Civil Air Patrol Serves the Community
The Monticello Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) meets every week on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The young cadets aged 12 through 18 are preparing to fall into formation before they start the meeting. A sense of professionalism and pride can be seen in the faces of the young men and women as they say the Pledge of Allegiance and their cadet oath.
“The Civil Air Patrol is America’s civilian voluntary auxiliary for the air force and what we do is we do 95 percentage of inland search and rescue missions for them as well as have a robust cadet program, teaching young people leadership, life skills and that sort of thing,” said Maj. Owen Clark, the current squadron commander of the Monticello Composite Squadron.
Each week the squadron has a different type of meeting. These include leadership, emergency services, aerospace education, and physical training (PT). The uniforms they wear depend on the type of meeting they are having. Their uniforms include the United States Air Force Airman Battle Uniform (ABU), the service blues, and athletic clothes for PT.
The meeting for the week of October 22, 2019 was PT. The goal of this meeting is not only to make the cadets physically stronger, but also mentally. The activities they do include the mile run, push-ups, sit-ups and a group activity.
The meeting ended the same way it started, in a formation. The reason for this is to motivate and let the cadets know what the next week’s meeting will be. Anyone ages 12-19 can join CAP as a cadet, and for people above the age of 19 can join as a senior member. The author of this article is a former CAP cadet.
