Who We Are

The Civil Air Patrol was founded at a time of national crisis, mobilizing civilian volunteers to defend the nation as in no time since the American Revolution. No wonder they were called “Flying Minutemen.”

In today’s post-9/11 world, it’s instructive to see how America — and America’s civilian pilots — answered the call to help defeat a foreign threat on America’s shores and coastal waters.

The story continues through the Cold War to more recent times in the same spirit of the CAP Subchasers of WWII.

OUR HISTORY

Volunteers Serving America in Times of Need

Civil Air Patrol was conceived in the late 1930s by legendary New Jersey aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, who foresaw aviation's role in war and general aviation's potential to supplement America's military operations. With the help of New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the new Civil Air Patrol was established on December 1, 1941, just days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.


The CAP insignia, a red three-bladed propeller in the Civil Defense white-triangle-in-blue-circle, began appearing on private aircraft everywhere. CAP initially planned only on liaison and reconnaissance flying, but the civilian group's mission expanded when German submarines began to prey on American ships off the coast of the United States and CAP planes began carrying bombs and depth charges."

A CAP crew first interrupted a sub attack on a flight out of Rehoboth Beach, saving a tanker off Cape May, N.J. Since radio calls for military bombers were often unproductive, unarmed CAP fliers dived in mock attacks to force subs to break and run.

The CAP coastal patrol flew 24 million miles, found 173 submarines, attacked 57, hit 10 and sank two. By Presidential Executive Order, CAP became an auxiliary of the Army Air Forces in 1943.

A German commander later confirmed that coastal U-boat operations were withdrawn from the United States "because of those damned little red and yellow airplanes."

In all, CAP flew a half-million hours during the war, and 64 CAP aviators lost their lives in the line of duty.

The U.S. Air Force was created as an independent armed service in 1947, and CAP was designated as its official civilian auxiliary the following year.

This is an official CAP Internet Operation conducted in accordance with CAPR 110-1. ©2006, Civil Air Patrol. All Rights Reserved. Images and text are authorized for reproduction by news media and all Civil Air Patrol units.

OUR FUTURE

Advanced Technologies Take CAP Beyond the Eyeball

Access to high-tech equipment will always be important for CAP, since its members train extensively for their missions and depend on the organization to provide the resources they need. CAP already owns a fleet of 550 single-engine aircraft, hangared in strategic locations throughout the country, for members to use. Now CAP is purchasing new equipment – radios, digital cameras, laptops, digital satellite phone systems and new aircraft – all to make CAP an even better-equipped and cost-effective resource. CAP has an all-volunteer Advanced Technologies Group to keep an eye on high-tech breakthroughs that might impact future missions.

Among those breakthroughs CAP has tested are personal locator beacons, night vision, infrared imaging and hyperspectral imaging. CAP has also testing digital satellite communications for transmitting photos and video in real time from search sites back to mission bases. With such technology as the super-accurate High Frequency Surface Wave Radar, CAP can identify suspected targets and call in probable locations to waiting aircraft. The planes can then go to those locations for crews to take high-resolution photos for fast transmission to the ground.

With hyperspectral imaging systems, CAP can have sensors onboard aircraft to detect and/or gather reflected light from man-made or natural objects on the ground. This form of imaging can discriminate among materials based on physical properties, depending on how the materials reflect or emit light.

CAP’s Advanced Technologies Group continues to identify the best equipment on the market today, figure out how it can work with existing equipment and follow up with extensive field testing.