By Howard Altman | The Tampa Tribune
[Editor’s Note: Lt Col Governale was actively engaged with cadets at the national and region levels where his victims stayed alone with him in his room at various youth oriented CAP events. Throughout the 15 years he was active with the CAP cadet program, not one senior member reported that he had cadets in his room. It is forbidden by CAP regulations for senior members to be alone with a cadet. It took a CAP cadet, a victim to bring this to the attention of law enforcement to get him to stop abusing cadets. At what point should the Secretary of the Air Force have legal and/or moral responsibility to ensure the integrity of the “corporate” management? Should the Air Force leave its CAP cadets so vulnerable to adult sexual exploitation and abuse?]
TAMPA —
For 15 years,
Stephen Governale worked with thousands of young men and women from around the country as the Air Force Reserve liaison to the Civil Air Patrol, mentoring, testing and teaching cadets about aviation, space and leadership.
A participating member of the Reserve since 1997 and lieutenant colonel since 2006, he earned accolades for his work. He served for a decade [2002 – 2012] as the co-director of the patrol’s CAP Cadet Officer School, a 10-day program where cadets from around the country gathered at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.
But on Sept 28, Air Force Maj Gen Charles L. Carr, commander of the Civil Air Patrol, sent out an “
important message” about Governale to the nearly 27,000 cadets in patrol programs around the country.
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Open in new tab Governale, 49, who also serves as a civilian protocol officer for U.S. Central Command, had been arrested four days earlier, charged with using the Internet to entice a teen from Seminole County to meet him for sex.
Investigators say Governale met the teen, and other young men he engaged in sexual relations with, through the Civil Air Patrol, which offers educational programs to those between the ages of 12 and 20.
The FBI, saying that Governale abused his position of trust, is now investigating Governale’s associations with the Civil Air Patrol, his contacts with the cadets and whether there are other victims. Investigators say they found “many, many” sexually explicit text conversations with young men on his cellphone.
Maj Gen Carr’s email reflected the patrol’s concern over the charges.
“All CAP members having information regarding any criminal activity allegedly committed by this individual are asked to contact local law enforcement authorities in your area,” Maj Gen Carr wrote in his email. “I have the highest level of concern you could ever have,” said Jamie Russell, an aerospace science instructor with a Civil Air Patrol program in Sarasota. “The thought of putting cadets in danger with an adult in the world is just horrifying.”
The investigation into Governale began Sept. 11 when the parents of a Seminole County teen noticed sexually explicit conversations between Governale and their son on Facebook. After the parents contacted the FBI, the teen told agents that he met Governale in 2009, according to a complaint. The teen said that he went on two trips with Governale, stayed in the same bed with him, watched pornographic movies in the hotel and engaged in a “contest” where they masturbated together and touched each other’s penis, according to the complaint.
Pretending to be the teen, an agent from the FBI Innocent Images Task Force engaged in sexually explicit Facebook chats with Governale, who agreed to meet the teen at a Wendy’s in Orlando, according to the complaint. Instead of the teen, Governale was greeted by agents, who arrested him.
FBI agent Rod Hyre testified at Governale’s bail hearing on Monday that the teen was a member of the Civil Air Patrol when he met Governale, according to Asst. U.S. Attorney Karen L. Gable. Hyre also testified that four other young men Governale had sexual relations with were also members of the Civil Air Patrol, according to Gable.
The FBI is investigating whether those people were minors at the time and whether there are other victims out there, Hyre testified. Hyre, trying to show that Governale was a danger to society and should not be given bail, testified that Governale engaged in a pattern of sexual conduct with cadets in the Civil Air Patrol program and abused his position of trust with those individuals, according to Gable. Magistrate Judge David A. Baker agreed to order Governale held without bail.
The Air Force would not comment on the investigation, referring calls to the FBI. Civil Air Patrol units in Tampa and St. Petersburg declined comment. Terry Governale said she met her husband in Tampa 19 years ago and married him four years later.
“From the first moment I met him, he was just the kindest, most sincere wonderful human being you could ever meet,” said Terry Governale, a teacher in the Hillsborough County school district.
The Governale’s spent a lot of time and money helping others in the community, especially families struggling with the economy, she said. They were inspired to reach out to others because their daughter, 21, has epilepsy, said Terry Governale. “We are always helping families,” said Terry Governale, who declined to talk about the charges against her husband. “Steve was always a go-to guy and generous to a fault.”
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• Former Centcom Official Pleads Guilty in Teen Sex Case
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2004 Florida Wing Staff Officer Roster
Nevada Wing’s commander Deb Pierce makes me sick to my stomach. She was made Wing King by Pacific Region Commander Jon L. Stokes too in November 2018. Without giving myself away, all I can do is add this sick but true Civil Air Patrol story to their ever growing public Hall of Shame. You seem to want to gather all of it, no matter how old, right?
UNITED STATES v. Staff Sergeant Stanislaus J. WIERZBA, United States Air Force June 10, 1981
Tried by general court-martial, consisting of military judge alone, the accused was convicted, pursuant to his pleas, of three acts of sodomy, two acts of taking improper and indecent liberties, and six acts of lewd and lascivious conduct in violation of Articles 125 and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 925,934. The victims were five boys of the Civil Air Patrol, ranging in age from 12 to 16 years. The approved sentence extends to a dishonorable discharge, confinement at hard labor for 18 years, forfeitures of $300.00 per month for two years, and reduction to airman basic.
The accused, a staff sergeant, assigned to and living on Nellis Air Force Base, was also a member of, and officer in, the Clark County, Nevada, Civil Air Patrol (CAP).
The accused’s activities with the Civil Air Patrol were not related to his assigned military duties as an “egress technician”, and his activities with the Civil Air Patrol were conducted in a “civilian” rather than a “military” capacity. However, his status as an active duty Air Force member, wearing an Air Force uniform with distinctive Civil Air Patrol lapel insignia while participating in an auxiliary Air Force organization, was viewed by the leadership of that organization and the public as setting forth a role model of Air Force personnel for CAP Cadet members to emulate.
Based upon these facts, we make the following findings, with regard to the four off-base offenses: (a) that the accused used his status as an active duty Air Force member in a scheme to prey upon Civil Air Patrol Cadet victims; (b) that he used his on-base housing and erotic materials contained therein, in this same scheme; (c) that he used his Air Force status, and re*744sultant access to base, to victimize Air Force dependents whom he picked up in his car at their on-base residences; and (d) that, by such conduct, he violated the personal security of Air Force families residing on an air force base,1 and disgraced the public image of both the United States Air Force and its auxiliary Civil Air Patrol… [redacted]
http://www.auxbeacon.org/five-nellis-nevada-civil-air-patrol-cadets-found-sexually-victimized/
[Admin: Thank you. We will have added this into the collection.]
The Garcia [redacted] of Florida Wing Civil Air Patrol infuriate me enough to give you this US Air Force child porn story out of Pensacola.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested U.S. Air Force Officer John Morgan 29 on child pornography charges Tuesday. Morgan is active duty and stationed in Pensacola.
The investigation began in August after an agent identified images and videos of child pornography being downloaded and shared from a residential computer on Klondike Road. The images depicted children under the age of 10.