Civil Air Patrol in World War II
June 7, 2016 | Author: cdchatham | Category: N/A
Short Description
Presentation given May 19, 2012 at the Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs, Calif....
Description
Civil Air Patrol in WWII A history of the US Air Force Auxiliary
19 May 2012 – Palm Springs Air Museum – Presented by Maj. Simon Housman and Capt. Crystal Housman, PCRCA435 emcee
Founders & Origins photo: 1943 Coastal Patrol Base No. 12 Brownsville, Texas
Origins of Civil Air Patrol ✄
International situation during the 1930s: ✄
War in Asia
✄
War in Europe
✄
America is Unprepared
September 1, 1939
Origins of Civil Air Patrol
✄
✄
In the runup to World War II, civilian pilots lobby the Government to let them serve on the domestic front in the event of war. In 1936, Gill Robb Wilson makes a work trip to Europe. He is alarmed to find German factories running full tilt to make armaments.
Gill Robb Wilson ✄
✄
✄
✄
Learned to fly in a French Moran Parasol monoplane. WWI Aviator (at right). Wilson’s brother Joe is at left. Joe was killed during the war. Aviation writer for The New York Herald Tribune First director of New Jersey Bureau of Aviation
Origins of Civil Air Patrol
✄
✄
Wilson drafts a national plan for the organization of civilian pilots and begins to set up a program in his home state of New Jersey. Wilson enlists others to support his plan and begin pitching it.
Guy Gannett ✄
✄
Owner of a small New England newspaper chain. The GANNETT chain still exists today and publishes: ✄
USA Today and Military Times
✄
The Desert Sun
✄
81 other daily newspapers and 23 television stations
Thomas Beck ✄
President of CollierCrowell Publishing Co. ✄
✄
✄
Publishes Collier’s Weekly news magazine and Collier’s Encyclopedia In 1940s hey day, company produces 20 million periodicals a month
Speaker at February 1939 National Aviation Forum
Fiorello LaGuardia ✄
✄
✄
✄
First Director, Office of Civilian Defense 3term Mayor of New York (19341945) Served in Congress twice World War I: US Army Air Service Major in command of bomber unit on Italian Austrian front LaGuardia (right) with Gen. Eisenhower
Gov. Charles Edison ✄
✄
✄
✄
Son of Thomas Edison 19371940 Serves as Asst. Secretary and Secretary of the Navy appointed by President Roosevelt Resigns in 1940 to campaign for Governor of New Jersey Summer 1941: grants Gill Robb Wilson permission to form NJ Civil Air Defense Services
Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold ✄
✄
✄
✄
Pilot and aviation record holder. 5Star General by end of WWII Chief of the Army Air Corps (1938) Commanding General, US Army Air Forces (19411945) November 1941: Supports Wilson’s plan for a civilian pilot corps.
Administrative Order 9 ✄
✄
✄
✄
December 1, 1941 “By virtue of the authority vested in me… I have caused to be created and organized a branch of this Office of volunteers for the purpose of enlisting and training personnel to aid in the national defense of the United States, designated Civil Air Patrol.” – F.H. LaGuardia, U.S. Director of Civilian Defense Civil Air Patrol is officially founded, six days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
CAP is born.
✄
✄
The standard Civilian Defense insignia was modified with symbols for scores of functions… air raid wardens, ground spotters, etc. For CAP, a red propeller appeared inside the triangle.
From CAPhistory.org
Early Volunteers Photo: 1943 Coastal Patrol Base No. 10 Beaumont, Texas
“They were to become, in effect, an air force without the ‘red tape,’ a group of men and women with boundless energy and enthusiasm who were willing to fly even in weather that kept the military grounded and, while doing so, pay for their own gas, equipment, and repairs.” From the book Torpedo Junction by Homer Hickam, Jr.
1999. Dell Publishing
General John F. Curry ✄
✄
✄
Chief of Staff of the Air Service, Second Army, France, World War I December 1941, appointed as CAP’s first National Commander Forms statelevel CAP units called “Wings” in 48 states
✄
✄
✄
✄
✄
4050,000 volunteers in the first three months of 1942. 100,000 volunteers by end of the year 150,000 by the end of the War Volunteers were ages 1981 Many were volunteers who could not qualify for active military service All walks of life: aristocrats, executives, country boys, and women
Zack Mosley
WWII CAP Coastal Patrol pilot and artist features Civil Air Patrol as a storyline in his syndicated comic strip “Smilin’ Jack,” which appeared in newspapers from 19331973. Source: CAPhistory.org
Steve Patti
Original CAP member and former member of Palm Springs’ CAP Squadron. Promoted to Colonel May 5, 2012 as CAP WWII members are recognized nationally.
20% of the volunteers are women. Women fly inland liaison, forest fire patrol, and other missions. They conduct support duties at Coastal Patrol bases.
Colonel Nannette Moss Spears Charter Member, New Jersey Wing
CAP pilots provided their own airplanes and equipment, and often couldn’t cover expenses on their $8 per flyingday government pay, which often arrived two months late. Civic organizations across the country chipped in with “Sink aSub Clubs,” staging fundraisers for Coastal Patrol.
Coastal Patrol: U-boat Defenders
Coastal Patrol ✄
✄
✄
✄
Operations began March 5, 1942; ended August 31, 1943 90 day experiment lasted 18 months Started with 3 bases; ended with 21: From Maine to Mexico 86,865 missions flown totaling 244,600 hours and covering over 24 million miles
Aircraft
This is a sample of CAP’s WWIIera aircraft, clockwise: Stinson 10A, Fairchild, Sikorsky S39, a different Fairchild
Source: capHistory.org
Coastal Patrol ✄
✄
✄
✄
Found 91 ships in distress Found 363 uboat attack survivors 5,684 special convoy missions flown at request of US Navy 17 mines spotted
1943 Coastal Patrol Base No. 17 Zoot Suit & 1man raft. CAP pilot Norman W. Rehrig, CAPT
DuckCl ub Duck emblems were bestowed upon CAP aircrew members forced down at sea during a mission and who lived to tell about it. Similar to Army Air Corps’ Caterpillar Club. 118 CAP volunteers became Duck Club members during coastal patrol operations.
Close Call
In May 1942, a CAP aircraft spotted a stuck Nazi submarine just offshore of Cape Canaveral and called for military help. Short of bombers, it took local military bases several hours to respond and the sub got away. With clearance from Gen. Arnold, CAP members took matters into their own hands.
May 1942 90hp Stinson Voyagers were each outfitted with one 100lb demolition bomb. “Two lengths of bailin’ wire were attached to the bombs and depth charges. The wires came up through the floor, and yellow and red handgrips were attached. If the observer pulled a RED handle, the arming pin was pulled; and when the YELLOW handle was pulled, the bomb or charge would be dropped. Someone invented a simple 25¢ bomb sight, which was amazingly accurate for lowaltitude bomb runs. see next
“When the ‘brass’ at West Palm Beach’s Morrison Field heard that CAP planes were going to be equipped with bombs and depth charges, they ordered our unit to get th’ hell off and set up a base at a new, small airport at Lantana, about 5 miles away... The ‘brass’ reasoned that if one of us ‘novice’ bomber pilots crashed an overloaded plane haulin’ a depth charge on takeoff or landing, we’d blow one helluva’ hole in a very vital runway!” From the book Brave Coward Zack by Zack Mosley
Coastal Patrol ✄
83 bombs and depth charges were dropped
✄
2 confirmed German subs sunk
✄
57 additional subs as probables
✄
26 Auxiliarymen perished
✄
7 critically wounded
✄
90 aircraft were lost
Air Medal 824 Air Medals were issued to CAP airmen. “The Flying Minutemen” were awarded for flying in excess of 300 hours each.
Source: archives.sercap.us
August 31, 1943 The coastal patrol is closed down. The CAP has mostly succeeded in driving the Uboats from our shores. Conventional military forces are prepared to fight and win the Battle of the Atlantic farther out to sea.
“After the German surrender, one of Hitler’s highranking naval officers was asked why the Nazi Uboats had been withdrawn from United States coastal waters in early 1943. The answer was exploded in a curt guttural: ‘It was because of those damned little red and yellow planes!’ ” From the book Flying Minute Men by Robert E. Neprud
1948. Duell, Sloan and Pearce
Other Wartime Missions Photo: 1943 Los Angeles Cadet Squadron
Other missions ✄
Tow Target (at right, Biggs Field, Texas. Photo by Col. Steve Patti)
✄
Border Patrol
✄
Search and Rescue
✄
Mercy missions
✄
Recruiting and training
✄
Cargo and courier flights
April 1942 The CAP initiates industrial courier missions to keep manufacturing plants humming. In its first month, the CAP makes 286 emergency missions to Grumman Aircraft alone.
Patrolling for Forest Fires. Source: From Maine to mexico
June 1942: CAP pilots start patrols on the border with Mexico from Brownsville, TX to Douglas, AZ. Source: From Maine to mexico
More ‘Missions for America’ ✄
✄
✄
CAP pilots fly over dumps looking for recyclable scrap materials for the war effort. Nevada pilots worked with Ft. Riley’s cavalry on search and rescue missions CAP volunteers build over 200 bases that pave the way for civilian aviation. (photo at right)
Source: From Maine to mexico
More ‘Missions for America’ ✄
✄
✄
Chicago Heights Squadron successfully experiments with using carrier pigeons to ferry messages. Indiana, Kansas, and Nevada follow suit. Air ambulance service in remote areas (right). Delivering packages to lighthouses.
and in California… When ducks and geese migrate two weeks early in 1942 and 1943, CAP pilots fly missions over the rice fields outside Sacramento to chase them off when they threaten to consume the harvest.
Source: Flying Minute Men
Cadet Program Photo: 1943 Los Angeles Cadet Squadron
Cadet Program ✄
Established October 1, 1943 ✄
ages 1719 years old
✄
Aviation Cadets
✄
✄
✄
PreEnlistment screening and training
Revamped July 1, 1964 Today, has nearly 26,000 cadets ages 1221
After World War II: Public Law 476
Still going strong: Modern Era Civil Air Patrol is in its 71st year with over 55,000 volunteers nationwide
Significant CAP Missions – Modern Era
For more information: ✄
Palm Springs Composite Squadron 11
✄
70 total members:
✄
✄
✄
✄
28 Cadets (ages 12+)
✄
42 Senior Members (adults age 21+)
Meets every Wednesday 6:30pm to 9 Palm Springs Air Museum, Pacific Hangar www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com
✄
We invite you to check out our current Search & Rescue aircraft on display with aircrew members: ✄
Mission Pilot Gene Ramirez
✄
Mission Observer Bruce Marble
✄
Mission Scanner Chad Roberson
View more...
Comments