FACT SHEET
The United States Air Force Auxiliary
CIVIL AIR PATROL
where imagination takes flight!
to serve America by developing our Nation's youth;
accomplishing local, state, and national missions;
and informing our citizens to the importance of aerospace education.
 
CAP WAS FOUNDED IN DECEMBER 1941, one week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, by over 150,000 citizens concerned about the defense of America's coastline. Flying under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces, CAP pilots flew over 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 Truman established CAP as a federally chartered benevolent civilian corporation. Congress passed Public Law 557 on May 26, 1948, which made CAP the auxiliary of the new United States Air Force. CAP was charged with three primary missions: Cadet Programs, Aerospace Education, and Emergency Services.
 
THE CORPORATION
  • Nonprofit, 501(c)(3) corporation
  • United States Air Force Auxiliary
  • Eight geographic regions consisting of 52 wings (each of the 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia)
  • Almost 1,800 units nationwide
  • Approximately 61,000 members
  • 530 Corporate owned aircraft
  • More than 4,000 member owned aircraft
  • Largest fleet of single-engine, piston aircraft in the world
  • Volunteers fly in excess of 120,000 hours each year
  • Maintains a fleet of 950 emergency services vehicles for training and mission support
  • Approximately 675 chaplains provide counseling and ministry to CAP cadets and senior members
  • Requires more than 230 corporate staff to support membership
  • National Headquarters located at Maxwell AFB, Alabama
CADET PROGRAMS
  • Develops the potential of youth ages 12 to 21
  • More than 26,000 cadet members
  • Encompasses a 15 step program that includes aviation and aerospace activities
  • From six to ten percent of each class entering the military service academies are former CAP cadets
  • Cadets who have earned the General Billy Mitchell Award are eligible to enlist in the Air Force at a higher pay grade
  • Opportunities to participate and compete in activities at the local, state, region, and national level
  • Participation in the International Air Cadet Exchange program
  • Scholarships available in several disciplines
  • Opportunities to earn FAA pilot ratings
AEROSPACE EDUCATION
  • Educating the membership and community
  • Support for more than 100 workshops at colleges throughout the nation annually
  • Develops, publishes, and distributes aerospace curriculum for classroom grades K through college
  • Each year sponsors the premier aerospace education conference, National Congress on Aviation and Space Education (NCASE)
  • Provides classroom materials, teacher training, and other educational aids at no cost to America's teachers
  • Serves as an aerospace resource center for education through CAP's web page
  • Provides speakers and direct assistance to teachers through the regional Directors of Aerospace Education
EMERGENCY SERVICES
  • Conducts over 85% of all inland search and rescue in the U.S. as tasked by the AFRCC
  • Average 100 lives saved each year
  • Provides disaster relief support to local, state, and national disaster relief organizations
  • Transport time-sensitive medical materials, blood products and body tissue
  • Provides damage assessment, radiological monitoring, 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
  • Utilize CAP's communication's network, the most extensive in the nation
Media Inquiries: 334.953.5320 National Web Site: http://www.cap.gov/
 
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, CIVIL AIR PATROL, 105 S. HANSELL STREET, BUILDING 714, MAXWELL AFB AL 36112