AG visits Civil Air Patrol encampment at Fort Pickett - July 24, 2015

Maj. Gen. Timothy P. Williams, the Adjutant General of Virginia, visits the Civl Air Patrol 2015 Virginia Wing Encampment June 24, 2015, at Fort Pickett, Va. During the visit he met with cadets to learn more about their program and presented challenge coins for outstanding duty performance. Soldiers from the Fort Pickett-based 183rd Regiment, Regional Training Institute provided rappel masters for the training.

The purpose of the encampment is for cadets to develop leadership skills, investigate the aerospace sciences and related careers, commit to a habit of regular exercise and solidify their moral character, and this year’s event involved more than 200 cadets and senior members from across the Commonwealth.

The Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and is a nonprofit organization with 60,000 members nationwide, operating a fleet of 550 aircraft. CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs about 85 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of 71 lives annually. Its unpaid professionals also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies.