An explosion rips at the hull of  the ship and the crew, stunned in disbelief, scramble overboard from the once safe vessel into the cold dark Atlantic.  These men, trying to find safety from hypothermia, search blindly the water around them for anything that floats.  From comfort to misery and fear in seconds.  Some die, some live.  These are not members of a foreign country or even in foreign waters.  These are Americans just a few miles off the North East American Coast in 1942.  What happened?

The rest of the world is at war and America believes its shores to be safe.  Are these beliefs well founded?  If you believe they are, then you are very naïve.  At least those were the sentiments of legendary New Jersey aviation advocate Gill Robb Wilson, who in the late 1930's "foresaw aviation's role in war, oncoming wartime restrictions on private flying and general aviation's potential to supplement America's unprepared military."  With this insight, Wilson conceived the idea of utilizing civilian pilots to augment military forces to protect American assets along the coastlines of the United States.

One of the key civilian pilots was George Haddaway, a fraternity brother of Gill Robb Wilson at the University of Texas.  "When the United States entered the war, Mr. Haddaway helped to persuade the Texas Private Flyers Association to join the CAP.  In February 1942, The Wing-Over Club of Beaumont joined as a unit and began to fly patrols over the Gulf of Mexico."  Mr. Haddaway took part in these early patrols and later became the base commander of CAP Coastal Patrol Base 10, in Beaumont, Texas. 

Fifty-Five years later, on December 16, 1997, Mr. Haddaway was the keynote speaker at very special Frontiers of Flight Museum "Focus Night" at Love Field Airport in Dallas. The event was co-sponsored by Colonel Knox Bishop (USAF Retired) of the Frontiers of Flight Museum and the CAP Historical Foundation, chaired by AOPA Vice President, Drew Steketee.  The purpose of this "focus night" was to emphasize the role the CAP played during the early days of World War II.

Approximately 30 members of the Dallas Composite Squadron, cadets and seniors, were on hand to participate and listen to the early history of  CAP directly from someone who made that history.  Mr. Haddaway is now 88 years old is still very much a strong supporter of CAP.  Mr. Haddaway found out one of our cadets, C/MSGT Jeffrey McClellan, had recently passed the rigorous DCS Cadet Officers Candidate School, OCS, and earned the Billy Mitchell Award.  Haddaway eagerly requested to make the presentation of the award personally.