CAP History

[tarheel gumby]

Has anyone ever found a interesting bit of CAP history that has been hidden away?

[James Shaw]

How about the fact that we used a Toilet Plunger as our Tow Target with a couple of bulbs and a few batteries attached inside the plunger.

[JAFO78]

How about the fact that we used a Toilet Plunger as our Tow Target with a couple of bulbs and a few batteries attached inside the plunger.

[JohnKachenmeister]

How about the fact that we used a Toilet Plunger as our Tow Target with a couple of bulbs and a few batteries attached inside the plunger.

I heard that story too.  It was to train ground gunners firing at a target at night.

[FlexCoder]

I was at an estate sale last week and found a very Rare CAP Tarheel Gumby Doll issued in the 1980's to only NC CAP members to relieve mission stress by squeezing & bending it.  And if you squeeze it's belly, it chuckles for a brief moment and then talks to you with CAP sayings.  I am not really fond of the remarks it made about the Ultimate Kirt doll.  Not going to elaborate what Gumby said about Kirt or he may end up as a pretzel.   But then again, Ultimate Kirt did take Gumby's jeep out for a joyride one night and it ended up in the bottom of the lake.  The messages are actually programmable but I can't seem to get the Kirt sayings deleted for some reason.  Anyway, Gumby would like to know what sayings or slogans we should program for him to say.  Any suggestions?

[Eclipse]

Found in the squadron when cleaning out:

Original 50's era radiation monitoring equipment, both hand-held and some components for airframe mounting, including panel gauges - big 'ol 50's circuit boards, some of the stuff still in original boxes. (likely the same stuff as pictured in the famous Palwaukee photo from National Geographic.

Photos showing a large group of members marching down Michigan Avenue (Chicago, IL) in March, 1942, which pinpoints the unit as being one of the charter squadrons.

[Smithsonia]

According to the Neprud book (Flying Minute Men) "First drop items" delivered to stranded (crashed) air crews during WW2 included chewing gum, whiskey, matches, loaded guns, and cartons of cigarettes. Times have changed just a bit on everything but the gum.

[tarheel gumby]

I could just see the things that would be said about that list if we were to try to drop them now.

[tarheel gumby]

Has anybody seen their unit's original charter certificate.

[Tubacap]

I did, but it was from last year.  The one prior to that was about 40 years old I believe, and it is hanging on the wall in the Squadron's main meeting room.

Ours is hanging at the entrance to the National Guard Readiness Center where we meet.

[RiverAux]

You can also request replacement certificates from NHQ.  Keep in mind that if you don't already know the date that should be on it, they probably don't either.  They've only got unit charter dates in the database for the last 10 years.  So, if you want to get a replacement certificate, I'd suggest sending some sort of documentation that would back up the date you want on it. 

[Eclipse]

Has anybody seen their unit's original charter certificate.

It depends on what you define as "original".

As in the example above, we have documentation, photos, patches and related information that proves that unit existed, without pause, back to Spring 1942, however the oldest charter document we have in our possession is from the early '70's when NHQ renumbered and reissued a lot of charters.

When we asked for real originals we were told anything older than that doesn't exist.

[ol'fido]

The "bug" as it was called was not used as a gunner's target. It was used to help in satellite tracking exercises. It was flown at 7,000' AGL and 105 mph with a 100' of plastic covered clothesline behind an L-5. It was made out of a toilet plunger, batteries, and a flashlight bulb. This was when CAP helped in Operations MOONWATCH and SPACETRACK. Source for this info: Hero Next Door, by Frank A. Burnham, Aero Publishers, Inc., 1974 ed.

[Eclipse]

Moonwatch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moonwatch

[tarheel gumby]

My squadron has the original Charter Certificate issued in May of 1957. That is displayed on the wall in front of the door so that visitors may see it as they come in.

[FlexCoder]

CIVIL AIR PATROL PLANE CRASHES INTO THE OCEAN

ATLANTIC CITY, May 28 1942 - Two Occupants of a Civilian Air Patrol plane escaped serious injury at 11:30 AM today when their plane crashed into the ocean off Barnegat.  They were Leland D. Binder, 27 of Connorsville, Indiana and James H. Knox, 26 of Buffalo, NY.  They were rescued by a Coast Guard boat.   Army authorities said the plane had been on a routine flight.

Source - The Philadelphia Inquirer Newspaper, page 3, 29 May 1942.
Wing - New Jersey

[FlexCoder]

SENIOR WINS CAP TRIP

Janice Black, who is graduating this month from Miller High School, is the only Georgia CAP girl cadet to win a trip to Cuba in June in the CAP Intra-National Cadet Exchange.  The Macon girl, who will leave June 21 for 13 days in Cuba with a group that will be located at an air base there, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cardie Black of Hawkinsville Road.   She has been in the CAP for three years and she attended the summer encampment at Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta two years ago.  The young cadet hopes to go in the fall to Crawford W. Long Hospital school of Nursing in Atlanta.

Source - The Macon News Newspaper, page 9, Macon, GA, 22 May 1956.
Wing - Georgia

[FlexCoder]

1940 - TWO RESIDENTS MEMBERS OF NEW CITIZENS' AVIATION CORPS

Members of the citizens' aviation corps recently formed at the Revere Airport include David F. Canty of Harvard Avenue and Robert S. Feinburg of Summit Avenue, the former being engineering officer and chief of maintenance with the rank of captain and the latter having the rating of second lieutenant.  Members of the unit, officially designated Group 1 of the Massachusetts Wing, Civilian Air Reserve, meet at the airport every Sunday morning from nine to eleven o'clock for training in formation flying, bomb dropping, picture and mapmaking, reconnaissance, mechanics, navigation and meteorology and gather every other Tuesday evening for instruction.  The organization is a part of a national movement inaugurated to heighten private flying activity and to provide a reserve of pilots with elementary training in time of war and a volunteer corps for emergency services.

Source - The Chronicle Newspaper, page 5, Brooksline, MA, 14 March 1940.
Wing - Massachusetts

[FlexCoder]

CAP CADETS TO FLY TO AIR BASE AT ROME

Civil Air Patrol cadets from the Capital District will fly to Griffiss Air Base, Rome, July 10 for the annual CAP encampment.  The one week encampment will include 80 hours of intensive training in aviation subjects, patterned after the regular Air Force program.  The cadets will receive both academic and vocational instruction.

Source - The Knickerbocker News Newspaper, page B-1, 2nd Section, Albany, NY, 5 July 1949.
Wing - New York

[FlexCoder]

CIVIL AIR PATROL

The Office of Civilian Defense is now enlisting private pilots throughout the nation in a new organization, the Civil Air Patrol.  Full enlistment of private flyers would give a total strength of 90,000 pilots and 100,000 ground personnel.

Source - The Vincennes Sun-Commercial Newspaper, Evening Edition, page 4, Knox County, Indiana, 16 January 1942.
Wing - Indiana