By Tex Gadget | AuxBeacon News Contributor
[Editors’ Note: AuxBeacon is grateful to the contributor(s) of this now verified story on Civil Air Patrol abuses detailed in the biography of a U.S. Air Force pilot who served as CAP-USAF Inspector General. Reports from victims and concerned members across the United States confirm that the type of behavior reported by this respected officer continues to this day. We thank “Tex Gadget” for preparing the full article and we thank the estate of Lt Col Allan T. Stein, USAF, Retired for the extracts from his book that are included under 17 U.S.C. § 107 Fair Use doctrine.]
August 1, 2017
College Station
To the members and parents of Civil Air Patrol.
The article will provide evidence that professional volunteers and servant leaders are justified in their dismay over the corruption they encounter in Civil Air Patrol. These paragraphs will also explain the frenetic and failed attempts to suppress or discredit the many reports of fraud, theft, abuse and accidents in Civil Air Patrol that just recently have been revealed to the membership and public in a centralized library.
Related story: Civil Air Patrol suppresses involvement in teen glider crash
As part of their political agenda in these contentious times, some CAP members are contorting themselves and the English language to serve as apologists for their abusive overlords. This occurs in forums on Reddit, CAP Talk and in the mainstream media. Their modus operandi is to blithely ignore the mountain of journalist articles regarding abuse of power, sexual molestation, concealment and reprisals, and the NTSB assignment of blame to CAP for their numerous aviation accidents. Spin doctors clad in blue Class-A uniforms seek to counter-characterize the less-polished field reports from distressed members and to undermine efforts at reform as being rooted in “fake news.” Recent articles have shown that local coverups and reprisals are executed with the approval of CAP’s revolving national leadership in Montgomery, Alabama. There is no plausible deniability when the proper correction is only taken when both offenders and their co-dependent commanders are publicly exposed in the court system or media light of day.
Counts of Civil Air Patrol transgressions and the attempts to conceal them rise and fall in sync with national politics. Lt Col Allan T. Stein served as a US Air Force pilot on missions over China and the Sea of Japan during World War II. He served in Vietnam as the operations officer for the 360 TEWS: Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron. By the time he retired he had flown everything from BT-13s and B-24s to C-47s and B-52s. He ended his career as inspector general of the Civil Air Patrol during the years in which Jim Garrison connected CAP members David Ferrie, Barry Seal and Lee Harvey Oswald.
David Ferrie (left) and Lee Harvey Oswald (right) at New Orleans Civil Air Patrol in 1955
In his book, Into the Wild Blue Yonder: My Life in the Air Force, Stein details the corruption that he found within Civil Air Patrol and how it extended outside of the organization. The book was published by Texas A&M University Press in 2005, the same year that exiled Antonio “Tony” Pineda Jr. was installed as CAP National Commander. What follows is an extract from the last chapter of Stein’s book along with examples of how the same behavior continues to this day.
Chapter 12: The Final Air Force Days
When I rotated back to the states in June, 1967, I wanted to go back to Maxwell Air Force Base. We had bought a house in Montgomery and I had left Eva and the kids there… I took an assignment to the air force headquarters of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP-USAF) as the inspector general at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, because it was the only opening available at Maxwell Air Force Base.
Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery Alabama
CAP National Headquarters, Maxwell Air Force Base
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I was in charge of a team of inspectors who traveled around the country inspecting state Wings for search capability and compliance with air force directions. My inspection team consisted of one lieutenant colonel as director of inspection and three master sergeants who were specialists in supply, maintenance, and operations.
It was my duty as inspector general to determine the effectiveness of each unit and make recommendations to the air force and to the CAP commanders of the units. There are some very fine people involved in the CAP…
However there were also some Wings whose people used the CAP to further their own agendas.
CAP Maj Robert Ray Hill eager to pose with CAP Col Jay Hughes, CAP Brig Gen Myrick, CAP Maj Gen Carr
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Prior to an inspection, I would send a letter to the Wing commander advising him of the date of the inspection. I wanted to determine the effectiveness of the organization and our inspection team could not be as effective in a social environment. They are supposed to instill a desire for flying in young people, which hopefully they do. However, at that time, they took advantage of their situation to raise money that was spent on lavish parties for a small group of top commanders and their wives.
Rocky Mountain Region Commander CAP Col Tom Kettell (center) with Wisconsin Wing Commander CAP Col Rose Hunt (right)
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I discovered some of the civilians in charge of the CAP were very powerful politically. Although it was an Air Force Auxiliary, CAP-USAF headquarters had very little control over the CAP. For example, a former CAP supporter, who was a millionaire friend and financial supporter of President Johnson got CAP-USAF headquarters moved from Ellington Air Force Base near Houston into a new building that had been designated for the ROTC headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base. When the air force commander of CAP-USAF tried to gain control of the CAP, the previously mentioned CAP commander called President Johnson and told him there was a “dead general” there, and asked him to please remove the “body.”
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik was inducted into the Civil Air Patrol Congressional Squadron at the rank of “honorary Lieutenant Colonel”.
Related story: Corrupt CAP Coddles Congressional Cadre
Another CAP commander, who was a multi-millionaire from Delaware wanted the CAP rank of the commander to be increased to brigadier general. Fortunately the Air Force held the line and refused his request.
Some, but not all, CAP officers liked to try to pass themselves off as real air force officers.
CAP Major Anderson-Tesla was an icon of Stolen Valor
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Two regional commanders had a regulation passed that all CAP members must have insurance for injuries suffered while on CAP duty… however one of the regional commanders owned the insurance company and another one owned the bank where the money was deposited that was collected from the members at an interest rate well below the going interest rate at the time. They were collecting ten dollars a year from each cadet in the United States. What a money making deal and of course, the Air Force had no control over it.
During an inspection of one of the wings, the supply inspector uncovered a discrepancy… thousands of high-value items, such as Jeeps, trucks, generators, radio equipment, radio stations… could not be accounted for. When I confronted the wing commander, a CAP colonel, he was very evasive. I told him I would stay indefinitely until I found all the government material. At that point he told me he knew where it was and we could take a flatbed truck and pick up the equipment, but in so doing we would black out a lot of ranches in the area because they all had Air Force generators. The trucks and jeeps were also at those ranches. He told me he intended to contact the state senator, who at that time was very powerful in the U.S. Senate. He also stated that he did not think the senator would be very happy with the air force in general and with me in particular.
Gwinnett County Composite Squadron IG Inspection Report 2011. They won National Squadron of the Year Award for the same year.
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It finally came to me why the Wing Commander, a CAP colonel who was an obscure air force reserve captain, had a mobilization assignment in Washington D.C. He was the senator’s “number one boy” who was buying votes for the senator with the misappropriated air force property. I contacted my commander and explained the situation to him…. the senator was too powerful… I left with political thieves openly stealing from the air force.
Senator Tom Harkin, CAP Maj Gen Joe Vazquez
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A few of the air force’s senior officers who were involved and about to retire saw the CAP as a possible way of feathering their nests after retirement. They put themselves at the service of the more wealthy and influential members of the CAP. For example, after one of their lavish parties at Maxwell Air Force Base, two staff members from the Ohio Wing asked to be flown back home by air force transport. One of them wanted to get back in time to attend church. The other one wanted to sleep late. The air force commander of CAP-USAF provided two aircraft for their convenience. I flew the second one and passed the first one on his way back. The temptation to play along with these millionaires and politically influential people is more than some people can handle.
CAP Col Jayson Altieri, Vice Chairman, Board of Governors
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In the September 1999 issue of Air Force magazine, the following article appeared:
Federal agents with search warrants seized Civil Air Patrol records, data, and computer files in five states on July 21. The FBI and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations confiscated records at the CAP national headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and at wings in Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and West Virginia in conjunction with “the alleged misuses of appropriated funds by CAP personnel,” said AFOSI spokesman Major Steve Murray.
According to Donna Leinwand of Gannett News Service, “The Air Force accused the 60,000 member group, known for its search and rescue operations, of mismanaging federal money, traveling first class on the taxpayer tab, retaliating against members who pointed out abuses and losing track of its equipment. Auditors said they could not account for 70 percent of the federally purchases communications equipment in one branch of the group.” Civil Air Patrol officials have denied the allegations.
The inspection and seizure of these records is long overdue. While there have undoubtedly been some changes in the operations and control of the CAP, the principle is still the same: Get all you can from the government.
After a couple of years of the Civil Air Patrol inspector general fiasco, Lt Col Allan Stein decided that he had enough and that his family needed him more than the people of South Vietnam, so he retired on August 1, 1969 which is 48 years ago to this day. Not much has changed, until now perhaps. It is only through the recent and persistent efforts of selfless members and former members that the politically compromised Civil Air Patrol can be reformed.
Colonel Michael D. Tyynismaa, CAP-USAF Commander
Related story: CAP Regs Interfere with Reporting FWA
Colonel Michael D. Tyynismaa, Commander CAP-USAF
Lt Col Robert Griffith, CAP-USAF Inspector General
First let me say that the evidence you’ve gathered here on CAP’s track record over the years is depressing.
I overheard something recently that may be useful.
[redacted sentences].
The membership turnover means potential new members weren’t bumping into their shame from the past. Their dirty laundry used to be much better concealed and the insinuation is that [redacted] was especially relieved at the silence.
Anyways, if you were to review the more newsworthy pedophile, rape, intimidation, accident, or theft stories on the dates they happened, that would be a real problem for them.
Do not allow those who have been stripped of command to discourage you from doing this.
[Admin: We’ve received this suggestion previously and the tide has turned in favor of implementing your, et. al. recommendation. We are aware of your frustrated Mr Peanut, and leadership’s policy is to remind you to consider the source. Review posts will soon be coming. Thank you for your contributions.]
Great to see this exposed. The falsification of documents to hurt some people and benefit others is a practice that is still being used by Civil Air Patrol commanders. This [link redacted] is a good example.
Just after Col. Stein left in 1969, CAP people here in South Carolina were behaving exactly as he described, that is: parties and stealing from the United States Air Force. I witnessed this in the late 1970s because I lived outside Columbia and was a cadet member of South Carolina Wing C.A.P. when Lt. Col. Louis Belton Brown was sent to prison for 6 months for falsifying documents in a theft of vehicles by conversion.
All of this was reported in “The State” in 1977 [link redacted].
Incidentally, “The State” is famous for having reported on our dirty white-supremacist Benjamin Tillman family, one of which [James H. Tillman] murdered a co-owner of The State, Narciso Gonzales, in 1903 and got away with it. Ben Tillman led a group known as the Red Shirts in the Hamburg Massacre of 1876. My children have been part of the movement to change the name of Clemson’s Tillman Hall.
[Admin: Your find has been added in sequence. Thank you.]
http://auxbeacon.org/scwg-civil-air-patrol-officer-sent-to-prison-for-6-months/
We went to read the story about Lt. Col. Louis Belton Brown, but link takes us to a 404 error. Can you get it back up?
http://auxbeacon.org/scwg-civil-air-patrol-officer-sent-to-prison-for-6-months/
[Admin: Thank you for letting us know. All contributions and tips help.]