Chain of Command

As I've said in other posts, Civil Air Patrol or CAP is the civilian auxilliary of the U.S. Air Force. So it would make sense to organize the organization like the the USAF. Well, that's what they did. More or less. The National Headquarters of CAP is at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. This HQ runs the whole organization not just here in the U.S. but at the overseas squadrons as well. These squadrons are usually if not totally on U.S. military installations around the world. Here in the U.S. the next lower headquarters for CAP are the regions. These consist of several wings within a geographical area. There are eight of these regions: Northeast, Middle East, Southeast, Great Lakes, North Central, Southwestern, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific. We here in Illinois Wing are in the Great Lakes Region which includes Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, and Ohio. That brings us to the wings themselves. Each one of the fifty states is a wing. There are also wings for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia(National Capitol Wing) for a grand total of 52. Larger wings like Illinois used to also be divided into Sectors. In Illinois these were the Northern and Southern. However, as the organization has developed and communications are easier the use of sectors was ended. Instead most wings are subdivided into groups which consist of several squadrons within a given area. Groups in large urban areas can be relatively small while rural groups are very large. Group 12's successor Group 1 consists of all of Southern Illinois from just north of the St. Louis area over to Indiana and south to Metropolis and Cairo. Next are the squadrons. There are three basic types of squadrons in CAP: Cadet, Senior, and Composite. Cadet squadrons are those that consist mainly of cadets with a few senior members and concentrate mainly on the Cadet Program. Senior squadrons are as the name implies made up of senior members and normally concentrate on operations and emergency services. Composite squadrons which are by far the norm consist of both seniors and cadets and will usually try to conduct activities that support all three of CAP's core missions: Aerospace Education, Emergency Services, and the Cadet Program. So we have Franklin County Composite Squadron, Charter No. 11212, Group 12, Illinois Wing, Great Lakes Region, Civil Air Patrol.

Another image from CAP's online museum at www.gocivilairpatrol.com.