Members across CAP help salute nation's veterans

 

 

(1)
Cadets in the Minnesota Wing's St. Cloud Composite Squadron raise the flag for a program honoring U.S. veterans in conjunction with the local Veterans Day parade, held three days before the actual holiday this year. More than 40 groups took part, many wearing uniforms, playing music and carrying American flags.

(2)
St. Cloud Composite Squadron cadets march in the local Veterans Day parade.

(3)
A wintry gust whips the U.S. flag as Cadet Staff Sgts. Joshua Vanderlooven (left) and Kylie Kroeker of the Alaska Wing’s Birchwood Composite Squadron raise the colors at the Wasilla Veterans Memorial Wall. Members of the squadron participated in a Veterans Day observation by Alaska Veterans Aviation Outreach, though the cold, snow and wind forced most of the ceremony indoors.

(4)
(From left) Cadet Basic Isaac Kimball, Cadet Staff Sgt. Joshua Vanderlooven and Cadet Airman Adam Pence salute the colors during Veterans Day ceremonies in Wasilla.

(5)
Cadet 2nd Lt. William McLaughlin (center) of the Nevada Wing’s Nellis Composite Squadron with fellow Scottish-American Military Society bagpipers, who performed at the Veterans Day ceremony at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City. Other Nellis cadets served as ushers for the ceremony, and the unit’s color guard posted the colors.

(6) and (7) Members of the Puerto Rico Wing’s St. Croix Composite Squadron part pâté in a Veterans Day procession on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

(8) Members of the Massachusetts Wing’s Worcester Cadet Squadron march beneath a firefighters’ tribute in the 56th Annual Veterans Day Program at the Massachusetts National Guard Military Museum.

(9)
Color guard members of the Pennsylvania Wing’s Wayne Composite Squadron 201 lead the way for the first Veterans’ March in Wayne County.  Veterans Day ceremonies are normally held at 11 a.m., but this year local veterans organizations, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Marine Corps League decided to hold a second observance in the evening so working veterans could attend and be recognized.  Accordingly, at 6 p.m. more than 100 veterans marched from Miller Pavilion to Honesdale's Central Park.

(10)
The color guard – (from left) Cadet Staff Sgt. Amber Anthony, Cadet Chief Master Sgt. Aaron Harkness, Cadet Senior Airman Nathaniel Harkness and Cadet Airman 1st Class – for the Hawaii Wing’s Lyman Field Composite Squadron marches in the Veterans Day Parade in Hilo.

(11) Presenting the colors at the El Dorado County Veterans Monument, the California Wing’s Eugene L. Carnahan Cadet Squadron 85 Color Guard -- (from left) Cadet Tech. Sgt.. Dylan Whitaker, Cadet Chief Master Sgt. Evan Yanagihara and Cadet Airmen 1st Class Anthony Smith and Kevin Kaita participate in the Veterans Day tribute in Placerville. The monument is the largest veterans’ monument west of the Mississippi.

(12)
Three of the veterans – (from left) Father Wes Clare, retired from the U.S. Air Force; John Tabita, formerly of the U.S. Army Air Corps; and Dennis Mann, retired from the U.S. Navy – hosted by the California Wing’s Tehachapi Composite Squadron 46 for Veterans Day stand by the flag as the Air Force theme is played. The squadron marked the day by participating in a potluck dinner for local veterans in a squadron member’s hangar. Each member was encouraged to invite a veteran – a family member, neighbor or friend.

(13)
Marine Corps veterans Steve Cutright (left) and Casey Schaubschlager – also a CAP first lieutenant in Bakersfield Composite Squadron 121 --  flank Roger Dennis, retired from the Navy, as the Marines’ theme is played after the Tehachapi squadron’s potluck dinner for veterans. Cadets followed the meal by presenting skits dramatizing what it must have been like to serve during wartime, and the veterans themselves recounted vivid memories of their service and some of the difficulties they faced. The veterans then stood tall and proud by the flag as their service songs were played.