What does CAP-USAF do?

[BillB]

Way back in history, Headquarters CAP-USAF ran CAP. Now in the 21st century what does CAP-USAF do? It would seem that CAP-USAF could still control CAP rather than the corporate side coming up with new uniforms, aircraft markings and the politics that members find offensive. It appears that there is little effort by USAF and/or CAP-USAF to do anything about reported problems that are surfacing under the corporate structure for an organization that is the Air Force Auxiliary only when it wants funding. Does CAP-USAF need to go back to a general grade Commander to be effective? Or just what does the Air Force side of the house do at Maxwell?

[DNall]

The AF has ZERO authority over CAP. That provide oversight of spending the appropriated money only. CAP could spend dues money to remodel the commander's house if they wanted & AF couldn't do anything about it but maybe tip off a civilian prosecutor, and if that really what the national board wanted to do then they couldn't do anything about it either. AF also has authority over the pieces of CAP active on a mission WHILE they are active in the mission. That's it & no more. They do inspections & grade excercises, but that is non-binding information used by CAP to fix problems & Congress to appropriate money (freezes are just about protecting apropriatated money, they can't legally force you to fix a problem).

Since CAP-USAF was removed from the direct chain of command, the AF has made three major attempts w/ Congress to get the CAP structure changed & more answerable to them. They've conducted IG investigations but been unable to pursue them when problems are found because they have no administrative authority over CAP. The reason the AF has not stepped in to do anything about all the corporate officer firings for instance is because they don't have the power to do anything about it. You'll find if you talk to any CAP-USAF personnel that they actually cannot tell you what AF thinks about things CAP is doing because those are CAP controlled matters & they are ONLY allowed to comment on things the AF has direct authority over.

Only thru the BoG can the AF have any influence on CAP governance, and it would still not be accountable to AF. You'd think AF officers would be concerned with their careers if they went against AF in that capacity, but as I recall it's just two AF officers on the BoG & they're both 3-stars already, so I don't think that comes into play.