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April
2023
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America/Chicago

Alumni Profiles

Alumni Profiles showcase how their Civil Air Patrol experiences have helped shape former CAP members’ lives and careers. Reconnect with CAP here.

anh 3Former Georgia Wing Member: CAP Provided Chance to ‘Do More ... Find Ways to Give Back’
May19,2023

What if one day you heard a sound above you, looked up, and saw the most amazing machine flying through the air. You didn’t know what it was … only that it soared and swooped like a bird – but wasn’t a bird – and to a young girl’s eyes it was simply magical. 

That was Anh-Thu Nguyen’s first glimpse of a plane as an 8-year-old in her poverty-stricken rural Vietnam village. Little did she know her childhood fascination with the máy bay (flying machine) – “the most amazing thing a child could ever see,” she recalled­ ­– would forever change her life. 

“I was just mesmerized,” said Nguyen, a member of Civil Air Patrol’s Georgia Wing from 2017-2021 …

 

KCx2aCadet-Turned-Fighter-Pilot: CAP 'Invaluable for Preparing You for the Future'
April 14, 2023

“There I was … at 7,000 feet … when …”  

Many Civil Air Patrol cadets dream about completing a harrowing – but safely landed – flight. And retired Air Force Col. and former California Wing cadet Kim Campbell got to do just that.  

On April 7, 2003, her A-10 fighter was hit by enemy fire. Much of the aircraft’s normal systems was destroyed, but Campbell manually piloted the crippled jet back to base safely – a rare feat considering the heavy damage. After the mission, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism. … 

FUllerMoonTo the Moon, Then Mars: CAP Alumnus Helps Manage Artemis Program
Dec. 30, 2022

Talk about a red-letter month for aviation.

December, of course, marks the founding of Civil Air Patrol. The birth of powered flight occurred Dec. 17, 1903, on a frigid windswept North Carolina dune thanks to the Wright brothers. Fifty years ago marked the successful end of America’s first lunar landing program with the Apollo 17 mission.

 And this Dec. 11 featured another milestone—the successful conclusion of an unmanned soup-to-nuts test flight, the inaugural mission for the Artemis program.

The unmanned flight is the first page of a new chapter in lunar exploration. Artemis is intended not only to allow humans to live on the moon but also to serve as a way station on the way to Mars.

And a CAP alumnus, Sean Fuller, is the public face of the Artemis effort …