About Civil Air Patrol

Civil Air Patrol was organized Dec. 1, 1941, as part of the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense. During World War II, as a way to use America's civilian aviation resources to aid the war effort instead of grounding them. Members flew more than 24 million miles on coastal patrol. They summoned help for 91 ships in distress and 363 survivors of submarine attacks. Patrol crews spotted 173 enemy submarines, dropped bombs or depth charges on 57 of them and received credit for sinking or seriously damaging at least two. Others were destroyed by planes and ships summoned by Civil Air Patrol radios.

Civil Air Patrol crews flew many other wartime missions, including a courier service for airlift of personnel and light cargo; target towing and tracking flights for training anti-aircraft gunners; power line and pipeline surveillance; forest fire patrol; and patrol along the southern U.S. border. Sixty-four members died while performing wartime operations.

Missions

As an official auxiliary of the Air Force, CAP has three principal missions--emergency services including communications, aerospace education and training, and a cadet training and motivation program.

The organization became a permanent peacetime institution on July 1, 1946. On that date, President Harry S. Truman signed Public Law 476 of the 79th Congress, incorporating Civil Air Patrol in its present form.

Civil Air Patrol became a permanent civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force in May 1948 with the enactment of Public Law 557 of the 80th Congress.

Organization

The Civil Air Patrol is a civilian organization but, as the civilian Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, it comes as no surprise that it is organized along military lines. Civil Air Patrol has a national headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, and eight geographical regions, each with from five to nine wings. There are 52 wings in all, one in each state plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Wings are divided in groups, squadrons, and sometimes flights. There are about 1,700 individual units. Half of which are composite squadrons or squadrons that have both senior and cadet members.

Personnel

The Civil Air Patrol has more than 58,000 members: 34,000 in senior-member programs and 24,000 in cadet programs. They come from varied backgrounds from police chiefs to school teachers and from big cities and small towns. These differences matter little. What does though is that all of these people want to be involved in their community -- they want to help others -- and they share a love of aviation. They wear a uniform similar to that of the Air Force but with special CAP insignia. They also all get paid the same, zero, from the National Commander to the newest cadet.Time served in CAP does not count toward military service--nor does it obligate members to any active military duty.