Civil Air Patrol

In the late 1930s, more than 150,000 volunteers with a love for aviation argued for an organization to put their planes and flying skills to use in defense of their country. As a result, the Civil Air Patrol was born one week prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Thousands of volunteer members answered America's call to national service and sacrifice by accepting and performing critical wartime missions. Assigned to the War Department under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Corps, the contributions of Civil Air Patrol, including logging more than 500,000 flying hours, sinking two enemy submarines, and saving hundreds of crash victims during World War II, are well documented.

After the war, a thankful nation understood that Civil Air Patrol could continue providing valuable services to both local and national agencies. On July 1, 1946, President Harry Truman signed Public Law 476 incorporating Civil Air Patrol as a benevolent, nonprofit organization. On May 26, 1948, Congress passed Public Law 557 permanently establishing Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force. Three primary mission areas were set forth at that time: aerospace education, cadet programs, and emergency services.

Our organization focuses on three primary missions for our community: Cadet Programs, Aerospace Education, and Emergency Services. Local units support these missions as they are able and have many volunteer opportunities/positions such as: Personnel, Public Affairs, Financial Management, Inspector General, Professional Development, Administration, Logistics, Operations, Standardization/evaluation, search and rescue team member/leader, disaster relief teams, search and rescue pilots/aircrew, emergency radio communications specialists, aerospace education officer, cadet programs, safety, legal, chaplain, command, historian, character development, recruiting and retention, and information technologies. It is a great opportunity for college students to get real world experience and training for their resume as well as getting involved in the community. We also offer youth ages 12-18 the opportunity to go through our cadet program and develop leadership leadership skills while having fun.