Sunday, July 31, 2016

Announcing Squadron 150's New Deputy Commander

Civil Air Patrol Long Beach Senior Squadron 150 Commander Capt. David Powell, CAP appointed 2nd Lt. Rommel Anacan, CAP to the position of Squadron Deputy Commander on 26 July, 2016.

Capt. Powell said, "I am pleased to announce that 2nd Lt. Anacan is our new Deputy Commander effective immediately.  He has a business and consulting background that is uniquely fitted to develop our organization and help move us to the next level. His continued effort and support in helping Squadron 150 grow has been priceless, and he will be a great asset in the leadership of our squadron."

2nd Lt. Rommel Anacan, CAP
2nd Lt. Anacan said, "I want to thank Capt. Powell for the confidence he has placed in me in appointing me to the position of Deputy Commander. I look forward to assisting him in leading this great squadron and in working with all of our members and partners in carrying out the missions of Civil Air Patrol."

2nd Lt. Anacan joined Civil Air Patrol in September 2015 out of a desire to serve the community and also because of his lifelong interest in aviation. He currently serves as the squadron's Public Affairs Officer (where he holds a Technician rating), is a qualified aircrew Mission Scanner and is also currently training to be an Airborne Photographer and Urban Direction Finder.

When he is not serving in Civil Air Patrol 2nd Lt. Anacan is the president of an organizational development, motivational speaking and corporate training firm based in Orange County, California.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

The History of the Symbols of Civil Air Patrol | Part One

The symbols of Civil Air Patrol reveal our origins as a component of the Office of Civilian Defense. For decades the Civil Defense logo was ubiquitous all around the nation and could be found everywhere from cars, signs, shelters, and sirens. Remember this?


On 12 February, 1942 CAP NHQ approved the official CAP symbol:

"Operational Directive No. 2 February 12, 1942, (OD No. 2)  National Headquarters, Civil Air Patrol Office of Civilian Defense(Washington

The Civil Air Patrol insignia (blue disk with superimposed white triangle and with red three-bladed propeller superimposed on white triangle) shall be placed on the wings and fuselage of all aircraft engaged in official Civil Air Patrol Missions. Any aircraft while displaying such insignia shall be flown exclusively by members of the Civil Air patrol."



A member of CAP during World War II. You can see the CAP insignia on her left shoulder


The insignia on the right was used circa 1942-1944 while the insignia on the left, with "Civil Air Patrol" added to the patch was introduced in 1944. 
Because CAP was a part of the Office of Civilian Defense it was only natural that CAP's insignia was derived from CD insignia. CAP's symbol during the WWII era was the blue circle and white triangle found on the Civilian Defense insignia, with a red triangle replacing the letters "CD." Later versions of this emblem included the letters "US."

For reference here is a poster with the other CD insignia of the era. 





Interestingly, CAP's insignia (albeit used in a modified form today) is the only insignia on this poster still used today, as the concepts of and the term Civilian Defense (and later Civil Defense) fell out of favor as the nation transitioned to policies of "Emergency Management." In fact, today's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a direct descendant of The Office of Civilian Defense (and it's various incarnations during the post-World War II and Cold War period.)

CAP kept its CD-derived insignia even after it was transferred to the authority of the War Department and became the auxiliary of the United States Army Air Forces. 


In future posts we will see the evolution of the symbols of CAP and the balance of maintaining a link to CAP's history and looking forward towards CAP's future. 

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Good Leaders Practice Servant Leadership


Note: We came across this article by Chief Master Sgt. Tyrone Davis, USAF and would like to share it with you.

RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFNS) -- Servant leadership is a concept that may be a little different from the normal discussions concerning leadership. 

Though many of us practice this concept every day, we haven't thought about it as being in relationship to a servant. 

The phrase, "I joined the military to serve my country," has been used by many people. But how much thought has really been put into the concept to serve or become a servant? To serve, you must take on the role of a servant ...


To read more, click on this link: http://www.af.mil/News/Commentaries/Display/tabid/271/Article/141438/good-leaders-practice-servant-leadership.aspx

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Squadron 150 Participates in SAREX and Airborne Photography Ground School

This was not a typical Father's Day weekend for the members of Squadron 150 that participated in two Group trainings, including a Search and Rescue Training Exercise (SAREX) and an Airborne Photography Ground School during the weekend of 18 June-19 June, 2016.

Cessna 206 doing a short field take off

Airborne Photography Ground School
The Airborne Photography Ground School took place on 18 June, 2016 at the Metro Cities Fire Dispatch headquarters in Anaheim on 18 June, 2016. In the past few years airborne photography has become one of CAWG's leading mission requests, with agencies such as FEMA and CalOES tasking CAP to perform these missions.

SAREX
Squadron 150's Director of Operations Capt. Bodo Rau was the lead project manager for the SAREX which saw over 20 Civil Air Patrol Airmen from multiple Groups (including members from Squadron 150) participate as aircrew in nine air sorties over two days and as ground staff for KFUL Mission Base. Two CAP aircraft were used during the weekend including a Cessna 182 (equipped with the G1000 system) and a Cessna 206.


(L to R) Capt. Rich Lovick (Incident Commander), Capt Bodo Rau (Lead Project Officer) and Maj. Gardner Harris 

Our squadron's thanks to Captain Rau for his hard work and efforts in planning and executing a successful SAREX, to the members who volunteered their time to participate in the SAREX and to Capt. Dan Eichelberger and Capt. Craig Newton for planning, facilitating and instructing the members who attended AP Ground School.



Monday, July 04, 2016

Let Freedom Ring!





The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton