Incoming Senior Staff Appointments Announced

Maj. Gen. Joe Vazquez, Civil Air Patrol CEO and national commander, and Maj. Gen.-Select Mark Smith, incoming CEO/national commander, announce the following six appointments to the incoming senior staff:

• Col. Arlinda C. Bailey, national executive officer
  Bailey, a 19½-year member of CAP, is in her third year as the first female commander of the Tennessee Wing. A resident of Johnson City, Tennessee, she previously commanded the wing’s Group 1 in east Tennessee after serving as deputy group commander and commander of the Kingsport Composite Squadron. She was honored as the wing’s squadron commander of the year in 2006. Bailey graduated from East Tennessee State University in Johnson City and worked as an electronic sales representative for Texas Instruments and as a merchandise representative for the Procter and Gamble Corp. She became a full-time mom after the birth of two sons, Ed and Sam. Sam eventually enrolled as a cadet in the Kingsport squadron, which prompted Bailey’s lengthy volunteer service in CAP.
   
• Col. Frank Blazich, national historian
  Blazich has served as national historian since April 2013, playing a prominent role in Civil Air Patrol’s observance of its 75th anniversary in 2016. He has completed all five levels of the senior member professional development program and has a Master rating as a CAP historian. He previously served as historian of the Ohio Wing. In his civilian work, Blazich is a military curator with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He has a doctorate in history from Ohio State University.
   
• Col. Cheryl Fielitz-Scarbrough, national inspector general
  Fielitz-Scarbrough, of Bluefield, West Virginia, is continuing as national IG, a post she has held since January. Previously, she served as the IG for CAP’s Middle East Region and for the West Virginia Wing. She was a Distinguished Graduate of the National Inspector General College in 2014 and an instructor of the National IG College in 2016. Fielitz-Scarbrough holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health from Malone College in Canton, Ohio, as well as a master’s in athletic administration from Seattle Pacific University. A former basketball coach, she serves as an evaluator of officials for women’s Division II college basketball.
   
• Lt. Col. John A. Maxfield, chief of the Legal Officer Corps
  Maxfield has been serving as the interim chief since the death of Maj. Gen. Dwight Wheless in June. A resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, Maxfield was the assistant deputy chief of the legal officer corps under Wheless. He also serves as Middle East Region assistant legal officer and North Carolina Wing assistant legal officer and as the North Carolina Wing assistant director of safety. He previously served as chief legal officer for the region and the wing. Maxfield has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from North Carolina Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount and a Juris Doctor from Campbell University School of Law in Raleigh, North Carolina. He has been the Wake County, North Carolina, sheriff’s attorney for 28 years.
   
• Chief Master Sgt. Dennis H. Orcutt Jr., command chief
  Serving as Middle East Region command noncommissioned officer since September 2016, Orcutt is a resident of Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He previously served as command NCO of the National Capital Wing. Orcutt joined the Okinawa Cadet Squadron at Kadena Air Base in Japan as a senior member in 1992, having been an Air Force Junior ROTC cadet before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force. During his 25 years in CAP, he has held a variety of positions within the Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama, Georgia and National Capital wings along with the overseas unit in Japan. A native of Oklahoma, Orcutt has earned associate degrees in logistics, information management and human resource management from the Community College of the Air Force and a bachelor’s degree in network management from Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. Still active in the Air Force, Orcutt deployed to support Operation Desert Storm/Provide Comfort and Operation Enduring Freedom.
   
• Chaplain Lt. Col. Charlie Sattgast, chief of the Chaplain Corps
  Sattgast, who resides in Portland, Oregon, and Yuma, Arizona, has been deputy chief of the CAP Chaplain Corps since September 2015. Previously, he served as chaplain of the Pacific Region and the Oregon Wing. Sattgast has been in CAP since 2001. In addition to his chaplain Master rating, he holds a Senior rating in cadet programs. He earned the Gill Robb Wilson Award in 2007. Sattgast is endorsed by the Foursquare Church and has served over the years as a senior pastor, associate pastor, worship pastor and children's pastor. He serves as a volunteer assisting minister in his local church, The Oregon Community, in Portland. He holds a master’s degree from Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland and a doctorate in leadership development from Bethel University. He and his wife, Linda, have two adult children and own a training company that teaches Photoshop online.

“I am very fortunate to have professionals of this caliber to serve alongside me on the senior national staff,” Smith said. “I look forward to working with them to lead CAP forward.”

The new senior staff members will begin their duties Sept. 2 during Civil Air Patrol’s National Conference in San Antonio, following a change of command ceremony in which Smith officially becomes CAP’s CEO and national commander and Brig. Gen.-Select Edward Phelka becomes national vice commander.