For young people with a love of adventure and thoughts of civic duty, the Civil Air Patrol is worth considering, a local Civil Air Patrol leader said.

Founded in 1941, the patrol turns children into disciplined adults who may one day go on to the U.S. Air Force. In fact, the civilian group is also known as the Air Force Auxiliary.

Mike Hebert, a Kalispell businessman, is one of the Flathead Civil Air Patrol’s senior members. He said the patrol helped pull him out of a bad situation as a child.

“I come from a broken home,” he said. “No father in the picture, that kind of thing. A lot of my friends were getting into drugs and alcohol. At 13 I joined the CAP. It kept me focused on something more mature than the other 13-, 14- and 15-year old kids in my neighborhood.”

From the patrol, Hebert said he learned discipline, respect and also gained a love for flying.

The Civil Air Patrol performs 90 percent of all search-and-rescue missions in the nation. 

Because of Northwest Montana’s unique geography, the patrol is used less for that here. 

“The CAP finds downed airplanes or lost hikers in other parts of the country,” Hebert said. “Here the Sheriff’s Office has a plane, Mike Goguen donates vehicles to Two Bear Air and there are two private search-and-rescue operations.”

What the patrol does for Flathead young people, ages 12 to 21, is drill them through the cadet program. Montana patrollers frequently are used in Idaho and Washington in areas that lack Civil Air Patrol groups.

The Flathead group is pushing to recruit in the month of July. Hebert would like to see the 25 current junior members bolstered. Up to 100 young patrollers could be supported by the group, which has a rich history.

When the group was founded, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army Air Corps (the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force) involved civilian planes. During the war, Civil Air Patrol pilots spotted German U-boats and even carried bombs to sink them. 

After the war the group was brought into the newly founded Air Force. The mission of the Civil Air Patrol is to spread aerospace education, provide emergency services and to train youngsters in the cadet programs.

The cost for a Flathead young person to join is $40 a year, Hebert said. And that includes most uniform items.

A yearly “encampment” allows patrollers to spend time outside while getting a military-style experience. Youngsters get an idea of what job options exist in the Air Force. Physical training and time in the field is heavily emphasized.

Young people interested in joining may go to www.flatheadcompositesqdn.com or visit the National Guard Armory on U.S. 93 at 6 p.m. on Thursday evenings.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.