Civil Air Patrol Dine In

This years CAP Dine In Banquet was real special. Tanner was surprised by receiving the Mitchel Award. This is a very distinguished award, which not every CAP Cadet earns.(only 15% of CAP cadets do..) Its really as the Captain said, "...equal to receiving your Eagle in the BSA".(Tanner is currently working on his Eagle and hopes to have it complete in April 2012) Below is a description of the Mitchell Award....

The General Billy Mitchell Award is earned by Civil Air Patrol cadets who have successfully completed the second phase of the cadet program. It marks the end of the enlisted phase of the cadet program; cadets are promoted to Cadet Second Lieutenants upon receipt and, by extension, Cadet Officers. The award is given in honor of Maj Gen William "Billy" Mitchell, former Deputy Chief of the Army Air Service and military aviation visionary.

In order to earn this award, cadets must pass a series of leadership, aerospace and physical fitness tests and attend character development training for each achievement from Cadet Airman Basic through Cadet Chief Master Sergeant. In addition, cadets must attend a military-style encampment before this award is made, and have maintained active membership in the Civil Air Patrol for at least 18 months since joining. 15% of Civil Air Patrol cadets achieve the Mitchell Award.

Mitchell Cadets who chose to enlist in the United States Air Force or the United States Coast Guard are promoted to E-3 upon enlistment and completion of Basic Military Training (BMT), instead of E-1. Mitchell Cadets who enlist in the Marine Corps, Navy, or Army are promoted to E-2 upon completion of BMT. A silver star is worn on the ribbon to denote successful completion of Cadet Officer School.

By regulation, this award should be presented by a group commander (or higher), the wing director of cadet programs, a state or federal official, or an elected local official.

To top it off, Tanner will be put in charge of the entire Cadet Squadron(12-18yrs) for an entire year, as part of his training to become 1st Lieutenant. (Whoa....)

Sierra advanced too and did a great job of going up and receiving it. Such a amazing change from where she was last year when she started Civil Air Patrol. She has stuck with this, even when its been hard and sometimes challenging her to do new things. Way to go sis.

Here are some pictures of the event.