For a little over a year, the Heber Osprey Civil Air Patrol Squadron has offered leadership and skills training for Wasatch Back youth. Currently, 25 teens ages 12-18 are enrolled in the program.
It’s one of more than a dozen similar programs offered by the nonprofit Utah Civil Air Patrol, a state-recognized auxiliary of the United States Air Force. While the program focuses on flight training, participants, called cadets, also compete for academic scholarships in fields such as engineering, science and aerospace medicine. The squadrons also participate in search and rescue operations.
The Heber squadron meets every Monday for programming centered on character development, aerospace education, leadership and emergency services. Once candidates reach their first achievement – a benchmark skill or rank – they earn five free hours of orientation flights.
Cadet Tate Collette said the flight hours motivated him to join.
“I saw all these photos of cadets flying in planes and going out to these activities and search and rescue and I was like, wow, that’s really cool,” Collette said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Oct. 28. “The biggest reason why I joined was because I wanted to fly.”
The program is helping Collette reach his military goals.
“I want to go all the way to the Air Force,” Collette said. “But this really helps with promoting and learning how to drill and learning how to be calm in intense situations, and learning how to use radios and getting flight time. It just all ties into what I want to do.”
Bettina Giese, the squadron aerospace educator, said the cadet training doesn’t require a military commitment.
“There’s no commitment to join the military at all. If you do join the military later, of course you have some benefits that kind of give you the step up,” Giese said. “But I have kids in the program on the air traffic controllers, mechanics, pilots, engineers.”
The program costs $40 per year. Interested kids must attend three Monday night sessions before joining.
The Heber Osprey Civil Air Patrol Squadron will host an open house at the Soldier Hollow Charter School in Charleston at 6 p.m. Nov. 30.
