| If you are like me you never have heard of such a | | | | The general proposition was that they would volunteer |
| thing as the Civil Air Patrol. Instead of doing what I did | | | | their services to the military in exchange for retaining |
| and researching it a bit you will be able to learn what | | | | the right to fly like they loved to do. |
| you need to know and live the rest of your life more | | | | Our government and military agreed and thus started |
| informed about the rich history of our great country. | | | | one of the most successful civilian military joint efforts |
| So sit back and let me give you a cursory history of | | | | in history. These men flew many thousands of |
| this unique and very useful service provided by | | | | missions and were a big help to the military. They |
| volunteer aviators who love to fly and love being | | | | were mostly doing reconnaissance missions, patrolling |
| citizens of the USA. | | | | the coast spotting U boats and mines, and at first |
| So the Civil Air Patrol started in the 1930s as WWII | | | | were strictly unarmed. Then due to an incident in which |
| was warming up and the US was just starting to | | | | a Civil Air Patrol plane had the opportunity to destroy a |
| become involved. Some wise men and pilots noticed a | | | | U boat but was unable to they received the right to be |
| disturbing trend in Europe that was in response to the | | | | armed with bombs and depth charges and actually |
| war. The general aviation in that country was being | | | | proceeded to hunt U boats. Other missions included |
| restricted for fear that it would get in the way of | | | | serving as targets for anti aircraft gunners as well as |
| military flights. They decided to bring it up sooner than | | | | radar technicians and spot light operators. |
| later in hopes of not being grounded for the entire war. | | | | |