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Maryland Wing Members Earn Middle East Region Awards

Lt Col. William Duke - MER Award
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Maryland Wing Commander, Col. John Knowles, presents Lt Col. William Duke with the Jack Sorenson Cadet Programs Officer of the Year Award on behalf of the Middle East Region. (Photo Credit: Capt. Julie Holley, CAP)

Seven Winners in Maryland Wing

By Capt. Julie Holley, CAP
Public Affairs Officer, Maryland Wing

4/21/2011–Glen Burnie, MD–Seven Maryland Wing members are the recipents of 2011 Middle East Region (MER) "of the Year" awards.  The nominees were selected by thier respective wings to compete at the region level. 

Two of the awards were handed out to wing staff members during the Monday evening wing drill meeting for the month of April.  Maryland Wing Commander, Col. John Knowles presented Lt Col. William Duke with the Jack Sorenson Cadet Programs Officer of the Year Award and Lt Col. Paul Blechinger with the Inspector General of the Year Award.

The complete list of winners from Maryland are:

Senior Member of the Year
Col. Lawrence Trick
St. Mary's Composite Squadron

Brewer Award (Cadet Category)
C/Capt. Robert Lewis
St. Mary's Composite Squadron

Brewer Award (Indiv/Org Category)
Mr. Thomas Milnes

Jack Sorenson Cadet Programs Officer
Lt Col. William Duke
Maryland Wing

Squadron Chaplain
Ch. (Lt Col.) Richard Bowers
Maryland Wing

Inspector General
Lt Col. Paul Blechinger
Maryland Wing

Unit Public Affairs Officer
Maj. George Murray
Wicomico Composite Squadron

Award plaques have been fowarded to wing commanders to present since a MER conference is not scheduled for this year. The winners have been entered as nominees for national level awards which will be presented in August at Civil Air Patrol's National Convention in Lousiville, Ky.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, 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 113 lives in fiscal year 2010.

Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction 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 more than 26,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 69 years. It is the largest sponsor annually of Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. For more information on the Civil Air Patrol, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com or www.capvolunteernow.com.

There are more than 1,500 members of CAP in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 42 search and rescue missions and were credited with 31 finds. For more information about the CAP, visit www.mdcap.org.