Pe ks & Planes Spring 2021 Official Magazine of the Colorado Wing, Civil Air Patrol In This Issue: , Colorado Puts the CAP on COVID-19 , Lt. Col. Rochelle Kimbrell Makes Air Force History and Returns to CAP , , COWG 2020 “Of the Year Awards” 2nd Congressional And Much More! Gold Medal Presented to Franklin Macon Commander’s Comments Col. John Rhoades, CAP Commander, Colorado Wing Greetings Colorado Wing. After almost a year and a half of COVID, we are Civil Air Patrol is the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force. Peaks and Planes slowly starting to see light is the official publication of the Colorado at the end of the tunnel. Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. Colorado Wing has resumed It is published three times a year by the limited in-person activi- Colorado Wing Public Affairs Staff. ties and we are progress- Peaks and Planes is published by a private ing towards Phase 3 which firm which is not associated with the Department of the Air Force or the Civil will allow a resumption of Air Patrol Corporation. The appearance of most activities. Even with advertisements for products and services, as all the restrictions brought well as supplements and inserts found in this on by COVID, Colorado magazine, does not constitute endorsement by Wing remained active and the United States Air Force or the Civil Air continued to accomplish our Patrol Corporation. missions. Colorado Wing Commander Col. John Rhoades, CAP Over the last year Colorado Wing was very active assisting Peaks and Planes Editor-In-Chief in the fight against COVID. We supported a number of Lt. Col. Mike Daniels, CAP non-profit organizations with the production and delivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) throughout the state, Article submissions are always welcome. especially rural areas. Members spent countless hours pick- Please send them in Microsoft Word format ing up materials, assembling and delivering finished PPE to Lt. Col. Mike Daniels, Peaks and Planes products to ensure rural health care facilities had the PPE at [email protected]. Attach photos (in jpeg format) to your email and make certain to needed to keep frontline healthcare workers safe. The work include full caption information for each photo of our members saved lives and is an excellent example of at the end of your article. the volunteer spirt that makes CAP great. Article Submissions- Next Issue Submission Even with the months of restricted operations, we had a Deadline: July 3, 202 record-breaking year in a number of ways. Our membership Headquarters peaked at 200 members and while COVID has hit member- Colorado Wing, Civil Air Patrol ship hard, the wing is rebounding and back to almost 900 325 W. Hamilton Ave., Bldg. 33 members. Once we transitioned into phase 2, we focused on Peterson AFB, CO 8094 getting our cadets back in the air and finished last year with Phone: 79-556-8280 just over 500 front seat O-flights flown. Total flight time for Fax: 79-556-686 the year was just under 3,000 hours, the highest in almost 0 www.cowg.cap.gov years. We have had great success at streamlining the process to onboard and qualify new pilots and are seeing very posi- COVER: COWG Commander, Col. John tive results from that hard work. Colorado moved from 20th Rhoades, loads boxes of PPE into CAP aircraft place to 5th place in one year in time flown per aircraft and at Centennial Airport for AFAM sortie to we are already 400 hours ahead of where we were last year. deliver to rural Colorado hospital. Photo by Thank you to all of the pilots volunteering their time to make Lt. Col. Chad Grodahl, COWG Director of things happen. Operations Continued on page 21 . Peaks and Planes Spring 2021 Colorado Puts the CAP on COVID-19 COWG Assigned Missions to Support the State By Lt. Col. Mike Daniels, CAP COWG Director of Public Affairs As the nation began to respond to the COVID-9 pandemic, the Colorado Wing quickly became engaged to support the state’s efforts to quickly supply much needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to rural areas. The Civil Air Patrol, acting as the Air Force Auxiliary, responds to non-military threats domestically with a capacity to save lives, relieve suffering and provide humanitarian assistance and therefore the Colorado Wing had an Air Force Assigned Mission to support the state in delivering PPE wherever needed. In December 2020, Air Force Magazine reporter Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory researched CAP’s COVID Response and interviewed public affairs officers Senior Member, 2nd Lt. Brad Jones, Cadet from various wings about their missions. The article Commander Shayden Jones and Cadet 1st Sgt. was titled, Putting the CAP on COVID-19: How Alexander Menech met Mission Pilot Maj. Kent Civil Air Patrol rallied to the nation’s call in the Borchelt of the Highlander Composite Squadron and his CAP aircraft on the ramp at the Eagle County face of a global pandemic. Nationwide CAP flew Regional Airport to receive boxes of PPE supplied missions to deliver PPE, COVID-9 test kits and through the Make4COVID organization. Photo by 2nd samples, medical supplies and vaccines. She learned Lt. Brad Jones. from interviewing me that the Colorado Wing even transported a leader from the Colorado Hospital Association, Benjamin Anderson, who used PPE delivery flights as an opportunity to touch base with frontline health care workers on the ground to help formulate a pandemic-response playbook. The pandemic triggered shortages of masks, gloves, and other personal protec- tive equipment across the U.S., especially in remote areas and CAP flew to the res- cue. I shared with the Air Force Magazine reporter that the Colorado Wing partnered COWG Commander, Col. John Rhoades, loads boxes of PPE with the Colorado Hospital Association, into CAP aircraft at Centennial Airport for AFAM sortie to deliver Project C.U.R.E., Make4COVID and to rural Colorado hospital. Photo by Lt. Col. Chad Grodahl, the state government to distribute PPE COWG Director of Operations Peaks and Planes Spring 2021 for health care workers throughout Colorado and flew over 60 sorties from April through September 2020. For the COWG, missions began in early April. As part of the six air sorties and four ground sorties executed by the Colorado Wing on April 9th 2020, Mission Pilot Maj. Kent Borchelt of the Highlander Composite Squadron flew multiple cartons of PPE that were supplied by Make4COVID from Centennial Airport to Eagle County as part of the COWG’s Air Force Assigned Mission (AFAM) to support the state’s efforts to supply hospitals, healthcare facilities and medical, healthcare, fire and On April 11th Mission Pilot Lt. Col. Doug DalSoglio of law enforcement professionals throughout Colorado the Pikes Peak Senior Squadron transported multiple with PPE during the COVID-9 pandemic. Members boxes of PPE that were loaded in a GA-8 Airvan from of the Eagle County Composite Squadron performed Colorado Springs to Montrose. Photo by Capt. Jen their first assigned mission in support of frontline Knellinger, CAP, Pikes Peak Squadron PAO medical efforts against COVID-9 by delivering the boxes of PPE to a liaison for the Home-care / Hospice Care of the Glenwood Springs Hospital. On Saturday, April 11th, Mission Pilot Lt. Col. Doug DalSoglio of the Pikes Peak Senior Squadron transported multiple boxes of PPE that were loaded in a GA8 Airvan to be flown from Colorado Springs to Montrose where members of the Montrose Composite Squadron met the aircraft to unload the cargo to a CAP van and deliver it to a local health care facility. Later in April more mission sorties were flown by Mission Pilots, Lt. Col. Eyal Sittenfeld and Capt. Kevin Edling of the Black Sheep Senior Squadron who delivered Make4COVID supplied PPE to Burlington, Eagle and Craig. When Lt. Col. Sittenfeld arrived at the airport in Burlington he shared that he had the opportunity to speak to some children and their parents about the Civil Air Patrol. In May 2020, the Colorado Wing continued to execute our Air Force Assigned Mission to support the state’s COVID-9 response by delivering PPE to rural hospitals and healthcare facilities when Wing Commander, Col. John Rhoades, flew a sortie to La Lt. Col. Doug DalSoglio of the Pikes Peaks Senior Squadron and Colorado Hospital Assn VP Ben Mission Pilot 1st Lt. Sanjay Tyagi carries boxes of Anderson headed to Rural Make4COVID supplied PPE to a waiting medical CO Health Centers to deliver PPE and prepare center staffer on an AFAM sortie to Spanish Peaks, research for a Rural Health Assn COVID-19 Playbook. CO in April 2020. 5 5 Junta to deliver PPE to a medical facility on May 3th. A week later on May 2st, Lt. Col. Chad Grondahl, COWG’s Director of Operations, was the mission pilot who flew the GA-8 filled with boxes of PPE for delivery to Alamosa, Pagosa Springs and Del Norte. Members of the Heart of the Rockies Squadron, SM Wendy Fischer, Cadet Technical Sgt. Keaton Fischer and Cadet Senior Airman Clint Blackmon met Lt. Col. Grondahl at the airport and helped unload and COWG partnered with Project C.U.R.E. to deliver PPE to medical facilities deliver 9,000 items of PPE to the in Meeker, CO on July 20th. Mission Pilot Maj. Milt Moore with 2nd Lt. area’s health and medical centers Adam Holstun and a Project C.U.R.E. staff volunteer loaded the GA-8 coordinated by the Colorado Airvan. Photo by Capt. Jen Knellinger, CAP, Pikes Peak Squadron PAO Hospital Association. Over 1100+ boxes of PPE were delivered by the COWG in April and May.