It began with Phi Alpha Delta. My Law Fraternity was holding a meeting in Springfield, Massachusetts, and one of our members arranged for a tour of Westover Air Force Base led by the base commander, Lt.Col. Tom Hargis. My son was a high school sophomore. He stuck to the man's side and peppered him with questions. At the end of the tour, "Colonel Tom" said the words that are now a family legend, "You know, John, if you're really interested in this stuff, you should join the Civil Air Patrol."
The following Monday, John was in his guidance counselor's office; after that he was at TAK (Tonawanda-Amherst-Kenmore) Squadron. He quickly moved up the cadet ranks and began student flying when he was 15. Mary Lou and I got involved because we wanted to be good parents, and Elizabeth joined because there were several cute guys there. Since I was a lawyer with many years of experience, I was given an immediate promotion to Major and assured I would never have much to do. Then our Squadron Commander John Vathy died, and our Group Commander told me the CAP likes to follow the Air Force rule of promoting the "highest ranking" officer to the post of commander, and my fellow officers had a meeting and voted . . . and well . . . I suddenly found myself -- a lawyer wearing "specialty insignia" instead of "wings" -- commander of a Civil Air Patrol squadron. Worse, I had a teenage son who was hard at work earning his wings. So I traveled to Air Force bases around New York State picking up Air University courses, and, thanks to my Power Squadrons training, also successfully completed the air navigator's course. I was now a legitimate CAP major and entitled to wings of my own. (Okay, so they were "only" Navigator's Wings! I was still "mission qualified.") We finally got to the fateful night when my son and I had the great privilege of pinning CAP wings on each other! P.S. I might add that TAK Squadron was voted Western New York "Squadron of the Year" while I was in command. And Lt. Col. John A. Tringali recently retired from the United States Air Force and now flies for Delta Airlines! |
Education
CAP educational programs include Leadership, Aerospace Education, Communications, and much more.
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Search and Rescue
Members train regularly for the day when they are called on to perform Search and Rescue operations.
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Community Service
Cadets and senior members perform other community services such as providing communications.
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