'PROPS': Your Weekly Newsletter

Florida Member Serves Despite Life-Threatening Condition

Capt. Chuck Vaughn is addressing his current difficult situation just like he’s addressed everything else in his life — head-on, with confidence and intelligence and a never-give-up attitude.

Vaughn serves as the public affairs officer of the Florida Wing’s Jacksonville Composite Squadron, as an aerospace educator and as an event planner. He has attended every squadron meeting for six years, and until recently very few knew of his health struggles.

He let his fellow senior members know only because he felt his health had started interfering with his duties. Vaughn, 64, has end-stage renal disease and will need a kidney transplant to survive. The best-case scenario is to find a living kidney donor in the next six to 10 months.

Meanwhile, he'll keep volunteering with CAP as he can.

More About Capt. Vaughn

CAP Assists in

Puerto Rico

Quakes Response

CAP members are conducting damage assessment in support of various federal, state and local agencies as part of the response to a series of earthquakes off the southern coast of Puerto Rico since Dec. 28.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency requested support from CAP for disaster relief efforts after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks struck the island.

“Civil Air Patrol has a legacy of serving its communities in times of trouble,” said Lt. Col. Rick Woolfolk, CAP deputy incident commander for the Puerto Rico response. “Our teams are in the field gathering information that will help in the rescue and recovery efforts underway.”

More About the Puerto Rico Mission

Cell Team Helps Find Two Lost in N.H., Mont.

The National Cell Phone Forensics Team began the new year by helping searchers locate missing men on opposite sides of the country, in New Hampshire and Montana, only a few hours apart.

The team was assigned 341 missions by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center in calendar year 2019 and was credited with 212 finds and 99 saves. The first two weeks of 2020, the team has been credited with nine finds and seven saves.

More About Cell Phone Team 'Saves'

National Capital Wing Achieves 100% Count for

Quality Cadet Unit Awards

All six National Capital Wing squadrons have been recognized with CAP’s Quality Cadet Unit Award — the first time a wing has seen 100% of its units achieve the award.

Of the six, the Arlington Composite Squadron marked its ninth straight year to earn the award, and the Fairfax Composite Squadron was also honored as the National Capital Wing Squadron of Merit and the Mid-Atlantic Region Squadron of Distinction.

The Andrews, Mount Vernon and Tuskegee composite squadrons and the Challenger 1 Cadet Squadron also received Quality Cadet Unit Awards.

More Abot Quality Cadet Unit Awards

Mo. Wing Cadet Follows Mother as Spaatz Recipient

Earlier this month Cadet Col. Justin Smith of the Missouri Wing received his Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award from National Vice Commander Brig. Gen. Ed Phelka with Smith's mother, Lt. Col. Jennifer Smith, standing by.

Lt. Col. Smith — chief of staff for the Missouri Wing — achieved the Spaatz award, CAP's top cadet honor, in January 1996. The Smiths appear to be the only mother-and-son tandem to attain the award, though the list of recipients includes several mother-and-daughter pairs.

Lt. Col. Smith received Spaatz award No. 1284. Her son's award is No. 2242.

NHQ News

AXIS Learning Usage Outlook

With the launch of a new LMS in 2019, CAP began its transition into expanded online learning opportunities for members. In a large organization that makes significant use of online learning resources already, this transition has moved along slowly and steadily since May.

In the eight months it has been online, almost 180 courses and quizzes have been loaded in AXIS, and CAP members completed 12,635 individual courses and quizzes in that time.

Approximately 80% of CAP online materials are available in AXIS. By the end of 2020 the goal is to complete the transition from the legacy LMS and have all coursework completed on AXIS.

CAP will continue to move courses from the legacy LMS onto AXIS and to shut down access to them on the old system. This means members will be required to start new quiz and coursework in AXIS, but it won’t affect anything previously completed.

Safety Online Update

Do you need to know how update non-CAP education in SIRS (Safety Info and Reporting System)? What about entering or updating a mishap?

There’s now updated training in LMS to help you through that process. Check it out and complete the quiz. Go here and look under “Other Courses” in the Safety Functional Area

If you have questions about the training or suggestions on how to improve the process, talk to your local safety officers.