforms, insignia and numerous other items -- should be on the alert for the possibility of attempted internet fraud by someone recently hacking the company's site.
A notice posted on Vanguard's Web site today reads as follows: In order to avoid exposure to pharming please verify if you are at vanguardmil.com. Vanguard will NOT send you e-mails requesting personal information. Please contact us at (800) 433-1334 if you have any questions or concerns.Vanguard also stated they are pesently working with the FBI concerning this matter -- and that it remains safe for customers to conduct online business via http://vanguardmil.com. In addition, customers who placed orders this weekend and who may have been affected by the situation have been contacted via e-mail by the company.
Vanguard learned from customers placing orders during the Fourth of July weekend that some had received a message similar to the following:
Thank you for your recent Order #XXXX-XXXXXX-XXX at Vanguard Industries, Inc. We regret to inform you that we need further information to verify the status of the transaction that you made through your credit card number XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Please understand that this also helps to reduce the risk that any other person misuses your credit card. Anybody, who has your credit card number and expiry date, can you use your credit card on the Internet for making payment. For us, it is important to protect our customers and ourselves from fraudulent transactions.
To continue processing your order, please provide us following documents: Front and backside of credit card that you placed this order with. Photo-ID card (such as driver's license, passport) showing the same name & signature as the credit card. One recent bank statement or utility bill (optional)
You can send the verification documents by replying or writing a new email to: mail to:order@vanguardmil.net" order@vanguardmil.net
Vanguard representatives have confirmed that such e-mails are fraudulent and stressed that the company "will never contact you requesting personal information after your order has been placed."
Monday, July 7, 2008
Civil Air Patrol Indiana Wing Newsletter
Wonder what's happening in Indiana? Just go to their website www.inwg.cap.gov or www.indiana-wing.org, then click on the "Newsletters" link in the upper right hand corner. Pick the one you want, of course the most recent is "2008 July".
Triple Awards Presented to Milwaukee Composite Squadron 5 Members
by Lt Col Jo Stys, Wisconsin Wing
MILWAUKEE, WI – Triple Awards Presented to Milwaukee Composite Squadron 5 Members. Wing Commander, Col Don Haffner, presented the Ira Eaker Award to C/Lt Col Joshua Just and Amelia Earhart Awards to C/Captains Niko Ruud and Benjamin Unger at Milwaukee Composite Squadron #5’s Dining Out on Thursday, June 26th. The triple awards came as part of the “surprise” Dining Out ceremony which was held to “send off” C/Lt Col Joshua Just to the Merchant Marine Academy in early July.
Thinking he was attending at SE Group meeting, Just was startled and surprised to find his parents, grandparents, girl friend Emily, as well as squadron, group, and wing personnel gathered at Benny’s Café on Milwaukee’s south side. The ceremony also included recognition of squadron members who participated in the recent disaster relief efforts, a promotion for C/A1C Chinedu Ozodi, and the change of Command ceremony turning command of the Cadet Squadron over to C/Capt Niko Ruud.
As is the tradition for a Dining Out, Mr. Vice (Vice President of the Mess), a position ably filled by Lt Col Steve Michaels, kept the ceremony rolling with droll comments about individuals and rules of the mess, instructed those present in the proper behavior at a Dining Out, and responded to claims that certain members were out of uniform, or infractions of the rules requiring fines. C/Lt Col Joshua Just was fined not once but twice for breaking the rules of the mess. The second time required him to borrow money in order to pay his fine!
CAP Land of Legends Composite Flight Assists With Annual WACO Reunion
by Lt John Morgan, Land of Legends Composite Flight, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker Comp. SQ
(Mt. Vernon, OH) Cadets and Officers of the Land of Legends Composite Flight, Civil Air Patrol got to experience the “Golden Age” of aviation on Saturday, June 28th, by assisting the National WACO Club with their 49th Annual Reunion held at historic Wynkoop Field in Mt. Vernon. Although the prospect of severe weather kept many away, there were still several examples of these beautiful biplanes from a bygone era on hand.
Cadets assisted in keeping onlookers away from the runway as planes were taxiing or taking off. True to the CAP emergency services mission, they even assisted in the search for a 5-year-old boy that had wandered away. He was found a short time later on the far side of the runway.
The Weaver Aircraft Company (WACO) was founded in 1920 in Loraine, Ohio. In 1923 the company moved to Troy, Ohio and changed its name to the Advance Aircraft Company, but kept the acronym WACO. The company continued to manufacture graceful cabin and open cockpit biplanes until 1942 when production was suspended. The company then produced the most widely used troop-carrying glider of WWII, the CG4-A. The company ceased production entirely in 1946.
The Civil Air Patrol was founded on December 1, 1941, less than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. CAP, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 55,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 95 percent of inland search and rescue missions, as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 58 lives in 2006. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state, and local agencies. Members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 22,000 young people currently participating in the CAP Cadet Program.
The Land of Legends Composite Flight, Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker Composite Squadron meets every Tuesday night, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM at the Career and Technology Education Centers of Licking County (C-TEC), Room 114, 150 Price Rd. in Newark. Visitors are welcome to attend.
There are more than 1300 members in Ohio.
Student Pilot Solos at National Flight Academy.
by Lt Col Jo Stys, NFA Public Affairs Officer
OSHKOSH, WI – Student Pilot Solos at National Flight Academy. C/Lt Col Cameron Gantz made his first flight alone on Friday at the controls of a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172 at the Civil Air Patrol National Flight Academy.
He is completing a week’s training program thru Civil Air Patrol (CAP) at Whittman Airport, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, learning to fly. He is one of the first of his class of seventeen student pilots at the flight academy to solo. His flight instructor for the solo was Capt John Thompson. He made his solo flight from Fond du Lac County airport.
Ground and flight instruction with certified flight instructors for the past week has prepared the student pilots to take the controls of the aircraft and fly by themselves for their first solo flight.
Gantz is the son of Cameron and Heidi Gantz of Louisville, Kentucky and has been in Civil Air Patrol (official Auxiliary of the United States Air Force) for several years.
He is a member of the Louisville Composite Squadron and serves as the Cadet Commander of the squadron. He also served as the Cadet Commander of the Flight Academy at Oshkosh.
