Cap Inception Dec 1, 1941?

[RicL]

Everything I've read states that CAP was "founded" on December 01, 1941. I never had any reason to doubt that until I started doing research into my unit's history.

I've come across a newspaper article dated Dec 04, 1941 an excerpt of which reads as follows.

"Dr. Mason informed the group on the activities of Pulaski Flying
Club reporting that 37 persons had been taught to fly here
since the field was opened, which sets a record for any field
in this section. It is the only field of its kind in the county,
and they are meeting all government requirements. One
hangar is complete, and the present membership assures the
Club's continuance. Many new members are taking advantage
of the low rates and services offered through the N.A.A.
and the Civil Air Patrol."

Is it even plausible that there would be set training rates for pilot instruction by CAP three days after it's inception? As it stands I'm looking for other articles that mention CAP prior to Dec 01, 1941.

Edited to add: Ack! I forgot to cite the source. "Club Launches Winter Program", Pulaski Democrat - December 04, 1941 (Pulaski, NY)

[EMT-83]

Possibly the first time that CAP and flying club were uttered in the same breath?

In any event, that's a remarkable find.

[RicL]

Not really, MANY of the Upstate New York newspapers that are no longer in print have been digitized and run through OCR software. It's a searchable database now with PDF images of each page of newspaper.

I found another article that some might find interesting, which discusses the chartering of civil air patrol. LINKY

[Smithsonia]

There were fits and starts to the beginning of CAP. Fioello LaGaurdia and Gill Robb Wilson were working on it for years. SEE THE OFFICIAL CAP SYNOPSIS BELOW. There was an executive order in Spring 41 for The Civil Defense Authority. The Civilian Flight Training Program and various components of Civil Defense were part of this order. Basically CAP was provided for, money allocated, however the mission was undefined. I believe Maj. Gen. Curry was first approached in July '41 by LaGuardia about his duty and CAP's mission. The first CAP Commander's Orders were to the individual state Civil Defense Directors through the State Governors Office and was issued form the Second Air Force Office in Denver looking for Wing Commander nominees for each state.

A good deal of this information is available here: http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=5582.0

That request for potential Wing CCs was issued in August '41. It took the rest of the fall to organize and the date of Dec. 1st 1941 was decided upon some time in October '41. In other words it was a deadline to organize (an official start date) However, there was much work behind the scenes going on for months and even years. Curry was the final piece of a rather complex puzzle. According to his daughter - Curry left Denver just after Thanksgiving for Bolling Field to set up the CAP headquarters. Phones and telegraph wires were ready for the Dec. 1 announcement. The family moved to Washington DC after Christmas. Curry was commander for 5 months and was there long enough to set up CAP, define its mission, sort out Wing Commanders in about 40 states (not every state had an organized Wing until late '42 or early '43) SEE BELOW>

OFFICIAL CAP SYNOPSIS --- Civil Air Patrol was conceived in the late 1930s by legendary New Jersey aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, who foresaw aviation's role in war and general aviation's potential to supplement America's unprepared military. Wilson, then aviation editor of The New York Herald Tribune and later NJ Aeronautics Commissioner, first sold the idea to New Jersey's governor, who created a statewide organization. Wilson then convinced New York mayor (and National Civil Defense Chief) Fiorello La Guardia of the need for a civilian air defense organization. The new Civil Air Patrol was born on December 1, 1941, just days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

[RicL]

There were fits and starts to the beginning of CAP. Fioello LaGaurdia and Gill Robb Wilson were working on it for years. SEE THE OFFICIAL CAP SYNOPSIS BELOW. There was an executive order in Spring 41 for The Civil Defense Authority. The Civilian Flight Training Program and various components of Civil Defense were part of this order. Basically CAP was provided for, money allocated, however the mission was undefined. I believe Maj. Gen. Curry was first approached in July '41 by LaGuardia about his duty and CAP's mission. The first CAP Commander's Orders were to the individual state Civil Defense Directors through the State Governors Office was issued form the Second Air Force Office in Denver looking for Wing Commander nominees for each state.

That request was issued in August '41. It took the rest of the fall to organize and the date of Dec. 1st 1941 was decided upon some time in October '41. In other words it was a deadline to organize (an official start date) However, there was much work behind the scenes going on for months and even years. Curry was the final piece of a rather complex puzzle. According to his daughter - Curry left Denver just after Thanksgiving for Bolling Field to set up the CAP headquarters. Phones and telegraph wires were ready for the Dec. 1 announcement. The family moved to Washington DC after Christmas. Curry was commander for 5 months and was there long enough to set up CAP, define its mission, sort out Wing Commanders in about 40 states (not every state had an organized Wing until late '42 or early '43) SEE BELOW>

OFFICIAL CAP SYNOPSIS --- Civil Air Patrol was conceived in the late 1930s by legendary New Jersey aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, who foresaw aviation's role in war and general aviation's potential to supplement America's unprepared military. Wilson, then aviation editor of The New York Herald Tribune and later NJ Aeronautics Commissioner, first sold the idea to New Jersey's governor, who created a statewide organization. Wilson then convinced New York mayor (and National Civil Defense Chief) Fiorello La Guardia of the need for a civilian air defense organization. The new Civil Air Patrol was born on December 1, 1941, just days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Thanks for that!

I've also discovered that my squadron (Fort Drum / Watertown Composite Squadron as it's currently chartered) was once known as the Arrowhead V (or in some articles the "Arrowhead 5") Composite Squadron and that a squadron member rose through the ranks to group, then Wing Deputy Commander in the 1960's.

Unfortunately, the main local newspaper for our county and the surrounding counties seems to have "misplaced" their archive file on CAP which contained all of the articles prior to 1960. The only exception is an article that I found from 1945 which was misfiled in the wrong envelope. I'd like to say that I enjoyed doing research at the newspaper's archives but that would be a lie. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to clip every article from every edition of the newspaper and file them based on one person's opinion of what the article's "subject" was? Of course there was no index maintained either so you have to wade through aisles of filing cabinets. *shrug*

I'm almost glad that they drove the rest of the newspapers out of business because at least those paper's ended up getting digitized.

[Smithsonia]

RicL;
Good Bless the 10th Mountain. Once of Colorado but now of Ft. Drum, NY. Last time I looked -- The most deployments since 1989 in all the military. I would imagine that your town has more heroes per square mile than any other place in America. Give'em a salute for me!

[RiverAux]

I've also discovered that my squadron (Fort Drum / Watertown Composite Squadron as it's currently chartered) was once known as the Arrowhead V (or in some articles the "Arrowhead 5") Composite Squadron and that a squadron member rose through the ranks to group, then Wing Deputy Commander in the 1960's.

Be careful about assuming that your current squadron is the the same one that was present in the town in the past.  Many towns have had CAP units wink in and out of existence multiple times since WWII.  Most of the squadrons in my wing are less than 30 years old even though every one of them is in a town that first had a CAP unit during WWII.

[RicL]

Oh, I'm well aware that there were lapses of having no CAP squadron in the area. In fact we just reactivated the unit in July of this year. I wasn't going to claim that the squadron's been in operation the entire time. I'm not sure how old our actual charter number is or even when they started issuing numbered charters. I can confirm that the current squadron NER-NY-406 has the same charter number as when it was in operation in 2002 as the "Fort Drum Composite Squadron".

A lot has changed since it was called the Arrowhead V Composite Squadron in 1969 including a reorganization of the groups within NY. Also, to the best of my knowledge our squadron is now the northernmost in NY. Previously there were squadrons / flights to the north in Massena, Ogdensburg, Potsdam / Canton, Plattsburgh and other towns throughout Upstate NY. The organization of CAP in the 1960's has me a bit confused anyway because they were using Flight/Squadron/Group/Sector/Wing. Several places I've seen the organization addressed as "Group 3, Sector 7 of the NY Wing". This organization scheme must have had some standard at some point which it obviously doesn't still.

[RiverAux]

I wouldn't be surprised if they reactivated one of the old charter numbers for a new unit in the town especially in the last 10-20 years.  But, that doesn't seem to have been the standard practice in the 50s-70s.   Good luck!