Lt. Col. Richard C. Niess

[ironputts]

October 2, 2020

Lt. Col. Richard C. Niess
Marco Island Senior Squadron
Florida Wing

No obituary

Marco Island Squadron article:

THE LONG CAP CAREER OF LT COL RICHARD "DICK" NIESS
Civil Air Patrol Honors 50-Year Member: Lt Col Richard C. Niess

The Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters, Florida Wing, and Marco Island Senior Squadron are honoring Lt Col Richard C. Niess for 50 years of membership. He first joined the Augusta Squadron of Staunton Virginia in February 1964 and subsequently served in five different CAP Wings and three Regions.
After moving to Florida in 2005, he transferred his CAP membership to the Marco Island Squadron and was first assigned to Recruiting and Retention Officer. He was assigned to Public Affairs Officer in February 2006 and Lt Col Niess served with distinction in this position until December 2013.
At 90 years old he was awarded the Marco Island Civil Air Patrol Member of the Year 2011 Certificate. The Citation read in part – Lt Col Niess enthusiastically and tirelessly has interfaced with local, national, and Civil Air Patrol news media to enhance and publicize squadron activities. His high-level working contacts at CAP National Headquarters have been invaluable to the squadron. As a result, the Marco Island Squadron has gained recognition throughout the CAP state and national communities as well as the local civilian community. On the local level, this has enhanced important fundraising and recruiting which are ongoing efforts to maintain Squadron activities. In addition, Lt Col Niess is an active volunteer for many tasks outside his primary duties as Public Affairs Officer and maintains his position as a qualified Mission Radio Operator, Urban Direction Finding Team Member, Mission Scanner, Mission Observer, and a valuable aircrew member. 
A CAP Family
It all started in the late 1950s. While in York PA, he progressed to a middle management position which required him to fly emerging airlines to conduct business commitments. Being uncomfortable in the air, he decided to learn to fly. Approaching it with special determination, because he had been told he could not fly due to lack of depth perception, he took flying lessons and soloed after a reasonable amount of instruction.
But scheduling for a rental plane was a constant problem. However he and another student pilot solved this problem by purchasing a tail-dragger two-seat fabric-covered Taylorcraft BC-12D. This aircraft had to be hand-propped to start, and in addition, the plane had no electrical system other than the engine magnetos.
He was issued a private pilot license in 1952, following an exhaustive FAA flight test, and a FAA Waiver requiring wearing a corrective lens while flying. They eventually sold the Taylorcraft and purchased a Piper Pacer (4-seat trail-dragger prototype of the TriPacer). We now had an electrical system, starter, radio, and 4-seats. In this plane we could travel wider distances. As time went on he also qualified in an Ercoupe, TriPacer, C-170, and retractable-gear 4-seat Mooney, all belonging to friends with whom he flew often.
In 1961, Niess changed jobs and moved to Staunton Virginia, he purchased a share in a Cessna 135 (a C-130 with flaps) hangared at the nearby Waynesboro airport. Now in a new community he was seeking some way to use the plane for something purposeful, other than just boring holes in the sky.
In 1963 he read the local CAP Squadron scheduled a lecture by a former Luftwaffe pilot on "The battle of Britain from the Luftwaffe point of view. Going their meeting, and after the interesting presentation, the Squadron held a short business meeting for which he stayed to understand what the organization might be about. But the CAP hosts never exchanged any words and he was compelled to sit by myself for the remainder of the evening.
Attending the next meeting, he was welcomed but again no one played any attention. About to give up and go home, the Squadron Commander came over and asked if he was a pilot. Replying in the affirmative, he asked if Niess would teach the cadets as their instructor had not shown up. When he was told the cadets were studying the subject of Navigation and Weather, Niess agreed. At that time the cadets largely studied together in class rooms from manuals on the achievement subject.
As the instruction period ended and he was chatting with a couple of cadets who stayed on in the classroom, the Commander again approached and this time his manner was friendly. Impressed by being told by several cadets who asked "where did this guy come from?" and inquired if he could get me to come again. That was the first time anyone even hinted about joining CAP.
He liked what he had heard and that their CAP overall three missions were Emergency Services, Cadet Program, and Aerospace Education. As he had a wife and family of three potential cadet members, CAP would provide a family activity and he decided to join.
That experience was his first CAP lesson --- never let a visitor sit alone; always have a member sit with him/her and explain what was going on and what CAP was all about! Recruit!
After the application papers went all through Wing and National, he finally received the official membership documents dated 28 February 1964.
In March 1964 he was appointed Deputy Commander – Cadets, and served in that capacity until October 1968. Second CAP Lesson: The most fun in CAP occurs at the Squadron level.
During the mid-1960s, and in the following years, CAP had numerous SAR (Search and Rescue) missions, often due to "flat-land" western pilots attempting to cross the eastern Allegheny mountains VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and all too often crashing about 500 feet below the ridge line when lowering ceilings forced them into IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) conditions. Remember navigational and weather facilities then were not what they are today. Consequently SAR training had high priority on the CAP schedule. Members often used their own aircraft to fly CAP missions, as relatively few Squadrons had CAP-owned planes assigned to them.
In addition to working with cadets, Niess began completing the other steps to qualify as a CAP member and CAP Pilot. This included the ECI Course 7C and Drill and Ceremonies course. On 15 April 1964, using his Cessna 135, he completed the check ride and qualified as a CAP Pilot. Shortly after he participated in his first REDCAP (USAF-tasked search mission) along with 32 Augusta members and cadets.
In April 1965 he completed SAR training and was promoted to S/Sgt. In August, at the Annual SAR Operational Effectiveness Test, he also qualified and was rated as a Mission Pilot and then as a Mission Coordinator (now called Incident Commander). Also, seeing he was having so much fun, his wife Ann joined CAP that year.
His children (Linda, Buz, and Bob) saw the good times Mom and Dad were having in the CAP activities. As they became of age (12) each joined as cadets and participated in the Squadron activities and Cadet Encampments. When Buz joined in 1966, his younger brother Bob was outfitted in a camouflage uniform and joined in the activities as a "Provisional" cadet. So he had a jump on his peers.
Week-long CAP Wing Encampments at a military base were one of the annual major cadet programs. Cadets and Senior Member supervisors ran the Encampment where everyone experienced daily military life. Numerous training exercises -- ground school and orientation flights, aerospace education classes, rifle range instruction, tear gas trials, drill and ceremonies -- were conducted daily. Cadets slept in barracks and ate at the mess hall. 
The Virginia Cadet Encampment was held 20-27 August 1966 at the Camp Pickett Army Base, Blackstone, VA. Niess was appointed Commandant of Cadets and his wife served as Tactical Officer for the female cadet flight. It was a great experience at all levels, and was the first of 5 encampments they jointly attended.
In July 1968, it was his honor to serve as Encampment Executive Officer and Deputy Commander and in July 1969 as Encampment Commander, all at Camp Pickett. Next came as Encampment Commander in July 1970 at Fort Lee AFB and as Commander for the Andrews AFB encampment in June 1972.
When the USAF introduced the Cessna 305 – O-1 BirdDog to the CAP fleet, the Virginia Wing Commander selected the Augusta Squadron to receive the first one placed in Virginia. Only pilots with 200 or more hours of tail-wheel time were qualified to train on this new more-complex aircraft. At that time the Squadron had four tail-wheel qualified pilots.
Shortly after receiving the O-1 plane, Allegheny Airlines stationed four pilots at the Shenandoah Airport. When they were interviewed, not one had any tail-wheel time. That situation, along with the propensity of the O-1 to ground-loop, illustrated why the O-1 did not last long in the CAP fleet.
In 1966 Niess qualified as a Senior Pilot and as a Cadet Orientation Pilot; in 1970 as a Standardization and Evaluation Pilot.
In November 1968, he became Augusta Squadron Commander, serving for 4 years; dropping back to Operations Officer from Dec 1972 to June 1973.
The early 1970s were filled with numerous training (SARCAP), actual (REDCAP) and CAP/CD Effectiveness Test missions, cadet and senior training events – completing Levels I, II and III of senior training. The highlight was when he and his wife both attended and completed the week-long National Staff College at Maxwell AFB in August 1971.
In July 1973, a re-assignment was accepted as Virginia Wing Director of Cadet Programs, thus ending his first command tenure at the Squadron level. It was an interesting job, assisting squadrons across the state in improving their local cadet programs, monitoring potential Spaatz award candidates, and selecting candidates for the many national cadet programs – particularly IACE (International Air Cadet Exchange). We particularly focused on this activity as two of their children had already attended (Linda to Belgium in 1967 and Buz to France in 1970); it was one of their most memorable life events, and they wanted to pick the very best as they were CAP ambassadors.
Another major effort was the development of cadet Spaatz award candidates. No cadet in Virginia had yet won this top achievement. The Wing staff and Squadrons were working to reach that level as we had three good candidates – Bruce Hildreth and Linda Niess of Augusta Squadron and Richard Anderson of Roanoke Squadron.
Linda was the first to take the extensive Spaatz test and passed all except the physical chin-up test. It was then that Jack Sorenson – National Cadet Program Director – realized the physical tests were the same for both genders and this was not fair; he did get it changed but it was too late for Linda as she was now in college. Bruce Hildreth did pass and was the first Spaatz Award winner in Virginia.  Shortly after Richard Anderson also won the award and went on to a distinguished career in the USAF and became the CAP National Commander.
His assignment as Virginia Wing Director of Cadets only lasted a short while as in November 1973; his employer – Westinghouse Electric Corp. – transferred him from Staunton Virginia to the corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Virginia Wing sent him off with a great recommendation, his second Meritorious Service Award, and a promotion from Major to Lt Colonel.
Pennsylvania Wing Headquarters at Allegheny County Airport was not far from their new home in Upper St Claire. Lt Col Niess arrived at a good time as Pennsylvania needed a Wing Director of Emergency Services and he suddenly had a new job. This began a long friendship with Andy Skiba who was then the PA Wing Director of Operations. Niess and Skiba both flew the O-1 BirdDog based at PA Wing.
Col Ange Milano was the PA Wing Commander and owned a twin-engine Piper Aztec, also kept at Wing Headquarters. Andy Skiba was an airline pilot for Allegheny Airlines and later US Airways. As Ange liked to travel all over the Wing and have Andy as pilot, the three of them did a lot of visiting Groups and Squadrons and attending NE Region and nearby Wing Conferences. When the need for a PA Wing and then for a Middle East Region Director of Cadets occurred, Niess was assigned to these jobs.
When Westinghouse promoted Niess to a position back in Virginia, CAP assigned him to Wing Task Force 4 Emergency Service Officer, and then to Squadron Commander of the Augusta Squadron. When the Westinghouse Division was sold to McQuay Inc., Plymouth MN, CAP assigned him to Minnesota Wing Director of Senior Programs, and Deputy Wing Emergency Services Officer. Resigning from McQuay and taking a new position in the Washington DC area, Maryland Wing assigned him to Wing Director of Senior Programs.
Overall, CAP provided a complete family activity that kept parents and teen-age children busy at all times.

New article:

https://www.naplesnews.com/story/life/2019/08/01/east-naples-man-stays-active-96/1841302001/