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Amelia Earhart Award\
The Amelia Earhart Award has existed since 1964. This award honors the late Amelia Earhart, aviatrix, advocate, and pioneer, who set many records for women aviators in aviation's infancy, and who was lost while attempting to be the first women to circumnavigate the globe. Civil Air Patrol, the official Auxiliary of the United States Air Force, has a three-fold mission: aerospace education of the American people, emergency services and disaster relief for those in distress, and the cadet program. The cadet program provides opportunities for the learning, maturing, accepting, and nurturing of leadership to over 26,000 young Americans from 12-20 years of age. With advice and assistance from CAP members at national, regional, state and local levels and the US Air Force, cadets are exposed to a structured program of aerospace education, leadership, physical fitness, and moral and ethical values. This structured program is divided into 16 segments called achievements, involving study and performance in the five program areas. Upon completion of each achievement, the cadet earns increased responsibility, decorations, awards, eligibility for national and international special activities, and opportunities for both flight and academic scholarships. The second milestone of the program is the Amelia Earhart Award which is earned after completing the first eleven achievements of the cadet program and receipt of the General Billy Mitchell Award. In addition, the cadet must pass an arduous 100 question examination testing aerospace topics, leadership theory and staff topics. Since its inception over 30 years ago, nearly 10,000 cadets have earned this prestigious award. In accordance with its importance within the cadet program, the Earhart Award is normally presented by a CAP Wing Commander or higher, or a state or federal government official. Once the cadets earn the Earhart Award, they are promoted to the grade of Cadet Captain. These cadets who later enter CAP's Senior Member program are eligible for immediate promotion to CAP 1st Lt at age 21. Those cadets who receive the Earhart Award also enjoy all the benefits of the Mitchell Award (advance placement as E-3 in the US Air Force, scholarship and activity opportunities, etc.) and also are eligible to apply to the International Air Cadet Exchange. IACE is an organization dedicated to fostering international understanding, goodwill, and fellowship among youth of the world, using the common bond of aviation. Over 100 cadets per year are asked to participate in this extraordinary exchange program. Perhaps no name is as symbolic of aerospace achievement as Amelia Earhart. When you say female aviator, the first name that comes to mind is Amelia Earhart! Born in Atchison, Kansas, July 24, 1897, she attended Hyde Park High School in Chicago, Ogontz School for Girls in Rydal, Pa., and Columbia University in New York to prepare for a career in Medicine and Social Science. She served during World War I as a military nurse in Canada where she developed an interest in flying. She pursued this interest in California, receiving her pilot's license in 1922. Though she continued her association with aviation by entering numerous flying meets, she spent several years as a teacher and social worker at Dennison House, in Boston. Amelia Earhart gained considerable fame June 17-18, 1928, as the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. She felt this fame somewhat unjustified as she had only been a “passenger” on a Fokker trimotor piloted by Wilman Stutz and Louis Gordon from Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, to Burry Port, Wales. In 1929 Earhart co-founded the “Ninety-Nines,” an international organization of women pilots, which continues today to promote opportunities for women in aviation, and served from 1930 to 1932 as its first president. Amelia Earhart was one of the first women in aviation to juggle a public and private life. Her 1931 marriage to publisher George Putnam did not prevent her from setting an autogyro altitude record. the following year she reaccomplished the Atlantic flight which brought her fame, this time as a solo pilot flying from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonberry, Ireland, a first for a women. At a time when women were extremely rare in technical and scientific areas, Amelia Earhart distinguished herself by setting records which bettered mens' records as well as womens'.
She became active in the movement that encouraged the development of commercial aviation. Amelia Earhart took an active role in efforts to open the field of aviation to women and end male dominance in this exciting new field. She served as an officer of the Luddington line, which provided one of the first regular passenger services between New York and Washington, D.C. In January 1935, she outdid her Atlantic solo by making a solo flight from Hawaii to California, a much longer distance than the Canada-England flight. She became the first pilot to successfully fly that route. Her numerous accomplishments earned her the Distinguished Flying Cross, the first women so designated by the United States Congress. Always pushing the envelope, Amelia Earhart set out in June 1937 to circumnavigate the world. Accompanied by Fred Noonan, her navigator, Amelia Earhart flew her twin engine Lockheed Electra into one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. On the most difficult leg of the trip, Earhart and Noonan vanished near Howland Island in the Pacific. Intense searching by both the American and Japanese forces found no trace of Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, or their plane and fueled speculation as to the reason for such a dangerous flight. many argued that the flight was a reconnaissance flight to gather data on Japan prior to the United States entry into World War II. Many others, especially in the aviation community, held fast that Amelia Earhart was driven by her passion for flying. Though few facts are known about the July 2, 1937 disappearance in the central Pacific near the International Date Line, one thing is certain: Amelia Earhart had made a unique and timeless contribution to aviation and to women in aviation which will go unparalleled for decades to come. References: Colliers Encyclopedia, 1991; The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1991; World Book, 1990; and Compton's Encyclopedia, University of Chicago, 1989. From Leadership: 2000 And Beyond, Vol. I, Civil Air Patrol, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
Dr. C. Levy (former LTC, US Army) |
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