PATROL Januarrh 2012 hoto ourtesof Tamrr Smith Tamrr ourtesof hoto FEATURES 3 Celebratin 70 Ground Team Members Crucial To Civil Air Patrol’s World War II Effort 10 JLENS Utah Wing Supports Development Testing Of Army 25 CAP’s World War II members received Cruise Missile Defense System certificates like this one from the Air Force 14 SullivnTrophy documenting their service. Indiana Cadet Is Nation’s Top High School Athlete 18 Leadership Awards AE Program Receives Pair Of Prestigious Honors DEPARTMENTS 20 Air Show Crash Cadet Assists With Response To Deadly Tragedy 7 romYour Nationl Commner 9 OpenCocpit 23 Peace of Min 37 Crossword CAP Finds Bring Closure To Victim’s Families 52 RegionNews 25 HomtownHeroes 56 Achievmnts National Headquarters Honors WWII Members SUBSCRITIONS 27 A Holiday Tradition The annual subscription rate is $25, or $12.50 for retired CAP Units Honor Military Veterans With Wreaths members. To subscribe, mail a check to Volunteer Sub- scriptions, CAP Public Affairs, 105 S. Hansell St., Bldg. 34 Learnin To ly 714, Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6332. Test Pilot Instructor Got His Start In CAP 38 TP lights ON OUR COVER Aerospace Education Program Takes Teachers Aloft Civil Air Patrol’s Utah Wing supported development test- ing of the U.S. Army’s JLENS cruise missile defense sys- 40 owered Parachute tem over western Utah in 2011, helping ensure the Flights Lead Squadron Commander Back To CAP effectiveness of defense against low-altitude cruise missiles. Here, a Utah Wing flight crew orbits the elevated JLENS 42 Father Knows Best aerostat, designed to provide battlefield commanders with early detection of airborne threats. See story on page 10. Like Dad, Daughter Commands Missouri Wing Photo by 2nd Lt. Roger Kehr, Utah Wing 45 Beatin Te Odds Cadet Excels Despite Bout With Rare Disease Civil Air Patrol Volunteer is oriented toward both internal (CAP) and external audiences. For that reason, it uses the Associated Press style for such things as military abbreviations. Associated Press style is the standard used for most 48 Te CAP Inluene newspapers and magazines. Official internal CAP communications should con- Former Cadet Enjoys Career In Neurology tinue to use the U.S. Air Force rank abbreviations found in CAPR 35-5. CitizensSring Commnities 1 www.gociilairatrol.om In the days of World War II, as now, being I a patriot was a prerequisite to joining Civil Air Patrol, but being a pilot was not. In fact, CAP had an estimated 60,000 members during the 1940s, but only a fraction of them were pilots. The rest provided crucial support services — in the hangars, on the tarmac, in control towers and at many other locations. Without these services, the heroic CAP pilots of World War II would have been hard-pressed to fly day after day from the U.S. coastline to take on the enemy. Second installment in a four-part series CitizensSring Commnities 3 www.gociilairatrol.om The Way We Were World War II ground teams were wind beneath the wings of CAP pilots By Kristi Carr J ships and submarines.” Once CAP had proven its Reliable planes were of worth in locating enemy vessels, the U.S. government paramount importance. temporarily granted CAP the authority to arm its Many used by CAP in the planes, an authorization that ended with the war. war effort came from While still at the Coastal Patrol Base airport, Scott private or commercial remembered a U.S. Army ordnance group living in tents, sources and were generally charged with installing bomb and depth-charge racks on well-maintained. Once they the planes and loading and unloading the armaments. were assigned to CAP, Depending on their size, the planes were equipped with however, the organization racks to hold one or two 100-pound bombs. became responsible for CAP is credited with sinking two enemy keeping them airworthy. submarines during World War II and with Enter the mechanics. Julian H. Sott srd asa discouraging countless others. One, Julian H. Scott, got mhanic at Coastal Patrol Scott left CAP when he was called to active duty his training at a Bas 6. He helped mintain not long after he reached age 18; he served as a pilot government-sponsored privately owned planesleasd with the U.S. Navy. trade school that taught by the governmnt for$1. aviation mechanics in his D oule hometown of Athens, Ga. “One morning in the spring Meanwhile, at Coastal Patrol Base 19 in Portland, of 1942,” he said, “we were all called together (and Maine, another mechanic’s experiences illustrated the risks asked to go) to St. Simons Island, Ga., to start up a new CAP volunteers faced even when staying close to home. Coastal Air Patrol location.” This was the genesis of Dennis Soule functioned as both a mechanic and Coastal Patrol Base 6. observer, and he had a close call when the landing gear of Scott continued, “Most of the men in our unit were the Bellanca aircraft in which he was a passenger failed to either too young or too old to be drafted. We were deploy. As the pilot circled, Soule was forced to use a responsible for maintaining privately owned planes pocket knife to tear up the plane’s floorboard to gain leased by the government, I think, for $1 per year. In access to the gear. Lying upside down and hanging below most cases the planes were flown by their owners, mostly the plane’s floor, he was finally able to hand-crank the wealthy men from the Atlanta area, to search for enemy gear down, and the plane landed safely. Ciil irPatrol Volunteer 4 Januarrh 2012 Stev atti flight crew were charged with reporting all they saw; Steve Patti, now 89, served double duty for CAP in they were equipped with a Thompson submachine Texas, where the country was vulnerable at the Gulf gun, a hunting knife and a clipboard. Among sights waters as well as its border with Mexico. An aviation they reported back to the U.S. Army intelligence mechanic, Patti and others from the Los Angeles area officer assigned to CAP were a man spotted tiptoeing volunteered to establish a CAP unit, Coastal Patrol Base through the shallow Rio Grande carrying his shoes and 12, at Brownsville, Texas, where subchasing would the license plate numbers of automobiles approaching be a major activity. It was a remote outpost for a the border from Mexico. young man in his early 20s. The allowance was $5 Once, Patti and others drove per day, and from that the CAP members were out to a downed border patrol expected to pay for their own food, lodging, tools plane, which they had to and any other necessities. Improvisation was a disassemble on the spot in order necessity for mechanics like Patti. They melted to get it back to the base. down scraps to make the lead weights needed to Not long after arriving in anchor towing antennas and went on the hunt for Texas, Patti and his fellow CAP tractor-wheel bearings to serve as substitutes for members were sworn in as Air airplane bearings, which were literally consumed Force reservists but returned to by the sandy conditions. CAP service. In 1944, he Patti also found himself in Marfa, Texas, in Big received his induction notice and Bend country. Here, he was asked to serve as an Steve Patti wearswinterlothing went back to California as an observer on flights along the Rio Grande, issed by the Mara rmirield. active-duty U.S. Army Air America’s border with Mexico. Members of the Forces member. Patti snapped thisphoto of what he called “six mhanisand one obsrr”fromhisWorld WarII dasin a TexasCAP unit. CitizensSring Commnities 5 www.gociilairatrol.om Raley said of Dijeau, Pennsylvanian Benjamin Dyner had been “If not for his attending flying school at Somerton Airport near contributions to Philadelphia and was a member of a flying club training and qualifying when CAP came calling to recruit members less CAP pilots during the than a week after Pearl Harbor was attacked. early days of 1942, Dyner, 18 at the time, joined CAP on Dec. 12, there may not have 1941. Though flying was his passion, he held a been a viable and commercial radio license and was proficient in successful Coastal Patrol Morse code, a skill he passed on to others. At first, capability in the Gulf of he said, CAP Mexico and Texas missions usually In 1942 Benjamin Dner, coast.” involved the ferrying wearing hisCAP uniform Following World War of VIPs to New hekd out a plane at II, Dijeau alternated Jersey, Washington, WingsField, inst, whih working as a pilot and D.C., or other washom to hisCAP an electrician. Even now, nearby locations squadron nearhiladelphia. in his late 90s, Dijeau from the squadron’s continues to fly for base in Blue Bell, Pa. pleasure and to serve as a But before long, he CAP member. s found himself at Coastal Patrol Base To read more about 17 in Riverhead, Steve Patti and to view N.Y. He left CAP in late 1942 to enlist in the military. his extensive collection of vintage CAP photos, go to www.caphistory.org/museum_photo_gallery_patti.html. G ijeau Hailing from California, George Dijeau was Capt. Mary Story contributed to this story. a CAP pilot who for a time flew armed subchaser missions over the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during World War II, later becoming a commercial pilot. Yet one of his most valuable contributions to CAP may have been the training he gave pilots. After a stint with the Army Air Forces — during California Wing Tinnirllo, hoto by Maj.