Col. Jon Stokes
Commander
California Wing

CALIFORNIA – The California Wing received an overall grade of “Outstanding” – the highest of five possible grades – as well as individual grades of “Highly Successful” in all but four of 13 areas over the weekend in its biannual operations evaluation, held to ensure that Civil Air Patrol wings meet the operational requirements set forth by the U.S. Air Force.

The wing also received an “Outstanding” for Incident Command, Operations, Planning and Air Operations by the Air Force and civilian evaluators, wlho developed a homeland security, disaster relief and search and rescue scenario that allowed them to fully gauge the wing’s mission readiness. 

For a week, wing members and aircraft participated in a mission scenario involving a terrorist attack that required working in conjunction with state and federal agencies as well as with the Nevada Wing, which was being separately evaluated.

“It’s always a pleasure to see the California Wing in action, and they have performed admirably during this graded exercise,” said Lt. Col. Rich Parrotte, Pacific Liaison Region commander for the Air Force. 

“I am extremely proud of the hard work of the wing operations team,” said Col. Jon Stokes, wing commander. “The preparation for this evaluation and the work done this past week by Incident Commander Capt. Tolga Tarhan and his team was of the absolute highest caliber and was some of the best work ever done by the wing.” 
  
During the exercise, the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center activated the wing for an electronic locator transmitter detected by a CAP aircraft participating in the exercise.  A ground team was diverted from the exercise and quickly located and secured the transmitter at a local airport. 

“Real-world needs trump the exercise, and our operations personnel easily shifted their focus to the possible emergency,” said Tarhan, the wing’s assistant director of emergency services.  “While most ELTs are not actual emergencies, we prosecute them all as if they are. We do not treat them otherwise until the transmitter has been secured.”
 

HAWAII – Lt. Col. William Neil Rapozo, a 50-year member of the Kauai Composite Squadron, has been recognized as the 2013 Outstanding Male Older American by Kauai County.

Recognizing Rapozo were Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho and Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie at a Kauai’s Older American Recognition Ceremony, conducted by the mayor's office and the county's Agency on Elderly Affairs in connection with Older Americans Month.

Rapozo, the squadron’s emergency services officer and historian, was recognized for his life of service and leadership in the community. He has served as a mission pilot and crew member in CAP emergency missions and volunteered countless hours serving the community.
 

Photo by Maj. Shelly Fleming, Pennsylvania Wing

Maj. Annette Carlson
Public Affairs Officer
Pennsylvania Wing

PENNSYLVANIA – A record 16 members completed the recent Inspector General  Senior Level Training Course, the academic requirement for the Senior Inspector General specialty track rating, at Pennsylvania Wing Headquarters in Fort Indiantown Gap.

Civil Air Patrol’s Inspector General System is designed, in part, to create an independent and objective system that

• Promptly and objectively resolves problems affecting CAP’s mission.
   
• Creates an atmosphere of trust in which issues can be objectively and fully resolved without retaliation or fear of reprisal.
   
• Ensures the existence of responsive complaint and inspection programs characterized by objectivity, integrity and impartiality.
   
• Ensures that members’ concerns and CAP’s best interests are addressed through objective fact-finding.
   
• Educates members and commanders regarding the privileges of and protection for those contacting an inspector general.
   
• Ensures inspectors general, inspector general staff members and investigating officers are trained to conduct thorough, unbiased investigations and inspections based on fair and objective fact-finding.

Maj. Wayne Toughill, Pennsylvania Wing inspector general, served as course director and also an instructor. Col. Dick Probst, Vermont Wing inspector general, and Lt. Col. Ed Burns, National Headquarters assistant inspector general for training, also served as instructors, with the New York Wing’s inspector general, Col. Len Schindler, assisting.
 

Participants

National Headquarters – Brig. Gen. Joe Vazquez, national vice commander, and Lt. Cols. Ed Burns, assistant inspector general for training, and Leslie Vazquez

Connecticut Wing – Lt. Col. Malcolm Dickinson, inspector general

New York Wing -- Cols. Randall Johnson, assistant inspector general, and Len Schindler, inspector general; and Maj. Susan Schindler, assistant inspector general

Ohio Wing – Maj. Paul Palmisciano, Group VIII commander

Pennsylvania Wing

• Wing Headquarters – Col. Sandra Brandon, wing commander; Lt. Col. Gary Fleming, vice commander; Majs. Wayne Toughill, inspector general, and William Parish, assistant inspector general
   
• Group 1 – Maj. Walter Hobgood, deputy commander
   
• Group 3 – Lt. Cols. Julia Postupack, deputy commander, and Rita League, administrative officer; Maj. Ryan Kelly, assistant administrative officer
   
• Bangor Slate Belt Composite Squadron 807 – Maj. Katherine Hoadley, commander
   
• Hazleton Composite Squadron 203 – Maj. George Kerrick, commander
   
• Wayne Composite Squadron 201 – Capt. James Bruck, deputy commander for seniors
   
• York Composite Squadron – Maj. Daniel Edgar, finance officer

Vermont Wing -- Cols. Dick Probst, inspector general, and James Rowell, assistant inspector general. 

Photo by Maj. Tom Pflug
 
Lt. Col. Dave Halperin
Public Affairs Officer
Nebraska Wing

NEBRASKA – A pair of Omaha educators recently gained a new perspective on the subject they teach, courtesy of Civil Air Patrol’s Teacher Orientation Program and Maj. Tom Pflug, the Omaha Composite Squadron’s aerospace education officer.

Pflug provided LeeAnn Vaughan and Deanna Moisset with an orientation flight as part of the TOP Flights program, designed to provide educators with a hands-on flight experience that will enhance their classroom presentations on aerospace education.

Moisset and Vaughan lead the Aviation Mini-Magnet/Flight Academy at Harry A. Burke High School. Vaughan is the lead educator in the Mini-Magnet program, while Moisset is the curriculum specialist. Both are CAP aerospace education members and are exploring the feasibility of forming a CAP squadron in support of the school’s flight academy. 
 

• Cadet Staff Sgt. Emily Vaeth – Disaster Relief Ribbon with “V” device for her efforts during Hurricane Sandy.  
   
• 1st Lts. Michele Renneberg and Virginia Lackey – Region Commander Commendations for their work at the 2012 Northeast Region Conference.  
   

Maj. Dianne Collazo, Capts. Andrew Hart and Jim Ridley and 1st Lt. Patrick Argento – Region CAP Achievement Awards for their efforts during the region conference.  Hart also received a Wing Commanders Commendation for his work at the last two New York Wing Encampments. 

Moonely also assisted Maj. Ridley in promoting several cadets and one officer, most prominently Cadet Col. Carissa, whose new rank reflects her achievement of the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award – Civil Air Patrol's top cadet honor, earned by less than one-half of 1 percent of all cadets – on March 30.

 

Photo by Sgt. John Horne

Sgt. John Horne
Public Affairs Officer
Sky Harbor Composite Squadron 301

ARIZONA – Members of Sky Harbor Composite Squadron 301 were on hand April 1 to represent Civil Air Patrol at the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, as some 1,200 middle and school students from across the state gathered to present science and engineering projects for evaluation.

Participants also have the opportunity to meet representatives of national organizations. Event sponsors this year included Intel Corp., Honeywell, Arizona State University and the Arizona Technology Council.

The Sky Harbor squadron was asked to provide a Civil Air Patrol information booth. Cadets and officers staffing the booth spoke to visitors about aerospace education and other opportunities available through participation in the organization.

The event’s director asked the squadron to return next year as well.

Participating members were:

• 1st Lt. Richard Birnbaum, the squadron’s emergency services officer.
   
• Sgt. John Horne, public affairs officer.
   
• Senior members Roseanne Marquez, Elizabeth Moseley and Joanna Moseley.
   
• Cadet Master Sgts. Christian Marquez and Simeon Moseley.

• Introduction of the wing’s command staff – Col. Tonya Boylan, outgoing commander; then-Lt. Col. Richard Greenwood, then vice commander, now commander; and Lt. Col. Joseph Knight III, then chief of staff, now vice commander – to the Senate by State Sen. Barry Loudermilk, a CAP lieutenant colonel and commander of the wing’s Legislative Squadron Commander, and to the House by State Rep. Calvin Hill, a CAP major. 
   
• Presentation by Boylan of red service ribbons to more than 22 members Legislative Squadron in recognition of their CAP volunteer service. 
   
• Boylan’s addresses to both the House and Senate, thanking both chambers for their continued support of CAP.
   
• Leadership of the Senate’s morning devotion by Chaplain Maj. Scott Westbrook, the wing’s chaplain, who told the senators that “one of the secrets of leadership is having faith, vision and being willing to step forward and lead.”

• Cadet Tech. Sgt. Alex Dvorak.
   
• Cadet Staff Sgt. James Nibbe.
   
• Cadet Airman David Walter.
   
• Cadet Airman Basic Damien Gerads.

(Right)
O’Rourke as Westchester County executive.

(Editor’s note: When Andrew P. O’Rourke, former Westchester County, N.Y., executive and later state Supreme Court justice, died earlier this year, Lt. Col. Allan F. Pogorzelski was prompted to write the following tribute.)

Lt. Col. Allan F. Pogorzelski
History Research Analyst
National Commanders Squadron
 
Today, I said good-by to an old friend.

He was an aviator, a manager, a lawyer, a justice of the state Supreme Court. He was also a soldier, an Air Force navigator, a naval officer, a judge advocate general and a former Civil Air Patrol cadet and senior member, who served as an adviser to CAP leadership at various levels.
 
Andrew P. O’Rourke started his service to his country in 1948 when he joined CAP as a cadet in the New York Wing’s Manhattan Squadron No. 3. He completed the cadet training program, earning the certificate of proficiency signed by the U.S. Air Force chief of staff and having the distinction of being a cadet colonel and commander of both national and international Drill teams, winning recognition for the U.S. against both the British and Canadian Air Cadet Teams.

He earned his private pilot license as a cadet. He joined the 165th Infantry (the old 69th) New York National Guard before he was of age and was honorably discharged after the Guard was mobilized for combat in Korea .
 
Still maintaining his CAP cadet activities, he went on to Fordham University and was the Distinguished  Military Cadet in Air Force ROTC, receiving a regular commission. He then went onto service as a navigator and Air Force instructor. He flew for the Military Air Transport Service and studied law at night.
 
When he earned his law degree he applied for the Air Force JAG program, but he was turned down because the Air Force needed his skills as a navigator.

After serious thought, O’Rourke, a veteran of 8½ years of  service as a navigator with almost 3,000 hours of flight time, resigned his regular Air Force commission’
 
He soon became a Navy Reserve officer as an aviation observer and was transferred to the Navy’s JAG Corps. He spent the next 30 years in various reserve and active-duty assignments, including the USS Nimitz, Naval Support Activity Naples, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Readiness Command II, the Navy Reserve Policy Board and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He continued to serve in the Navy Reserve and then, after retiring as a captain, in the New York Naval Militia
 
During these years he also sought and was elected to political office, representing part of Yonkers as a member of the Westchester County Board of Supervisors.

That was my introduction to Andy O’Rourke, for my uncle, Al Moczydlowski, was an elected councilman in Yonkers, and they worked together for their district or ward.
 
Andy went on to become a member and then vice chairman of the County Board of Legislators, eventually becoming chairman, and then was elected county executive.

He maintained contact with and support for the local CAP unit and the New York Wing. He was instrumental in a reorganization of the county airport and various county facilities.

CAP squadrons, a New York Wing group and finally Wing Headquarters found practical facilities available because of the support of the county executive.
 
 After retirement as county executive, he went on to run for governor and was appointed a state Supreme Court justice.
 
He also continued to serve in the New York Naval Militia, becoming judge advocate general and was finally retired as a vice admiral. Not bad for a poor kid from New Jersey and New York City who wanted to fly and joined the CAP cadets at 14 years of age.
 
Our friend has now gone on … He wanted to fly. 

I think he will still be doing that.
 
Thanks, Andy,