Civil Air Patrol is credited with saving an average of 82 lives annually. The volunteer Air Force auxiliary facilitates 90% of continental U.S. inland search-and-rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, searching for missing or overdue aircraft, lost or injured hikers, stranded boaters and missing persons.
This past week, an encampment for Civil Air Patrol’s cadet program made its home at Indiana State University’s Cromwell Hall, around which 190 cadets from throughout Indiana — including visitors from 14 other states —embarked upon drills and took classes to help them qualify for CAP. They were led by Major Josh Bowers and Cadet Colonel Elisa Miller.
“Civil Air Patrol’s main mission is to develop future leaders of America by teaching them aerospace education and saving lives through emergency services,” explained Miller, whose home squadron is based in Shelbyville. “At encampment, we prioritize cadet programs. So that’s learning discipline, learning how to march and wear the uniform properly.”
Cadets are graded on how well they march and how their uniforms and their dorm rooms look, as well.
“All this stuff encourages self-discipline to keep them moving forward and to develop that, so they can be contributing members in society,” Miller said, adding that grading them is “a great morale booster. … At encampments, it keeps them hopeful. It encourages them to keep pushing harder and to keep moving forward.”
Traditionally, encampments take place on military bases, but the Indiana wing of Civil Air Patrol has had theirs on college campuses for the past two years.
“It’s really done well for our cadets,” Miller said. “They’ve grown a lot and it’s been a better environment for them overall.” Also, staying in a dormitory means CAP staff members don’t have to worry about providing food.
CAP has three missions — cadet programs, aerospace education and emergency services. Cadet programs are emphasized at encampments, though there are classes of fundamentals of aviation and space. Cadets have all flown in aircraft on orientation flights, which are free to cadets under the age of 18. Students as young as 12 can sign up for CAP’s cadet program.
“I first joined to serve my community — I saw emergency services so I could go on rescue missions as a goal for me,” Miller recalled. “When I joined, I realized there was a lot more to leadership, and being invested in the leadership aspect of CAP has helped me grow in my own confidence and my leadership skills.” This is the fourth encampment Miller has taken charge of.
She hasn’t gone on any search-and-rescue missions yet, but is ground team qualified and assisting with training people in ground team search-and-rescue exercises that take place in a remote field for two days.
“In practice, you learn, how do you search a field to make sure you get clues and how do you report clues over radios?” Miller said. “How do you administer first aid care and how do you keep people calm when they may be panicking?”
Aerospace classes lead up to the most fun aspect of the week — launching rockets.
“Rocket launches are the cadets’ favorite part of encampment,” Miller said. “They build their rockets, and a winger aerospace teacher builds rockets with them. He has this really awesome contraption that can launch 10 rockets at the same time. It’s just so much fun watching the cadets having fun.”
At the end of the week, the cadets engage in a graduation ceremony.
“Graduation is simultaneously the most fun and the most challenging, fun because it’s really rewarding to watch all 109 students march through our parade at the end of the week,” Miller said. “It’s rewarding because we’ve all put effort into the week and they’ve all grown so much. They couldn’t march in step for the life of them when they arrived, but by the time graduation rolls around, they can do that.”
She added, “It’s the most challenging because it’s hard to get there; it’s really hard. We use intensity as a training tool at encampment, to instill that discipline and stay focused. It’s hard to keep them moving, but it’s super rewarding to watch them cross that finish line at graduation.”
The public is invited to observe the cadets’ graduation, which will be highlighted by a military style parade at Warrior Field, a block north of Cromwell Hall at on N. 4th Street, at 10:45 a.m. on Saturday.
“The cadets here are inspiring because not many people want to go to a camp like this,” Miller said. “But these cadets really do want to be here. They’re working for it. At the beginning of the week, I told them that they don’t get what they want but they get what they work for. Right now, they are working for that graduation and they will earn it. They all need to be proud of themselves.”
Bowers has two kids in the cadet program now and another waiting to join.
“I can only inspire my kids so much,” he said, “but when they get here, they get to meet other senior members that are doing all kinds of things in the real world and they can give them advice that I just can’t give them.”
For more information about the Civil Air Patrol, visit https://inwg.cap.gov/about.
