Nearly one hundred invited guests and members of the Charles Composite Squadron celebrated their first anniversary with a Dining Out and Awards Ceremony.

The keynote speaker was Brig.Gen. Richard Anderson, former National Commander and current Chair of the CAP Board of Governors. Anderson challenged the cadets to take advantage of the educational and personal growth opportunities available through CAP to help them be successful in their life goals.

Other distinguished attendees were Maryland Delegate Sally Jameson, Col. Ray Lyon (Vice Commander of the Middle East Region) and Col. John Knowles (Commander of Maryland Wing). Col. Kay Walling, Lt.Col. Rob Couch, Lt.Col.Wes LaPre, Chaplain (Lt.Col.) Edco Bailey, Maj. Jeff Welch and Maj. Mike Crockett attended from Maryland Wing. Five of the six members of the “Founding Committee” also attended.

A special guest was Col Mary Feik, aviation pioneer and only living namesake of a cadet achievement award. Feik presented her very own Feik Award to five of the Squadron Cadets. Other awards presented were 13 first flight certificates, four Wright Brothers Awards, two Mitchell Awards, seven Level I Awards, and five Davis Awards (all with Yeager Award seal). These achievements were truly outstanding considering the short time the squadron has been in existence.

In keeping with the tradition of a Dining Out, the Vice-President of the Mess, Flight Officer Raymond Salvagnini, the most junior officer of the squadron, created a truly repulsive, non-alcoholic, Grog Bowl. President of the Mess, Cadet 1st Lt. Zane Reitmayer the Cadet Commander meted out punishment of drinking from the Grog Bowl for violating rules of the mess. Even General Anderson had the honor of drinking from the Grog Bowl. The Master Of Ceremonies, Deputy Commander for Cadets, 1st Lt. Carlos Montague maintained the spirit of the Dining Out with his ever-entertaining banter. 

This memorable event was summed up by the squadron commander, Lt. Col. John Reutemann, “Our squadron motto states that ‘there is always room for improvement,’ and while that’s certainly always true, I can’t get over how much we’ve accomplished in our first year, and such a successful dining-out is only the most recent feat.”

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide, operating a fleet of 550 aircraft. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 54 lives in fiscal year 2011. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to nearly 27,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cad