The Official Auxiliary of the United States Air Force 

... to serve America by developing our nation's youth; performing local, state and national missions; and informing our citizens about the importance of aerospace education.

Civil Air Patrol was founded in December 1941, one week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, by more than 150,000 citizens who were concerned about the defense of America's coastline. Under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces, CAP pilots flew more than one-half million hours, were credited with sinking two enemy submarines and rescued hundreds of crash survivors during World War II. On July 1, 1946, President Harry Truman established CAP as a federally chartered benevolent civilian corporation, and Congress passed Public Law 557 on May 26, 1948, making CAP the auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force. CAP was charged with three primary missions - aerospace education, cadet programs and emergency services.

THE CORPORATION

• Classified as a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) corporation
• Operates as the all-volunteer civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force
• Includes eight geographic regions consisting of 52 wings (each of the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia)
• Includes approximately 1,700 units nationwide
• Currently has nearly 56,000 members
• Operates one of the largest fleets of single-engine piston aircraft in the world, with 535 currently in the fleet
• Flies, through volunteer members, nearly 120,000 hours each year
• Maintains fleet of 1,000 emergency services vehicles for training and mission support
• Provides counseling and ministry to CAP cadets and senior members through some 900 service personnel
• Supports members with about 100 corporate staff at the CAP National Headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

AEROSPACE EDUCATION

• Educates the membership and the community
• Provides support for more than 100 workshops at colleges nationwide each year
• Develops, publishes and distributes aerospace education curricula for K through college classrooms
• Hosts premier aerospace education conference, the National Conference on Aviation and Space Education
• Provides classroom materials, teacher training and other educational aids at no cost to America's teachers and homeschoolers
• Serves as aerospace resource center for education through CAP's Web site at http://www.cap.gov/

CADET PROGRAMS

• Includes nearly 27,000 members ages 12-21
• Encompasses multi-step program that includes aviation and aerospace education
• Offers orientation flights in powered and glider aircraft, and flight training scholarships
• Provides about 10 percent year's new classes entering military service academies
• Provides enlistment in Air Force at higher pay grade for cadets who have earned the Gen. Billy Mitchell Award
• Provides activities and competition for cadets at local, state, regional and national levels
• Provides an International Air Cadet Exchange program
• Provides college scholarships in several disciplines

EMERGENCY SERVICES

• Conducts 95 percent of inland search and rescue in the United States, as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and other agencies
• Coordinates Air Force-assigned missions through the CAP National Operations Center at Maxwell AFB, Ala.
• Performs aerial reconnaissance for homeland security
• Saves an average of 100 lives per year
• Provides disaster-relief support to local, state and national disaster relief organizations
• Transports time-sensitive medical materials, blood products and body tissues
• Provides damage assessment, light transport, communications support and low-altitude route surveys for the U.S. Air Force
• Assists federal agencies in the war on drugs
• Conducts orientation flights for Air Force ROTC students
• Maintains the most extensive communications network in the nation

Fact sheet information current as of 11/07