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Col. Carl Jividen in 1944 and today.
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Jividen’s B-29 in 1945 at what is now Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
Capt. Tina Lowe
Public Affairs Officer
Ohio Wing
OHIO – The Ohio Wing has awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to Col. Carl E. Jividen, one of Civil AIr Patrol's World War II members, for his continued service to his nation and community beginning Aug. 10, 1942.
Jividen, 90, received the medal in a ceremony Sept. 8 at the Defense Supply Center in Columbus.
He joined CAP after graduating as an engine mechanic from the Ohio Institute of Aeronautics in Columbus. In early August 1942, he and a few of his fellow aircraft mechanics drove down to Panama City, Fla., to help the military defend the Gulf Coast.
Jividen and his friends became founding members of Coastal Patrol Base No. 14, responsible for patrolling the shipping lanes from Mobile, Ala., to Lighthouse Point, Fla. He served in Panama City from the commencement of patrol operations until the base closed in December 1943.
When interviewed at his Londonderry home by 2nd Lt Frank Blazich Jr., the Ohio Wing’s historian, Jividen said that when he first arrived at the site, he found “just very little there, I just remember grass ... a couple of dirt runways.
“Everything was grass growing, I think they had one runway that was originally concrete but you couldn’t hardly see it, couldn’t tell it from the dirt runways. Nothing there.”
During his time at the base, Jividen rose in rank from corporal to flight officer. In addition to his duties as an engine mechanic, he flew numerous missions as an observer over the Gulf of Mexico.
He told Blazich that he remains really proud to have been in the outfit in Panama City because “there were a lot of good, dedicated men” who donated their own aircraft to go and fly over the Gulf for months on end.
“I was glad the Civil Air Patrol asked me to do that, so I got that experience,” Jividen said. “It helped me in my service in the war with the Army.”
After the base’s closure, he returned to Columbus and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces. Trained as an aviation cadet, Jividen answered a call for B-29 flight engineers and finished the war as a second lieutenant training on Superfortresses at Maxwell Field – now Maxwell Air Force Base -- in Montgomery, Ala.
Jividen and other early members of CAP would be honored with a proposed Congressional Gold Medal for which CAP is seeking co-sponsors in the House of Representatives would recognize Jividen and other early senior members for their wartime service.
To read the full interview with Jividen, contact 2nd Lt. Frank Blazich, Ohio Wing historian.
