10 August 2007
Two local youths became the first cadets to earn promotions in Socorro's squadron of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol (CAP). Damon Hewitt and Trey Thunborg were promoted to Cadet Airman in a ceremony Thursday, August 9.
"This is a major milestone for our squadron. We received our charter only last February, and these promotions are the result of much hard work by the cadets, their parents, and the adult members who've worked to build our training program," said Dave Finley, squadron commander.
To earn their promotions, Hewitt and Thunborg had to complete training and pass examinations in several areas, including history, organization, and customs of the CAP, leadership, military drill and physical fitness. As cadets advance through the CAP program, they will learn about aeronautics, modern aviation, and space flight, and take on greater responsibilities for leading junior cadets.
The Socorro Composite Squadron of the CAP has grown from 14 members when chartered in February to 25 now. Squadron members, both adults and cadets, have received initial training on emergency services operations and radio operation, and a number have earned CAP certifications in those fields.
"Starting a new CAP squadron from scratch was a huge challenge. All our members have been busy learning about CAP and learning how to do our assigned jobs within the squadron. We still have much work to do, but reaching the point where we have our first cadet promotions shows that we've made great progress since receiving our charter," Finley said.
In addition to building the program for cadets, the local squadron plans to expand training to prepare members to provide emergency services through both air and ground operations in support of government organizations.
Over the past week, cadets from the Socorro Composite Squadron had their first orientation flights in CAP powered aircraft. Eight Socorro cadets received a basic ground-school primer and a flight experience that included handling the controls of the aircraft under the supervision of an experienced pilot.
The CAP was founded on Dec. 1, 1941, less than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. CAP, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 55,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 95 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions, as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and was credited by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center with saving 58 lives in 2006. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 22,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet program.