Charter Numbers

In this blog, I'll be using the original charter numbers for Franklin County Composite Squadron and for Group 12. Every CAP unit has a charter number. This used to be a five digit number that was unique to that unit. For example, Franklin County's charter number was 11212 and Group 12's was 11064. The numbers "11" , the first two digits of the charter number, designated units in the Illinois Wing. Different states/wings had different number designations. The last three numbers referred to the specific unit. Sometime in the late 90's or early 2000's the "11" was dropped and the two letter state abbreviation was adopted. So 11212 became IL212. At some point after this the region abbreviation was also added in so that the units became GLR-IL-XXX. But since I like the original version and because that's what we used for most of the squadron's existence, I will be using 11212 and 11064 for this blog. This will also be how I refer to most of the other units unless they were created after the adoption of the new system.

Just starting out!

The purpose of this blog is to get started in blogging and eventually website creation. While this will in some ways be my personal blog, most of it will be devoted to my ongoing history projects. I am going to attempt to put up an online history of the Franklin County Composite Squadron, 11212, and its next higher headquarters, Group 12. Both of these units were a part of the Illinois Wing, Civil Air Patrol and neither one exists anymore. While I was with them though, I had some of the greatest fun and adventures a kid and later adult in Southern Illinois could have. There were great people and good times. This blog is not sanctioned or sponsored by Civil Air Patrol and all the content is entirely mine. If you happen to stumble on to this blog, let me welcome you and invite you to come back and watch the site develop. It may start off kind of slow but I hope to keep plugging away at it. A bit about the name....Franklin County never really had an official nickname until the late 1990's when Kelly Robertson was the commander. As a student at Southern Illinois University, he had gone on a student backpacking trip out west. One of the catch phrases from that trip was FIDO or Forget It! Drive On! Anyway, due to some of the frustrations we ran into trying to run a small rural CAP squadron and our determination to accomplish our goals and missions in spite of those frustrations we adopted the FIDO! motto as a nickname, buzzword, or acknowledgement in the same vein as Hooah! Since the unit no longer exists except in the hearts and minds of it's former members, I refer to it on this site as Ol' Fido. And since I will try to dig up the history of the squadron and by extension the rest of the old Group 12 like a dog digs up old bones, I decided to call this blog Ol' Fido's Bones. FIDO!