The Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the United States Air Force. Created during World War Two, it's original purpose was to harness the nations large fleet of small private aircraft for use in near shore anti submarine patrols. The light aircraft, repainted in bright colors to allow for them to be easily spotted by other American aircraft, basically flew the Atlantic in patterns to look for surfaced submarines. As submarines of that era operated on the surface routinely, this proved to be fairly effective and was greatly disruptive to the German naval effort off of the American coast.
The CAP also flew some patrols along the Mexican border during the same period, although I've forgotten what the exact purpose of them was. Early in the war, there was quite a bit of concern about Mexico, given its problematic history during World War One, and given that the Mexican government was both radical and occasionally hostile to the United States. These fears abated fairly rapidly.
The CAP still exists, with its post war mission having changed to search and rescue. It also has a cadet branch that somewhat mirrors JrROTC. Like JrROTC it has become considerably less martial over time, reflecting the views of boomer parents, who have generally wished, over time, to convert youthful organizations that were organized on military or quasi military lines into ones focusing on "citizenship" and "leadership"..
I was in the Civil Air Patrol in the 1970s and at that time it was in fact very much like Air Force JrROTC. Drill and Ceremony was a big deal with it, for example. We wore Air Force uniforms and normally the fatigue version of that. We focused on aircraft, of course, and on the CAP's mission of search and rescue. Looking back it seems like I was in it for a long time, but in reality that simply reflects the concept of time possessed by youth. I was in it while I was in junior high, three years.
Looking back, and I can recall it only dimly, I probably thought when I joined it in 7th Grade, after learning about it at the junior high, of staying in it until I was in high school and could join JrROTC. However, I enjoyed it in its own right. For reasons I can't really recall, once I was of high school age I dropped my membership entirely. Once I walked in the door of NCHS, I didn't walk back in the door of the CAP Wing's building here. I couldn't tell you why, I just didn't.
CAP still has a youth wing but I don't know anything about it. It appears to be focused on aircraft still, of course, but also on "leadership", something a lot of youth organizations focus on. If it resembles the old organization much, I wouldn't know. It's still around, but how popular it is I don't know. I don't know of any kids that I know being in it, but here the opposite is true as compared to the Scouts. I'm often quite surprised by how many people I'll run into that were in the CAP as teens. I know that two of my best friends were in it when was first in it, although they dropped out (just getting there was an ordeal for one who lived out in the country) and I know adults here and there that were. Just the other day the Byzantine Catholic priest from the Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast mentioned having been a CAP cadet.One thing I'd note is, at least appearance wise, the CAP Cessna here is a much nicer looking aircraft that anything the CAP had locally when I was in it as a kid. Indeed, for the most part the CAP simply relied upon the private aircraft the adult members had.
