DALTON, Ga. — The Civil Air Patrol’s (CAP) Dalton-based GA-108 Cobra Squadron has been tremendously busy this year. From visiting seniors at the Dalton-Whitfield Senior Center last month to fundraising at the local Walmart, CAP has been visible in the Dalton community for a while.

“We’ve grown,” said CAP Capt. Eric Rochelle, commander of GA-108. “We started in May 2014 with five cadets (youth members) and two senior members (adult members). Today we have 22 cadets and 14 seniors. We work to instill CAP’s core values of excellence, volunteer service, integrity and respect in all our members, youth and adult.”

CAP is a member of the United States Air Force’s Total Force, along with the Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard and active duty. They own a fleet of single-engine airplanes, including the four-seat Cessna 172, as well as unpowered gliders and larger planes. CAP’s core missions are aerospace education, emergency services and cadet programs. CAP saves on average about 100 lives per year.

“CAP has a mission. It’s not military like the Air Force, but we use a lot of the same elements,” said cadet Second Lt. Hannah Miller. “With CAP, kids my age are not joining the active Air Force — that’s not legal until they’re 17 – but we do use their rank structure, chain of command and we follow their uniform standards for our meetings and operations.”

Miller is the cadet flight commander, meaning that she is in charge of the unit’s 22 cadets.

“I first heard about CAP in the Daily Citizen-News,” she said. “I want to go to the Air Force Academy and be a professional pilot, and this is great training!”

Miller is a student at Dalton High School.

First Lt. Barney Stratton is the squadron’s logistics and supply officer. When a cadet or senior needs a uniform item, field gear or any other equipment for his CAP mission, Stratton is the man to see. A former Texas and Oklahoma National Guard soldier — and Hurricane Katrina veteran — he understands well and supports CAP’s mission.

“When the next big hurricane or storm that comes through, CAP may need us to go look for survivors, like the Guard did for Katrina,” he said. “CAP does a lot of the same lifesaving training, and we have airplanes and ground teams that can go in and find people who need our help.”

Cadet Airman Diego Miller, one of the youngest members of the squadron at 12, likes what he does.

“It’s fun,” he says. “We go places and do fundraising, and we do physical training, too.”

Local citizens may have seen Miller at Walmart earlier this summer holding a blue bucket asking for donations for CAP.

CAP accepts youth members as young as 12 and as old as 18. They work their way up thru a rank structure that begins at airman basic and culminates with colonel 3 1/2 years later.

“With a little luck and a lot of motivation they can make it all the way to the top,” said Lt. Brian Givens, the cadet programs officer.

“At every level there’s internet testing, character development and physical fitness requirements to meet. It’s kind of tough. This squadron makes them earn it. We don’t give anything away,” he said. “It’s a great way for a young man or woman to learn leadership skills, play around with airplanes and technology and have fun.”

Adult members (called “seniors” in CAP) can join at any age over 18.

“We have 19-year-old cadet leadership officers and 75-year-old pilots and radio operators in CAP,” Rochelle said. “When it comes to adult members, there’s room for almost everybody.”

Cadets and seniors can learn radio procedures and communications skills (for those future ham radio folks out there), hone their aviation skills with ground school and flight school, and learn about science and technology at one of CAP’s National Cadet Special Activities.

“I spent a week this summer up at E-tech in Tennessee at MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University) learning about engineering,” said Cadet Chief Master Sgt. Connor Bearden. “It was really good because we looked at all different engineering careers. We spent a few days on mechanical, another day or two on aerospace and learned about everything from unmanned aerial vehicles to mechatronics and robotics. I’d highly recommend it to anybody who’s looking at technology or engineering as a career.”

CAP also has a six-day summer encampment every year. This year the cadets spent six days learning about Air Force history and traditions, drill and ceremonies, leadership and aerospace. They also got to go rappelling at Fort Stewart down in Savannah.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Cadet Staff Sgt. Augustus Schneider.

Cobra Squadron members have also been spotted marching in Dalton’s Memorial Day parade, serving as guest speakers at the local tea party meeting, planting flags on the Whitfield County Courthouse lawn for Flag Day and taking flight over at the Dalton airport for cadet orientation flights. Squadron members have also helped out at the radio-controlled airplane fly-in and other air show events in the area.

Civil Air Patrol meets every Tuesday night at the Learning Tree School at 300 S. Tibbs Road in Dalton from 7 to 9:30 p.m., and everyone’s welcome to come take a look at the squadron. If you’re interested, call Capt. Rochelle at (706) 847-9906 or visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com.

The squadron’s Facebook page is Whitfield-Murray Cadet Squadron, Civil Air Patrol and the Instagram page is ga108_cap (GA 108 Cobras).