CAPITAL CLOSE-UP

effort. I’m really proud of CAP in
Alaska and I’m glad to work with
you,” Stevens said.
PAST, PRESENT
AND FUTURE
Three moving speeches by two
CAP members and a subchaser
capped the luncheon.
Lt. Col. Van Don Williams, a
New York City firefighter who rescued
two people from Tower One at
Ground Zero after the terrorist
attacks on Sept. 11, spoke of the
importance of cadets and said his fellow
speaker, Cadet Capt. Kristin
Ruesch, represented the future of
CAP, himself the present and subchaser
Col. Lester Wolff the past, as
the three stood together in the room.
“If you give of yourself, the
reward is when you receive it back
… when you look around at the
cadets who come after us,” he told
the audience.
Wolff unified the past, present
and future in his remarks when he
alluded to CAP’s founding mission
and the importance of today’s cadets
in protecting our nation’s future.
“I want to thank you for continuing
the work we started 65 years
ago. I met Gill Robb Wilson (an
aviator instrumental in CAP’s creation)
at that time and we were in
the midst of a very difficult struggle,
when there was nothing left on the
East Coast of the United States, and
we were plagued by submarines just
off our coast,” said Wolff.
“They really did (come close),
sometimes a few hundred feet from
our shore. I want to credit my colleagues
for having the guts and the
inspiration to get
out there as volunteers
in the true
spirit of what
America is all
about, the idea of
volunteerism.
“We are a civilian nation even
though we have a military. We are a
civilian nation, and the work that
you are doing with the young people
of this nation is very important for
the future of this country,” he said.
As Wolff drew attention again to
the cadets, Ruesch gave perfect testimony
to the profound impact CAP
has had on her life since she joined
in 2003.
“Now 3 1 /2 years later, I cannot
believe where I am. The reason
why I got here is not because of
myself, but because of the people
in CAP who showed me what I can
do, and it continues to amaze me,”
she said. ▲
The Florida Wing’s Lt. Col. William “Bill” Brockman, a Civic
Leadership Academy instructor, left; Lt. Col. Alvin J. Bedgood,
chief of staff of the Southeast Region; Cadet Lt. Col. Ryan
McCord, a Civic Leadership Academy attendee; Florida Wing
Vice Commander Lt. Col. John Varsames; and Col. Eileen
Parker, deputy chief of staff for support, surround Rep. Alcee
Hastings of Florida.
Photo courtesy of Congressman Hastings’ staff
Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 11 May-June 2007