MEMORANDUM FOR: Parents and Maryland Public Schools

April 24, 2014

MEMORANDUM FOR: Parents and Maryland Public Schools

FROM: Commander, Maryland Wing Group III, Civil Air patrol

SUBJECT: Request for Excused Absence

Please excuse ______from school on 6 June 2014. Our Squadron will be assisting Civil Air Patrol and Mid-Atlantic Air Museum officials with setup of historic displays and other items to commemorate World War II and the many aviation accomplishments. Our cadets will be working at Reading Airport in Reading, PA with veterans and historians during this process, and learning aspects of aviation and military history and their significance in our current geopolitical environment.

Since this event occurs on June 6th, 7th, and 8th, the cadet will miss school onFriday, June 6th. I request you please forward this letter to your school seeking an excused absenceand service-learning credit. In addition to taking the increasingly rare opportunity to converse with a number of WWIIveterans and participate in formal lectures and discussions conducted by these men and women, their duties during this event includes assignments to Flight-Line Safety Teams. The Flight-line Safety Team is directly responsible forpublic safety around taxiing aircraft, refueling operations and all of the other often overlookeddangers that exist when the public, including children, are in a large military equipment andoperations demonstration event. Our cadets will be participating as members of these teams for the duration of the event. As a team member, they will be responsible to stand a duty shift at night to ensure the safety of those sleeping. Throughout this event, each cadet will have earned 24 hours of community service. These hours are in addition to those earned at other regular and special Civil Air Patrol activities.

Throughout the 3-day event, cadets will have the opportunity to converse with veterans of WWII,Korea and the Vietnam wars. These once in a lifetime opportunities to converse with our WWIIveterans, and increasingly, our Korean War veterans, are diminishing as they become less availablefor public events. When you take the time to listen, the stories that these men and women have totell both educate our youth and help re-instill some of the pride that those who sacrificed so muchdeserve.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or concerns. My contact information isprovided below.

Sincerely,

Scott Harris, LtCol., CAP

Commander

Maryland Wing Group III

Civil Air Patrol, the official Air Force Auxiliary, is a nonprofit organization with more than 63,000 members nationwide. It performs 95% of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Members take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to over 27,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs.