Any vets try the Civil Air Patrol?

[Zone Drifter]

I'm a prior air force mechanic (F-15E is the best, fight me) and since I cannot rejoin due to arrhythmia (tried to join guard last year, meps went well but med history was un-waiverable.) SO I looked into alternatives to continue serving and dust off the uniform.

To be honest, I've been in the civil air patrol for three years now and it's been an interesting ride. I joined because seeing who currently was running my local squad and how they were doing it made me cringe a bit. A self proclaimed veteran who wanted to continue to play military was doing a bang-up job. This guy didn't even finish his enlistment, and I don't know the details but he just said that air force wasn't for him and he belonged in the army, but then got out after two years and wouldn't show his DD214. Sketchy, but I digress. I joined to maybe bring some structure back and help the cadets who I kinda felt sorry for, as they didn't have a great role model and were doing things questionably. With prior experience, I could help and I am still an aviation mechanic so this worked out for me. I just had to work at it.

Anyone else try out CAP? It's an organization that is full of good and bad people, because it's all volunteer so you get a mix. Some vets are great, others not so much. Some civilians are great, others... well you get the idea. It's what you make of it. Follow their regulations and it's a good time. Diverge and it causes drama, because they don't really want to boot people unless they break a cardinal rule, like cadet protection for example. There certainly are competent people, who want to train and work together. It's mostly about disaster preparedness or relief response. Our local flying squadron does coastal and river patrol for ice dams and flooding. This information is given to FEMA, the coast guard or the state usually. Our communications guys are usually pretty educated and competent with the radios, so they train well. In any case, it's what you want to put in to it. I'm becoming the squadron commander of a dying squad and I really am looking forward to rebuilding it.

Anyone else consider it? You can message me if you like, It's one of my main hobbies now next to paintball! (and playing Destiny 2, please invite me my clan is dead lol)

[martix_agent]

What exactly does this organization do? the website/mission statement says a lot of words, but they don't actually talk about what actually is happening.

[Zone Drifter]

What exactly does this organization do? the website/mission statement says a lot of words, but they don't actually talk about what actually is happening.

The big three for them are Cadet Programs, Aerospace Education and Emergency Services.

Cadet program is like JROTC, but with more emphasis on aerospace and volunteerism. We have a fleet of Cessna aircraft that we can use for cadet flights, missions and other related objectives. The aerospace education is us promoting aerospace and STEM, to get people interested in aviation or science and technology. The emergency service side covers using our aircraft and vans to locate distress beacons or fly missions assigned by FEMA, Air Force or Coast guard.

The adults are volunteers who can either work with the cadets or help on the missions. Since we're volunteers, we're cheap to use for things like disaster assessment and distress beacon search. The Coast Guard has our wing fly sound patrol and ice patrol in the winters, looking for ice dams on the rivers and waterways. The air force can give missions like flying into restricted zones so the AF pilots can practice civilian intercept.

Yes, there is a lot to this organization. I'm enjoying it, but since it's civilian volunteers sometimes we get people who just don't get the professionalism. We try to work with them anyway, because a good member is anyone who shows up! It's not mandatory like military service but uses air force regs as guidelines for our own regulations.

[Brandon]

I was in CAP as a kid, I had high aspiration to be pilot in the Army or Airforce, things didn't work out as intended. I enjoyed the time I had spent as a cadet, I would have and did want to do more but as my parents were the one footing the bill for all the uniforms and equipment I was very limited on what I was able to partake in ( bivy's and S&R training trips). Worked a few of the local airshows walking about and answering questions on specific aircraft I was assigned to. CAP provided me with a couple flights in Black Hawks operated by the NYSANG, LC-130 with the 109th Airlift group, and even a few flight hours in Cesena's that were owned by a couple of the " senior officers" in the origination.

I know a lot of the " senior officers " were prior military but besides some classroom lectures and hands on outdoor survival (mostly cold weather) training they didn't do much. We would have a bimonthly PT test and a lot of the " senior officers" would skip and it wasn't a very good lead by example if you know what I mean. There was a ton of "hazing" from the older more experienced " officer" cadets who more or less ran the show.

We would partake in local search and rescue efforts in conjunction with local authorities, we would do community service and help out where we thought it was needed.

This was over 30 years ago, I'm sure so much has changed in that time.

[Jscaylor]

I was in CAP for a year as a kid, we didn't do anything but formations and drills so I promptly decided it wasn't for me.

[Masonhd81]

I was an (AT) Aviation Electronics Technician in the Navy. Wanted to keep doing aviation but there’s no jobs around me in NC. Now I do HVAC but this would have been interesting to check out before I left. I got a med sep and I’m barred from rejoining which sucked. Civilian work life sucks, luckily my co-workers an Army vet.

[mcnoob]

Like Jscaylor said, I was in for about half a year around 2017 before I joined the army, the time I did spend in CAP we did D&C and would write essays on classes they would give us.

[JeepDVLZ45]

My oldest daughter (13y.o.) joined CAP a couple months ago. Bennington Vermont, VT-076 and LOVES it. It puts a bit of a damper on my “paintball career” since hey have PT on Saturdays…and she wants to go to every one 🤣, but it’s been great for her.

Her squadron leader is awesome (which helps immensely), and there are 2 other girls in the squadron…both Sergeants, and they really took her under their wing (pun not intended, but a happy coincidence), they do a lot of volunteer work some at the Bennington veterans home and some with “Paws and Boots” (cool non-profit that pairs rescue dogs with disabled vets/first responders to build service dog teams - their trainer that runs it was a ) and matched in the Bennington Battle Day Parade this past weekend.

So far, in our experience, it’s been a great program.