Civil Air Patrol Members Graduate from National Staff College

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (July 16, 2020) – Civil Air Patrol’s final National Staff College graduated 112 students Saturday, including six members of the South Carolina Wing—Lt Col Chris Peterson, Lt Col Peter Stern, Maj Crystall Eudy, Maj Jim Greco, Maj Tina Peterson, and Maj Sammie Williams—but not without challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I am so thankful for the professionalism and patience demonstrated by both the NSC staff and all of our students,” said Col. Lisa Robinson, activity director. “Every person involved in this year's college has truly worked together as a team to make this last legacy National Staff College a success."
Historically, NSC has been a weeklong executive-level course held at Maxwell Air Force Base — the home of CAP as well as U.S. Air Force officer development education. For more than 50 years, it has enhanced the leadership abilities of CAP members who are, or will be, assuming positions of wing, regional or national importance within CAP.
“Many of our students are already commanders or on wing staff, already contributing to Civil Air Patrol’s leadership,” Robinson said. Such is the case for the group of South Carolina Wing Members—6 of the 112 who graduated from the challenging 13-week course. In this group of six is the Vice Commander of the South Carolina Wing, a squadron commander, the Director of Cadet Programs for the South Carolina Wing, and others who have served in various leadership positions at the squadron, group & wing levels.
NSC training includes seminar discussions, case studies and exercises, which depend heavily on face-to-face interactions between the staff and the students. The students focus on executive leadership, management, organizational behavior and policy formulation while examining CAP’s national-level operations firsthand. But with COVID-19 and related Department of Defense travel restrictions, CAP leadership had looked at the options of canceling the college or converting it to a distance-learning format.
“Since this would be the last National Staff College and the last opportunity for CAP officers to complete their Gill Robb Wilson Award, the highest professional development achievement, under CAP’s legacy program, we felt that it was imperative that the college move forward,” Robinson said.
The move to a virtual NSC made sense as Civil Air Patrol transforms its existing professional development program to a new education and training program. With the launch of Volunteer University on Aug. 4, CAP will offer both online cohorts and onsite classes to take the place of NSC and other annual professional development opportunities like it.
With that in mind, a small task force quickly put together a distance-learning 2020 NSC schedule that would cover the college’s established curriculum but spread it over a 13-week period. Each week consisted of one to two presentations and one to two small-group seminar discussions. In addition, the candidates had to write short essays on each of the topics presented, which was a new requirement for this year.
"Without face-to-face conversations, our seminar leaders had to depend on the written homework to determine that the concepts were understood and could be applied back at the candidates’ home units,” Robinson said. “This put a tremendous amount of work on the candidates as well as our staff of 35 to grade and provide feedback.
“When you consider the readings, quizzes, homework, presentations and small-group discussions, this class has devoted the same 90 to 100 hours as our in-residence format requires. I am impressed with the candidates' dedication to this process."
The 112 students in this year’s class represent 37 CAP wings, a National Headquarters squadron and three CAP region headquarters. Two of the students participated from the United Kingdom and South Korea, respectively.
Maj. Gen. Mark Smith, Civil Air Patrol’s national commander and CEO, said professional development activities like NSC have been instrumental in CAP’s success as the U.S. Air Force auxiliary and as a premier public service organization in America. “By taking advantage of such opportunities, our members have become better leaders in CAP and in their communities,” he said.
Smith was one of many NSC instructors this year. Others, drawn from Air University at Maxwell AFB and from senior CAP leadership as well as other sources of leadership expertise, included retired Air Force Maj. Gen. George Harrison, the 2020 NSC provost, and retired U.S. Army Col. Jayson Altieri, former chair of CAP’s Board of Governors.
“I am particularly impressed with this year’s graduates, as they have succeeded under difficult circumstances,” Smith said. “I congratulate these students, as well as Col. Robinson and her staff, on the innovative manner in which they have approached this year’s college,” he said. “To accomplish what they have over the past 13 weeks during a pandemic is truly amazing.”
About Civil Air Patrol Established in 1941, Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and as such is a member of its Total Force. In its auxiliary role, CAP operates a fleet of 560 single-engine Cessna aircraft and 1,550 small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) and performs about 90% of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Often using innovative cellphone forensics and radar analysis software, CAP was credited by the AFRCC with saving 110 lives in fiscal 2019. CAP’s 66,000 members also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. As a nonprofit organization, CAP plays a leading role in aerospace education using national academic standards-based STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Members also serve as mentors to over 28,000 young people participating in CAP’s Cadet Programs. One of the premier public service organizations in America, CAP benefits the nation with an estimated economic impact of $209 million annually. Visit www.CAP.News or www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com for more information.