CAPITAL CLOSE-UP

By Your
LEAVE, Sir!
Mandatory Leave Law Aids Iowa Wing
By Neil Probst
Dozens of Iowa Civil Air Patrol members
were called to duty in Ames at the
Critelli
beginning of April to look for Iowa State
DUniversity sophomore Abel Bolanos. They
left their jobs with the blessings of the
state of Iowa, specifically the Legislature,
as well as their own employers.
Iowa Wing members are able to use a
mandatory leave of absence law passed
about a year ago by the state Legislature to
perform CAP missions without fear of losing
sick or vacation pay. They can use the
law’s provisions whether they are employed
by state or local government or a private
employer.
Did such a luxury happen overnight?
Not a chance, said Lt. Col. Nick Critelli,
the Iowa Wing’s chief of staff and government
relations officer, who works as an
attorney in his paying job.
said years and years before the law was enacted,
the wing began working with state and local lawmakers to
build trust and demonstrate the wing’s professionalism.
“We’ve built solid relationships, and we guard them
with our life,” he said.
Those relationships are paying off for wing members
like Maj. John Halbrook and 2nd Lt. Norma Newton.
Halbrook, the education director for an ambulance
service, had worked a 24-hour shift at his job on a
Sunday before taking leave and joining the search for
the Iowa State student the next day, a Monday.
His employer accepts the unpredictable schedule associated
with CAP missions, and Halbrook can rely on the
leave law when missions snowball.
“Because of the volume of missions we’ve had in the
last few years, I’ve definitely needed the leave law in
order to get the time off these missions have required,”
he said.
During the mission to find Bolanos, Halbrook
worked with fellow CAP member 2nd Lt. Norma
Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 26 May-June 2007