Quote from: Smithsonia on April 29, 2009, 02:51:28 AMThe reason the Neprud book "Flying Minute Men" is available to all is because this was "Prepared for the Director Of Public Relations Dept. of the Air Force." According to the title page on my copy.

I've got a letter around here (somewhere) from the late 40's.  It's addressed to each of the Maj Com (or equivalent) Commanders and talks about CAP's valuable contributions during the war.  It notes that they will all be receiving a copy of the book from CAPNHQ so that they can better familiarize themselves with us.

Interesting information on the Flying Minute Men book.

I check the National website to see if maybe it was available there and I had missed it - nope. I also did a failed Google search to see if perhaps anyone had it for download.

Can anyone point me to a PDF copy of it online?

I just received a copy of The Hero Next Door.  I already had the C.B. Colby book from my cadet days.  I will keep looking to see what else may be out there.  Maybe I can put my BA in History to use and find some primary (first person) accounts.

Flying Minute Men is now owned by CAP. The publishing company went out of business many years ago and CAP accquired the rights to the book. The book was written by Robert E Neprud at government expense. It is available in PDF format. 500MB file.

Hero Next Door is pretty good and readily available.

This is Your Civil Air Patrol was geared towards juveniles and ok for very general information.

From Maine to Mexico is an excellent resource for more individual stories versus base information. Support the historical foundation and get it through them.

Base 21 History is available but the book is very scarce and expensive. Only 300 books published.

Base 17 History is also available which is also scarce and expensive. Only about 200 published.

Flying with the Coastal Patrol is also good but scarce.

Jeeps with Wings ia another to look for. Rare!

Battle of the Atlantic is primarily Naval related but does have some CAP info in it.



I have about 60 different CAP history books in my collection and cant remember all of the titles. I am in the middle of packing to sale my house and they are allready boxed. I intend to do a "history book publication" after I move.

The Base 21 history is available through the AF Historical Research Agency Document # 270.078-1.
Request the document through them, that's where I got my copy. There is a wealth of information on the CAP listed. The Link is listed below.
http://www.airforcehistoryindex.org/ 

While the battle history of CAP versus Nazi U-Boats is well documented, the Civil Air Patrol Courier Service is less well known.

It will take me sometime but the Maj. Gen. John Curry work, his reassignment to the 2nd Air Force Technical and Training Command in Denver, and the CAP SAR Portfolio is starting to come together. SEE HERE FOR REFERENCE:
http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=5582.0

There is an extraordinary nexus that I am working on long term. 1942/43-John Curry-Lowry Air Field-Courier Service, this may be the most important days of the Civil Air Patrol... not the most glorious, for I don't think we can touch the U-Boat Campaign... but the most important.

The Civil Air Patrol Courier Service was remarkable and is not well known. Maybe I can do something about that. Lots of research to do. More later.

I am working on finding out if CAP did any forest patrols in WNC. Anybody have any ideas as to where I would start to look?

Tarheel;
That kind of information is tough to find. Get to your Wing Personnel Officer. Get a list of members who've served 40plus years. Some likely weren't in the NC Wing all that time but they're a good place to start. Then call them. Ask them. Talk to them. They'll tell you about missions through the years, and gladly so.

I know that CAP has flown anti Moonshine Missions, Fire Watch, Fisheries Management Missions, Errant Military Rockets that went off the reservation, radiation detection, parts that fell off an airplane before it crashed missions -- and I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a whale watch, lost surfer,, beach erosion, algae bloom survey, and earthquake surveys too... although these latter missions I've heard about but haven't confirmed if these were actually CAP missions. These more "exotic" missions are on top of our regular missions.

So the trick is to call. Inquiry by phone is fun, cheap, wonderful entertainment. You'll get much information and the senior-Senior Members will gladly tell you anything. Some will likely have a picture.

Gumby,
Send me a PM and I will update you with what I have found. 

on it's way sir