Why did you join Civil Air Patrol?
When I was 13, I thought I wanted a military career with the end goal of becoming an astronaut. My mom was an Air Force officer, and I had wanted to join the Marines to fly AV-8 Harriers from the time I was 6 or 7 years old. (Full disclosure: Mom was not a fan of that idea!) I had autographed astronaut pictures on my bedroom wall! For me, space and aviation were all-consuming, and when, as a high school freshman, I met a classmate who told me all about his orientation flight the night before at a CAP meeting, I was instantly eager to join. In 1979 I became a cadet with the Robert S. Van Keuren squadron in Syracuse, New York, and loved every second of it.
Back then it was mostly member-owned aircraft, and I’ll never forget the Tuesday night when Capt. Higbee came into an aerospace education class we were in at the Malloy Road Armory where we met and asked if anyone wanted to do a night-time orientation flight. My hand shot straight up, and we took off at sunset. After that, I was excited to train for emergency-services missions; then, as now, one of the most appealing things to me was the opportunity to engage in real-world volunteer humanitarian service. Let Junior ROTC march in circles around the flagpole; we’ve got a mission to do!
What is your current career?
I am president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, a nonprofit shaping national and local transportation policy. In this role, I lead a professional staff based in Washington, D.C., responsible for strategy-setting, innovation, federal and state policy formation, legislative strategy, and business operations. Today I serve on eight federal government advisory panels advising the Department of Transportation, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. I’ve drafted legislation —. literally helping to write laws. I’ve testified before Congress and regulatory bodies and appear frequently on and in national and international TV, radio, and newspapers as a transportation and safety expert.
What specific lesson/experience from CAP has influenced your career or your life?
The detailed knowledge of aviation I got from the cadet program got me hired at Jane’s Defence Weekly as a reporter back in the early 1980s. And that, in turn, set me up to move over to Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.
At AvWeek I was able to move up the ranks to run the digital news operation as well as fly some 40 aircraft types around the world. The cadet program’s leadership lessons helped me throughout my 26-year career there, as I recruited, managed, and led award-winning teams of reporters, editors, and designers. My success at AvWeek also came into play when the recruiters wanted me to consider accepting the CEO role at the association, which I did in 2014.
My entire career trajectory began with CAP and was sustained by all the training and education I received. I learned about not just the academic details of aircraft engines, wing shapes, rockets, and so forth but also concrete lessons about managing resources, leading people, acting with integrity, responding to failure, and working for something important and bigger than yourself.
What else should we know about you?
As many do, I left CAP when I graduated high school and headed to college. I flunked my military physical and had to change career objectives. We raised our family and got our four sons launched, all without CAP in my life. In 2011, looking around our empty nest, I decided to return to CAP and haven’t really looked back. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have served in command roles, to have pinned wings on cadets, and to have done my part in many dozens of missions ranging from the search for a missing F-15 over the Shenandoahs to running the air branch for hurricane relief in South Carolina. It has been incredibly fulfilling, even at its hardest, knowing that I’ve been able to make a difference and not just read helplessly about disasters online.
Right now, I’m vice commander of the Virginia Wing, having briefly served in the plans and programs role for the wing following two successful command tours – four years of squadron command and another four leading Virginia Wing Group 3. I’ve also been allowed to contribute my experience in the nonprofit world to CAP’s field fundraising team, which has allowed me to meet even more incredible CAP members from around the country.
There’s a cliche in CAP that you’ll get from the program whatever you put in. I think that’s incorrect: I’ve always gotten back much more than I put in. The experiences, the friendships across the country, the fellowship, and the opportunity to make a difference all are reasons why I stay.
