 'Patches? I ain't got no patches. I need patches! I will send you some stinkin' patches!' Well, not actually 'stinkin', and only if you want to, and you send me one of yours first... I'll send you one of my new unit patches in return. I am just now starting my patch collection, and while I don't ever think I'll get to the level of 'Ace' Browning out in MNWG, I think it would be fun to get close to that level, eventually.  CAP & USAF Patches from Fargo, ND This post was actually inspired by some recent conversation by Maj Chad Derby, PAO and SE from the 119th ANG Cadet Squadron in Fargo, ND. Chad asked me if I wanted to trade with him and if I had a collection going myself, which I answered to the negative. So not only did he send me one of his unit's patches, but a couple USAF patches too to help get my collection going. Thanks a lot Chad... I'll be sending you back a Boulle-Norman M.C.S. patch and a Michigan Wing patch too, hopefully you do not have the latter either. ;-) The best part about doing this is it only costs the price of one USPS 1st Class stamp! How ya like that? AFBlues.com - Ask Lt. Dahl Strikes Again! 06/11/2009
 CPFT Question Hits the Desk of Lt. Dahl Wow...just caught this a short time ago and had to post it. Great stuff Farva...great stuff. Check out the strip here & at AFblues.com... this is CAP-USAF comedy gold. ;-) If your an out of shape cadet in CAP and you don't like to run... care to share your answer? Indianapolis Air Show - 6 JUNE 2009 06/11/2009
 USN Blue Angels Streak Across The Sky The weekend of June 5-6, 2009, the Indy Air Show was the the 'place to be' for a good lot of CAP folks from Indiana Wing as well as a few chosen members of Michigan Wing who were invited to 'come and play' at the state's premier air show event. Members of my unit, Boulle-Norman Memorial Cadet Squadron, made their way to the Mt. Comfort Airport just north of Indianapolis, IN on Friday and on Saturday to assist in the ground operations of this air show, which featured the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. One of our newer Senior Members, 2LT Robert Bonner, had the privilege of running communications from mission base for most of the day Saturday. Coming from a position where 2LT Bonner has logged over 40,000 hours behind a radio microphone for the City of Grand Rapids, MI, it seemed like the logical choice. The cadets who traveled down augmented teams from the local area in performing security of the static and active airport ramps. One particular aircraft being looked after was a USN F/A-18 Super Hornet, which was positioned with it's wings in the up position, causing an 'exposed edge' which needed to be protected.  A-10 Pilot gives crowd the thumbs up! Working the show as a Public Affairs Officer, the highlight for me was having the unprecedented access to the active ramp during the afternoon on Saturday. For someone who has a love of aircraft and aviation as well as photography, I was in my glory and snapped close to 500 photos in just that one day! Here is a link to my photo gallery, enjoy! The photo you see to the right I am particularly fond of, in fact, if I would not have backed away from the taxiway when I did, I would have been wearing the right wingtip of that particular A-10 for a hat! ;-) EAA Young Eagles Fly Day - Greenville, MI 06/02/2009
 Well now, I seem to be a couple days late in getting this latest blog post out. Way too many 'irons in the fire' these days! Especially CAP related! To quote a certain cadet commander for an upcoming encampment that I'll be attending; "If I was actually getting paid for all the work I'm doing for CAP lately; money would NOT be a problem!". I know EXACTLY how this cadet feels. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining in the least, I love every second of every day for what I do that is CAP related, my only problem is that the 'jobs' that actually bring in revenue are not showing up at my doorstep like they should be. Since I launched my home business, C3Designs, I haven't had one solid bite, nor has Monster.com, Dice.Com or Careerbuilder.com presented anything remotely close to what it is I do. So if anyone out there on the 'IntarWebs' has some work they can send my way, I'd be most appreciative. I keep checking www.usajobs.gov in the hopes there is something I can do that is government or civilian contractor related that I qualify for, but it would seem those don't exist in my 'backyard'. Ah well, all in good time, right?  A couple of weeks ago I was presented with an opportunity to go out to a small municipal airport in Greenville, MI to do some recruiting for CAP at an annual EAA Young Eagles 'Fly Day' event. That was this past Saturday, and short of it being really cold and windy in the morning, the day was pretty great; the Young Eagle folks flew over 160 kids that day! Two of which were my own. I had no plans of them flying that day since we had planned to recruit hard and heavy, but since things were pretty slow going at the start and finish, both my son and daughter were able to fly. Joshua, who is currently a C/CMSgt is no stranger to flying and loves every chance he has to go up; enjoyed his flight like any other; but my daughter, who has never been off the ground in an airplane before got her first taste of flight this day in a 1966 Cessna 150, Tail Number N2419J. She was very excited and quite proud of herself when she returned to our display holding her 'Young Eagles Certificate' and photo that was taken of her and the pilot by the airplane. I was proud of her too, for 12 years old, she's quite brave and will try just about anything handed to her. I always imagined her first flight would be in a CAP aircraft, but not anymore and that's just fine by me! I'm just glad I could be there when she did it.  So Wednesday morning started like any other, I wake up, get my usual can of Diet Coke and sit down in front of the computer to check my e-mail, etc. I pop onto www.wgrd.com to listen to the feed from the 'Free Beer and Hot Wings' morning show and I happen to catch the image to the left. The Michigan Community Blood Centers are holding a blood drive at the Michigan National Guard Armory as the sponsoring agency. FBHW are talking it up on the radio too. So I figured; 'Heck, I haven't donated blood since I donated it for myself for my hip replacement surgeries back in 2002-2003, lets do it!'. So I mention going to go give blood on my Facebook page, and my friend Patrick hits me up to say he'll go too. Patrick is DEP to the U.S. Navy right now, so anything he can do to do 'his part' now is par for the course, no matter how small that might be, right Patrick? ;-).  So if you look to the right, you can see me 'pumping out a quart' for a good cause. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, I didn't even think about bringing my little camera. NOTE TO SELF: Keep Camera with you at all times! The whole process took 2 hours from the time I left the house til the time I returned. I also had them sample my blood to put me on the 'Marrow Donor Registry', plus I've committed to giving three more quarts of blood for the next year. The donation is now part of "Four 4 Life," a program Michigan Community Blood Centers offers to its blood donors. After four donations, the blood donor receives a thank you gift or the opportunity to send a gift to support a hospitalized child. Airspeed Online - The Blog 05/24/2009
 I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend! I just wanted to share with everyone that I have added a link to the blog 'Airspeed Online'. This blog is managed by fellow Michigan Wing CAP member, Steve Tupper, or 'Stephen Force' as is his online persona. Steve is a Lawyer by day (and night?) for pay and for CAP and is an incredibly fervent pilot who loves to share his passion for flight with everyone. Needless to say I am *VERY* jealous of the man and the opportunities he's had to fly in different and unique aircraft, up to and including a recent flight with the USAF Thunderbirds.  Just recently Steve had the opportunity to fly back seat in the T-6A Texan II. Check out his blog post on this. Awesome stuff Steve. Keep it up!  Mrs. Bielinski shows the tools used to do her job in predicting weather. Having the second largest commercial airport in the state of Michigan can have its advantages for a Civil Air Patrol Cadet Squadron. One of those reasons is the fact that we have a NOAA Weather Office right here in our 'backyard'. A few weeks ago, I decided to stop in and see if it would be possible to do a tour of the office to see what it is they did there, and to provide an opportunity for the cadets to learn about another aerospace related career path. I met Jamie R. Casto Bielinski, who is the Warning Coordination Meteorologist for this particular office. She was very happy to accommodate my request for a tour; which was setup for today.  Mrs. Bielinski explains the Doppler array to the cadets. Due to the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend and may cadets were either on vacation, or off participating in finals for Track & Field, we didn't have as many cadets show up for this tour. But that was ok, because Mrs. Bielinski did a fantastic job in telling us everything she could about what NOAA and the NWS (National Weather Service)does to keep everyone informed of the current weather situation. Oh and on an interesting note, for those of you who are in CAP and are 'Operations folks' who work with their communities and the local Emergency Managers, there is a preparedness plan called "Storm Ready" that is designed by the NWS to help communities plan for how they react to pre and post severe weather scenarios. This is something every community should work towards, and we as CAP folks in our communities can help get this going, just get the information and talk to your local Emergency Manager. Do it Today! Photoshop Fun & Greet's 05/21/2009
 So I'm going through my photos that I have from this past weekend's cadet run SAREX, Operation: Wolverine and I remembered one of the ground teams was having fun calling themselves 'The A Team', so I found one of the 'Hard Kewl' photos they took and brought it into photoshop and made it look cool. If anything it'll be a nice keepsake for the cadets in the photo. I don't have *ANY* pictures from WIWAC (when I was a cadet), so in today's day and age of digital photography, I make sure I don't miss an opportunity to get as many photos as I can of the cadets I work with. Taking photos are the last thing on thier mind when they're out on an activity, so as a PAO, I make sure I'm taking all the photos I can. Wow, this makes two blog posts in one day! Of course this message is nothing ground shattering other than showing off my 'mad skillz' with photoshop. If anyone wants me to work up similar photos, graphics, etc or even a website, pop over to my business site and hit me up there. Hello too, to all my new readers, especially my friends down at National Headquarters, CAP. Hope you are all enjoying the blog! Would love to hear from you, so please, comment, drop me a line, post a message on the forum, whatever...it's all good! New Squadron Patch is here! 05/21/2009
 Well now, what a way to start a day then to see the 'Present Man' (as my family calls him) a.k.a. 'the UPS guy' show up at my door with a small box from Hong Kong with the newly embroidered squadron patches we designed and ordered! I didn't expect to the see them until the end of the month but they arrived much sooner, and I couldn't be happier! I ordered them from Patches4Less.com. Luke and his team at Team Jedi Marketing did a great job, all the way from the initial quote and electronic 'mock up' to calling at the last minute to verify our zip code! Great communication! I look forward to working with them again. Now I just need to get them distributed to our members, get a copy off to the National Historian per CAP regulations and send some out to Ace at www.incountry.us/cappatches so he can put one up with the rest of his online collection, which is the most impressive online collection of CAP patches, ever. Biloxi Regret and New Twitter Page 05/19/2009
So after I jumped through hoops attempting to get 'buy in' from my wing & NHQ 'higher ups' on my going to Keesler AFB to participate in the 'First Ever' Blogger Media Flight with the 403rd Wing, Hurricane Hunters, I decided to not spend the money to fly to Gulfport-Biloxi to cover the event for 'Volunteer Magazine' as I had wanted to do. The intent was to create a story that tells what our parent service is doing in regards to Hurricane's and how we, as the Civil Air Patrol perform post storm damage assessment, search and rescue, etc. |  Mark L. Curtis, 1st Lt, CAP
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