By AuxBeacon News Staff
We see that uncorrected abuses in Civil Air Patrol have spawned yet another CAP Ombudsman website to support the struggling membership. Welcome to The Aux Sentinel as they take an independent look at CAP shenanigans. Their authors have even worked up a Member Poll for their first independent story.
What will be Maj Gen Vazquez’s Lasting Legacy?
• Inspiring CAPLeak Websites 38%
• ABUse Cover Ups 21%
• Membership Decline 19%
• Total Force Partnership 10%
• Milquetoast Passivity 7%
• ABUs 5%
Let us review the preceding National Commanders by name and legacy:
1. Maj Gen Joseph R. Vazquez (2014-17)
– CAP Leak Websites in Response to ABUse Cover-Ups
– Membership Decline
– Protected Convicted Felons & Corrupt Leaders
2. Maj Gen Charles L. Carr, Jr (2011-14)
– CAP Artifact Theft/Cover Up
– Mass Numbers of Members Reported Abuses to Congress, Media & USAF
– Reinstated Convicted Felons & Corrupt Leaders
3. Maj Gen Amy Courter (2007-11)
– First Female CAP National Commander
4. Maj Gen Antonio Pineda (2005-07)
– Mass Corruption
– Testing Gate
– Termination Massacres
5. Maj Gen Dwight H. Wheless (2004-05)
– Rapid Departure
6. Maj Gen Richard L. Bowling (2001-04)
– NASCAR
7. Brig Gen James C. Bobick (1998-2001)
– BoG Creation
– FBI Raids
– SER Cruise Ship Scandal
– USAF Takeover (Attempted)
In the above:
You credit Bowling w/ the NASCAR fiasco. Bowling has been described as “never missing an opportunity to exploit the CAP to his own beNefit.”
The two issues in the 1999 FBI raids were overspending of CAP resources and double billing for missions. The most outrageous example of the overspending was SER conference held aboard a Caribbean cruise ship when Bowling was SER commander Despite this, Bowling managed an uninterrupted rise up the CAP ladder pulling Pineda up one rung behind himself with one notable exception. How does that happen?
Then the NASCAR fiasco.
Then Bowling was one of the chief architects of “The Phoenix Solution,” a plan to allow or even cause the CAP to fail then to bring it back up in a privatized form run by the bad guys to their own benefit.
As others here have also suggested, an institutional memory might be a big help for anyone who really wants to understand what’s been going on here so they can pull it up by the roots.
The corruption is like some bacteria left in a petri dish in a lab, where it grows back again to full strenghth, throws a leg over the rim and begins to stride down the halls again.
Bowling is not the only bad guy to be honored in the Hall of Fame, which might more appropriately be named the Hall of Shame. Anyone looking for crooks might start looking in that Rogues’ Gallery.