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St. Mary's squadron changes leadership

Traven and Trick hold guidon
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Cadet Maj. Victor Traven (left) became the cadet commander of the St. Mary's Composite Squadron in a recent ceremony. Cadet Lt. Col. David Trick (right) is the outgoing cadet commander. (Photo credit: 1st Lt. Don VanWormer)

Commander and Cadet Commander change of command ceremonies recently held

By 1st Lt. Don VanWormer, CAP
Public Affairs Officer, St. Mary's Composite Squadon

1/12/2009–California, MD–In recent ceremonies the leadership of the Civil Air Patrol St. Mary’s Composite Squadron changed commanders. Ceremonies were held at the squadron headquarters in St. Mary’s, Md.

Command of the squadron passed from Lt. Col. Tim Corrigan to 1st Lt. David Webster. Corrigan moves to a new assignment as the CAP Maryland Wing Legal Officer. Webster assumes his new role as squadron commander after serving as the Deputy Commander of Seniors and Deputy Commander of Cadets. Webster has also actively served in Wing activities having worked with the Wing drill team for three years and served on staff at the Tri-Wing Encampment for two years.

Cadet Lt. Col. David Trick passed command of the cadets to Cadet Major Victor Traven. Cadet Traven had previously served as the Cadet Deputy Commander. Traven is a graduate of the 2003 Tri-Wing Encampment, the 2006 Middle East Region Cadet Leadership School, and attended the Air Education Training Command Familiarization Course in Mississippi in 2006.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 56,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 90 lives in fiscal year 2008. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 67 years.

There are approximately 1,300 members of CAP in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 34 search and rescue missions and were credited with 23 finds.

The St. Mary’s Composite Squadron meets Wednesday evenings from 7-9 p.m. at the St. Mary’s County Regional Airport, in the Capt. Walter Francis Duke terminal building, 44200 Airport Road, in California, MD. The squadron is commanded by 1st Lt. David Webster. For information, go the squadron's web site at http://www.capstmarys.com/