By Skip Munger | News of the Force

And NOTF received the following anonymous message today through our website: “Recent web blogs, newspaper stories and our common experience show us that the Civil Air Patrol (USAF civilian auxiliary) is working aggressive campaigns against those members who report (through approved internal channels) activities of fraud and other criminal behavior. Disturbing evidence is now hemorrhaging out of the USAF and the CAP complaint management tools and from the personal collections of former investigating officers who have been threatened and penalized. These materials demonstrate widespread abuse and suppression.

During the recent national conference in Orlando, FL, the announcement came that Texas Wing commander Col Steve Hudson would be stepping down immediately to be replaced with interim commander Lt Col Sean Crandall. Col Hudson had just taken on the billet at the end of April 2015. There was no mention of personal reasons in the announcement, and it is very unusual for a wing commander to be put down so quickly after taking command since the selection process takes months. Commanders have been removed in the past for personality conflicts and refusing to obey orders to cover-up injustices.

In August 2012, the Dayton Daily News published an article concerning the removal of CAP Lt Col Jim Shaw as the CAP national curator over the misappropriation of artifacts donated to the CAP, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. NOTF used the CAP’s own communiques and documents to show that it was CAP Lt Col Mark Hess who initially reported this event.

Maj Gen Carr covered up the history theft to protect Lt Col Jim Shaw while he slandered Lt Col Hess for reporting it. Hess’s membership was soon terminated when he refused to drop his efforts to get the CAP to explain what actually happened to the donated artifacts that were never accounted for despite Maj Gen Carr’s attempts to cover up. Shaw was later given positions of authority in the Georgia Wing under Col Richard Greenwood, who also helped Maj Gen Carr to discredit Lt Col Hess.

According to court documents, on 11 Nov 2013, Hawaii Wing vice commander Maj Eduardo Zayas forged a flight instructor’s signature on a Civil Air Patrol pilot evaluation form so that he could fly cadets on orientation flights. It took 16 months for this story of felony forgery, cover up and whistle blower reprisal to surface when the Maui News published its first article, Air Patrol Turbulence about it in March of this year.

Follow up stories reported that Hawaii Wing commander Col Jeff Wong refused to discipline Zayas and no corrective action was taken until the at-risk flight instructor initiated a criminal complaint outside the Civil Air Patrol’s channels because the CAP’s safety and IG reporting processes were corrupted. “Ex-Civil-Air-Patrol Pilot Gets Fine for Forgery,” http://mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/598338/Ex-Civil-Air-Patrol-pilot-gets-fine-for-forgery.html.

Col Wong acknowledged to authorities the receipt of “abuse of authority allegations” as soon as Zayas, a reportedly narcissistic military veteran, assumed his command. Wong said no action was taken on those complaints because “none of these allegations were sustained.” In reprisal, members were “kicked out” and the victimized flight instructor was “excommunicated from the Civil Air Patrol” and was blocked from participating in taxpayer-funded mission activities.

While the Civil Air Patrol complaint system and command structure was somehow unable to truthfully investigate the allegations and protect squadron members, 2nd Circuit Judge Richard Bissen found it routine and straightforward to deliver a decisive forgery conviction and a $2,000 fine against Zayas, with no chance for him to keep the conviction off his record.

As if to back the criminal findings in Hawaii, The Rome News Tribune ran a story this past May in which Georgia Wing commander Col Richard Greenwood lied about the existence of official CAP complaints and an associated Report of Investigation (ROI). The ROI (currently in widespread underground circulation) documents that then Lt Col Greenwood (who was wing vice commander at the time) repeatedly misled his wing commander (Col Tonya Boylan) and created an environment behind her back that allowed Lt Col Brett Slagle, Lt Col Joe Knight, III, and several suspended pilots in the Georgia Wing to execute a cover-up of unsafe, fraudulent and intimidation practices designed to advance themselves and then-Southeast Region commander Col Alvin Bedgood to higher levels in the organization.

The Rome Civil Air Patrol unit is defunct; and the Calhoun unit merged into Dalton’s: http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/news/local/rome-civil-air-patrol-unit-is-defunct-calhoun-unit-merged/article_1e45f9a8-f6db-11e4-9e0e-0781334ede2f.html. Just last month, NOTF proved the report’s existence by publishing select pages along with Bedgood’s disciplinary letters to Slagle and Knight.

Greenwood told the Rome paper that unit closures were the result of “falling membership participation,” but evidence in circulation reveals that direct orders were given to subordinates to refuse support to those units and to harass squadron staff, thereby blocking the squadron commanders’ ability to complete the missions.

The disenfranchisement of some dues-paying members to benefit the aspirations of others continues to infuriate the membership. Recall the very public self-destruction of the Gen Pineda regime in 2007 and the FAA findings on aircraft discrepancies and safety in the Texas and Pennsylvania Wings. Remember the valid findings of reprisal and group eradication in the Florida Wing. Take note of the embezzlement cases that led to the ‘Wing Banker’ and its current misuse.

Consider Gen Carr’s early removal in 2014.

As a result, the numbers of those left in a state of CAP “collateral damage” have now grown beyond what can be buried: http://auxnewsnow.com/2015/08/excerpt-of-csafs-welcome-to-the-total-force-speech-leaked/ .

As Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark A. Welsh, III, proudly announced the inclusion of the Civil Air Patrol in the USAF’s “Total Force” concept, it becomes clear to most why evidence of this cancerous crisis is perpetually suppressed, and why so many volunteer members depart the program in disgust.

For years, the CAP’s BoG (Board of Governors) has allowed cover-up and reprisal to become standard practice, and so repeated regulation and safety violations are encouraged in certain wings and regions to get desired results from “tapped” individuals willing to ‘play ball.’ These recent events are now seen as only the tip of a looming iceberg.

As former investigating officers and complainants step onward and upward, there is much more to be revealed. In these findings, those USAF and CAP officers exposed as having turned a blind eye to the evidence and will be shown to have been derelict in their duty.”