Andrew Feldman, Jacques Heinrich and Warrent Ratis photographed damage from the 9/11 attacks from above the following day. (Warren Ratis) Sept. 12, 2001 was a somber if not sobering day for our nation. The crisis from the day prior was still ongoing. Emergency Services volunteers and employees had converged at the site during the night. Still, it was difficult to assess the fullness of the situation. Ariel photography was necessary. The Civil Air Patrol rose to the challenge. On orders from Gov. Pataki to photograph the smoldering World Trade Center from above, a three-man aircrew boarded their Cessna 172 XP. It would be the first non-military flight allowed following the attack. Their craft was nearly alone that morning. Planes had been grounded across the nation. They were briefly challenged by a NYPD helicopter, though it left them be after receiving word that the mission was indeed authorized. The aircrew continued their sortie. It wasn't difficult to spot their target. The smoke heralded the grim situation beneath it. CAP trains hard. The reward doesn't always consist of sunshine and roses. Still, there's a potent feeling that rolls through an aircrews' chests whenever we spot the bright orange of a lost hunter's jacket or find a group of people clustered on a rooftop during a flood. We taste sorrow when we find the scattered debris of a downed aircraft. Sometimes we return to base without any news, and we pray that the CAP ground teams or other emergency services agencies were more successful. Nothing could have prepared our aircrew for what they saw as they reached their target. Lt. Col. Warren Ratis, Lt. Col. Jacques Heinrich, and Lt. Col. Andrew Feldman were among the first to see the devastation from above. Their sortie lasted for hours as they snapped photos of the horrific scene. These images would be utilized by FEMA and the state government to assess the scope of the disaster in order to plan a recovery mission. "There were huge amounts of smoke emanating from where the buildings collapsed and we had to steer away from it," Ratis said. "It was stunning how spread out all of the debris actually was -- like a quarter-mile or a half-mile. There was so much powdery debris, it was like it snowed on lower Manhattan." "It was very somber but our mission came first," said Heinrich. "We knew we had a job to do. It didn't really hit us until later what we saw." "You never forget what you see, obviously," added Ratis, who used to work in the World Trade Center and knew eighteen people who were killed. "But it's still hard to believe." Seventeen years have passed. Tomorrow, the nation will once again pause to remember the tragedy - a tragedy that occurred before some of our youngest cadets had even been born. To these future leaders, the event is framed in history text books. They know it occurred but they are incapable of understanding what it was truly like to experience it. The same could be said of many of our senior members too young to remember World War II or the sentiment behind the "sweating plane" patch.
The Civil Air Patrol continues to rise to the challenges laid out by the U.S. Air Force and government agencies such as FEMA. Threats to our native soil, terrorists attacks, natural disaster damage assessment - this is what we train for. It is how we - volunteers from all walks of life - can best serve our community, state, and nation. We are following in the footsteps of those that came before us. Our cadets will follow in ours someday. Seventeen years have passed since that fateful day in New York City. The events are seared in our minds. As we pause to pay respect to the lives lost on 9/11, we should also celebrate the lives saved due, in part, to the determination of Lt. Col. Warren Ratis, Lt. Col. Jacques Heinrich, and Lt. Col. Andrew Feldman. Strive on with diligence.
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The SUI documentation is completed. A few monthly reports are all that's left of my CAP work today. Oh, and those annual awards are due soon. Seems never-ending, no? It's hard to believe something as straightforward as inspection preparation could take up so much damn time. All told, it was well over 48 manhours on my part, divided into microbusts of frantic work whenever I found a free moment for CAP. That's what it is really about: time and effort. A SUI gives commanders a means to take a hard look at their unit. How far has it come, how far do we have to go, and what bright promise does our future hold for us? How much time and effort did we spend striving towards excellence? What more can we give? I can't predict the future. I can, however, assess our past. People, we really have come a long way. Stagnant units are inactive units, or they are units that haven't much encouragement to do things. Opportunities arise and the stagnant unit shrugs in collective apathy. Ours wasn't much different - we glided along the thermals, a worrisome cycle of downhill momentum until we caught the next column of rising air. It's hit and miss. We did a lot of gliding last year. We couldn't always find that column. Vehicle usage is one of my favorite metrics. How far did we collectively glide in 2017? Van Usage Report: 1 Sep 2016 - 1 Sep 2017 Total Times Used: 18 (annual goal is 48 uses) Total Hours: 212 (annual time goal is 420) Total Miles Driven 1881 (annual goal is 4200) That's... abysmal. It's also why I'm not fond of gliding. Give that vehicle an engine and prop and you'll find that powered flight takes you farther faster. There's no need to pray for a thermal to keep you aloft. Crack that window open and shout CLEAR! Van Usage Report: 1 Sep 2017 - 1 Sep 2018 Total Times Used: 38 (annual goal is 48 uses) Total Hours: 617 (annual time goal is 420) Total Miles Driven 4188 (annual goal is 4200) Those numbers will seem small to commanders of large units. For us - a scattering of senior members and a few cadets - it's phenomenal. It's more than I expected when command passed to me last October. Those numbers reflect CAP life: Encampment, NASA Space Day at the Challenger Learning Center, honoring our law enforcement on Memorial Day, SAREXs and Ground Pounders, the Wing conference, Professional Development Weekend, the #TotalForcePartners painting relay, and more. We had the power to fly as much as we wished, and to take advantage of opportunities that a glider just can't touch. There are more metrics, of course. Those successes shine brightest once the SUI paperwork is done. Our members are pushing forward in their specialty tracks. All our members have completed Level I. We had people attend SLS, CLC, and UCC. All active members have CPPT crossed off their lists. We've flown our quadcopter and put up a weather station. Our supply room has never gleamed so brightly - nor have we ever been so bereft of mouse poop. Our van happily beeps when we back up, and our new tires have taken us all sorts of places. Some things aren't measured during a SUI. We now have a qualified Ground Team. Our aircrew never fails to rise to the occasion - pun intended. O-Flights give our cadets experiences that might last a lifetime, small moments nested between the trials of Hawk Mountain and similar external cadet activities. A commander is, in a sense, the pilot that steers a unit and keeps it moving forward. However, a unit can't go anywhere without fuel. It is the time and effort put into the unit by each member every day and week, month in and month out, that keeps us in motion. Without it, we can't sustain flight for very long. We'd crash. Look how far we've come. Look at the power that got us to where we are now. We have farther to go. We have more to do. Recruitment has to be a priority - fresh minds with fresh ideas are potent elements. We need to divvy up some of those multiple hats people are wearing. We need to grow. Fundraising needs to happen. We'll get there. I have faith in that. We have determination. It also helps that we have Ewings and Browns to nurture budding leadership. That grumpy Wheeler guy from Wing comes in handy. Schneiders, Shermans and Augerbrights answer the call to fly. Our Ellefsons and Karolchiks and Burkharts - and that McCroskey fellow up at Wing - get them in the air. We would lack order without our logistics god, Hicks. We'd struggle with tech without our Titus-Glovers. Sprinkle in cadets to keep us hopping, while you're at it. And, though they can not be there due to life circumstances, we keep our Bollings, Steiners, Sims, Johnsons, Dragonirs and Knollingers in our thoughts. There are more, of course. Our patrons served their time. I am so proud of my unit's efforts. I'm proud of each and every individual. These are the people that volunteer their time and effort, and contribute their talents, with integrity and respect. They strive for excellence in everything that they do. They exemplify the best of the Civil Air Patrol, though I doubt they're aware of it. Thank you for all you do for Civil Air Patrol, West Virginia Wing, and the Wheeling Composite Squadron.
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