Monday, December 05, 2011

Campaign to honor WWII Coastal Patrol pilots

Thousands of civilian pilots volunteered for the Coastal Patrol during World War II, logging more than 750,000 flying hours, sinking two enemy submarines and attacking 57.   Now there's a campaign lobbying Congress to honor them with a Congressional Gold Medal.  In March 1942, German submarines were attacking U.S. cargo ships along the East Coast. A 90-day test period was approved to let the Coastal Patrol - a group of civilian pilots with their own aircraft - report submarine sightings to the military and force the vessels underwater, where they would need to slow down and use their limited battery power.

In Hampton Roads, a small squadron of Coastal Patrol planes became the first local Civil Air Patrol, operating out of Whitehurst Field and Municipal Airport in Norfolk and Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, according to a Virginian-Pilot story.   Soon, it was decided to arm the aircraft with small bombs or depth charges.  By a year and a half later, when the military was able to take over all patrol duties over water, 26 Civil Air Patrol pilots had died while on coastal patrol duty and 90 aircraft had been lost.  

The Civil Air Patrol began youth and aviation education programs and helped with home-front war efforts around the country, including border patrol, target towing, forest fire spotting, search and rescue, disaster relief and the emergency transport of people and supplies. By the end of the war, the civilian force had flown more than 750,000 hours and lost 64 personnel and 150 aircraft.

They had left their mark.  "It was perhaps best told by a high German official who was asked after the war why the U-boats stopped sinking allied shipping within sight of the coasts," The Virginian-Pilot reported in 1953. "He replied, 'It was those damn little red and yellow planes.' "

Modern-day members of the Civil Air Patrol, which is celebrating its 70th year, are seeking recognition of the pilots.  Legislation filed in the House and the Senate boasts 109 co-sponsors in the House, including U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman of Westmoreland County, and 45 in the Senate, including North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr.  "We want to make sure those who remain, and those who have passed, are rightly honored for their great service to America," Maj. Gen. Chuck Carr, CAP's national commander, said in a news release.

The gold medal is the highest honor Congress can bestow. Previous recipients include the Wright Brothers, Navajo Code Talkers, the astronauts who landed on the moon and, most recently, the Montford Point Marines, the first black Marines.  The Civil Air Patrol is also asking for help to identify adults who served between Dec. 7, 1941, and Aug. 15, 1945.

For more information about the effort, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com.

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