News
Civil Air Patrol Cadet O’Farrell Appointed to West Point
Civil Air Patrol Cadet Kymora O’Farrell, a member of the Putnam County Squadron in Carmel, New York, has received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. The appointment follows a nomination by Rep. Patrick Ryan (D-NY-18) and marks the culmination of a notable four-year cadet career that began in 2022.
Since joining Civil Air Patrol (CAP), O’Farrell progressed to the rank of Cadet Second Lieutenant. During her tenure, she filled key leadership positions, serving first as a Flight Sergeant and later as a Flight Commander. In those roles, she trained fellow cadets, enforced standards, and oversaw mission activities within the squadron.
O’Farrell’s résumé includes several intensive CAP training experiences. She attended the annual CAP Encampment, where she immersed herself in military customs, drill, and leadership development. In addition, she completed the Civil Engineering National Cadet Special Activity (NCSA) at Tyndall Air Force Base, working alongside CAP cadets and active-duty personnel. The hands-on training challenged her with engineering tasks that mirror the demands of the U.S. Air Force.
“The CAP Cadet Program taught me leadership, teamwork and time-management skills that will help me meet the challenges of West Point and a future military career,” O’Farrell said. “Those experiences, combined with my academic work, strengthened my discipline and sense of responsibility.”
O’Farrell credits Major Elena MacDermant, commander of the Putnam County Squadron, with shaping her growth and building her confidence as a leader. “Maj. MacDermant has been a great mentor, inspiring me with her dedication and leadership example,” O’Farrell said.
MacDermant praised O’Farrell’s commitment. “Cadet O’Farrell exemplifies the dedication and integrity we seek in our nation’s future leaders, she said. I proudly support her appointment to West Point and look forward to watching her continued success.”
Looking ahead, O’Farrell plans to enter West Point this summer, and pursue a commission as an Army officer. She aims to continue developing her leadership abilities while contributing to national security. “I believe my discipline, resilience, leadership and commitment to service define who I am as a future leader, “O’Farrell said. “I’m ready to face any challenge with courage and purpose, and I’m excited to bring that spirit to West Point.”
Cadet Colonel Arielle Nickerson is the Youngest Cadet to Receive the General Carl A. Spaatz Award in New York Wing.
Cadet Colonel Arielle Nickerson of Mamaroneck, who serves with Westchester Cadet Squadron 1, is the youngest cadet to receive the General Carl A. Spaatz Award in the New York Wing, the Civil Air Patrol announced on Wednesday, March 13.
Nickerson earned the honor based on her leadership skills, moral reasoning, and physical abilities, according to Lt. Col. Thomas Vreeland, who said he has never seen a candidate with "more focus, confidence, energy, and enthusiasm."
"Never in the history of NY Wing has any cadet completed all of her cadet program requirements in less time than C/Col Arielle Nickerson," Vreeland continued, also saying, "C/Col Nickerson stands out among her outstanding peers, and she has single-handedly reset [Civil Air Patrol] expectations for excellence."
Nickerson originally joined the Civil Air Patrol at age 12 in September 2020 and quickly began attending aerospace and leadership classes. She also set herself apart by participating in and leading the squadron's space program, which focuses on designing, constructing, testing, and launching medium to high-altitude balloons.
One super pressure balloon launched by Nickerson and her fellow cadets stayed in the air for 24 days and circumnavigated the globe once before going 80 percent around the world on the second way around.
In addition to her work with the Civil Air Patrol, Nickerson is also an honor roll student at Mamaroneck High School and is completing advanced placement classes in mathematics. She also participates on the school's track and field team, where she became a varsity captain during her freshman year.
In the future, Nickerson plans on continuing her role in the Civil Air Patrol and hopes to become a pilot in addition to pursuing a career in behavioral health, human performance, and aerospace.
SEG Members Participate in Recovery of Westchester Plane Crash Victims
January 19, 2023 - Members of South Eastern Group Civil Air Patrol participated in locating a crashed small privately-owned aircraft in the area surrounding Westchester County Airport. A Ground Team was activated, and CAP provided vital information to the agencies running the search and recovery operation which assisted them in locating the crash site. CAP members also assisted police in recovery of the deceased victims from the site. Our prayers go out to the families and friends of the deceased.
Boruch Taub and Ben Chafetz were flying back to Cleveland from John F. Kennedy International Airport in a small plane when 30 minutes into the flight, Taub, the pilot, reported an engine problem. The plane lost altitude and eventually crashed in a wooded area at Loudin Point, killing them both.
Major Drew Teichman, the assistant director of emergency services for New York Wing, was part of the rescue team to find the missing plane and the victims. "The conditions made it quite difficult - the thunder, the lightening, the rain, the cold," he said. "It took about 45 minutes to walk roughly three-tenths of a mile because the terrain was so rugged."
Southeastern Group Squadron Takes First Place in the NY State CyberPatriot Competition
December 22, 2022 - NY033 Squadron won first place in the platinum category in the all services division with a final score of 178 in the New York State round. The Squadron will advance to the Semi-Finals which will take place on Saturday, January 21.
Annual Wreaths Across America Ceremony Supported By Local Civil Air Patrol Squadron.
December 18, 2022 - The show of support last Saturday, December 17th , at Raymond Hill Cemetery was a demonstration of the importance of the Wreaths Across America mission to remember the fallen, honor those that serve and their families, and teach the next generation the value of freedom.
The Putnam County Composite squadron of the Civil Air Patrol had raised money since early fall to place as many wreaths as possible on the 600 veterans’ graves at Raymond Hill Cemetery in Carmel, NY. We were able to place wreaths on just over half of the graves which is the best we have ever done in all the years the squadron has supported this cause.
The Director of Operations at Raymond Hill Cemetery, Mr. Dennis Wiese, received the boxes of wreaths from Wreaths Across America on Tuesday awaiting our arrival on Saturday. Raymond Hill was one of 3,400 cemeteries nationwide participating.
The official Wreaths Across America Day nationally designated as December 17, 2022 was cold but not enough to stop the squadron of cadets, senior members and a large crowd of volunteers from gathering for a ceremony including the squadron Color Guard presenting arms as the laying wreaths for each of the Armed Forces branches was done by local veterans.
The importance of honoring our veterans was loud and clear and ended with a stirring rendition of Taps played by Mr. Joe Baldanza.
September 11, 2022
Putnam County Composite Squadron Commander acted as Color Guard for 9/11 ceremony shown with Assemblyman Kevin Byrne.
Local CAP Cadet Attends Cyber Event at the US Air Force Academy
July 14, 2022 - The Civil Air Patrol (CAP), which is an auxiliary of the US Air Force, offers cadets and adult members training programs on flying, aerospace, emergency services, drones, plus many others on various topics which follows the US Air Force philosophy of the importance of training. A local cadet, C/SSgt Eric Song, a member of the Putnam County Composite Squadron, recently attended the inaugural year of the Cyberspace Advanced Administration Course held at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado. The program was held the week of June 13-18 and provided housing at the Academy Prep School with meals in Mitchell Hall dining facility at the US Air Force Academy giving the CAP cadets a strong feeling of being at the academy. With an opportunity to talk with current AF cadets, this program really gave a nice college perspective to the high school students.
According to C/SSgt Eric Song, the program touched on many aspects of computing that a high school student interested in computers would be hard pressed to find out about. The program covered application stacks, Domain Controllers and distributed security policies and configuring an email server with all the necessary protocols and programs.
Cadet Song also felt that in addition to the courses and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he was able to meet cadets from Puerto Rico to Idaho, opening his eyes to how different squadrons around the nation operate and the unique experiences various cadets have with CAP and computers. Cadet Song went on to say that “Learning from the course was a part of this program but learning from my peers was another.”
One prerequisite for attending this event is the National Youth Cyber Education Program, sponsored by the Air and Space Force Association to educate the next generation of patriotic cyber defenders of our nation’s security and infrastructure. This annual event is called CyberPatriot and is held in the fall with teams now beginning to form. The highly competitive event is training a new generation to ensure America is prepared to defend its national security from the air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. Details can be found at www.uscyberpatriot.org.
The CAP Putnam County Composite Squadron is forming teams starting in August. It is free to all cadet members. The curriculum is college and collage graduate materials taught on a high school level.
More information about this program and other programs within Civil Air Patrol can be found on the website gocivilairpatrol.com. You are also free to contact the Putnam County Composite Squadron directly.
Established in 1941, Civil Air Patrol is the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and as such is a member of its Total Force. In its auxiliary role, CAP operates a fleet of 555 single-engine aircraft and 2,250 small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) and performs about 90% of all search and rescue operations within the contiguous United States as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Often using innovative cellphone forensics and radar analysis software, CAP was credited by the AFRCC with saving 108 lives last year. CAP’s 56,000 members also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. As a nonprofit organization, CAP plays a leading role in aerospace education using national academic standards-based STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education resources. Members also serve as mentors to over 23,000 young people participating in CAP’s Cadet Programs.
June 4, 2022
A Change of Command ceremony was held at NY Wing Headquarters at Westchester County Airport. Maj Richard Levitt assumed command of South Eastern Group, replacing Lt Col Larry Mattiello. Maj Levitt has been a CAP member since 1974, joining as a cadet and later becoming a Senior Member. He has been a Squadron Commander, and has held positions in Aerospace Education, Cadet Programs, Emergency Services. He has served on New York Wing staff since 2014, and is currently the Director of Plans and Programs.
Outside CAP, Levitt served as a U.S. Air Force medic, and currently works in the Information Security field.
April 29, 2022
A Memory of Lt Col Stan Rothman
I was very saddened at the recent passing of Stan Rothman. Yesterday I went to Shiva with the family of the Rothman’s at their home and was so taken aback by how many lives he touched through his years. It reminded me of my first interactions with Stan and how he definitely shaped my Civil Air Patrol career as he encouraged me to become at the time one of the first to qualify as an Incident commander under what was then a “new program” for CAP.
I joined CAP with my son almost immediately after 9/11 as I was searching for a way to help serve my country again after having left the military 10 years prior to enter civilian life. Joining the NY-219 squadron I was almost immediately thrust into a leadership position due to my prior military background and leadership experience. It was not to soon after this that despite my desire to get back into flying as part of joining CAP, that between Stan and the then NY-219 Squadron Commander (Dan Stouch) encouragement I first got involved in Ground Team operations as a way to not only learn that aspect of Emergency Services but also to become almost immediately useful in helping out both with the cadets and our Group as a whole.
You see back then Stan Rothman was like the lone wolf in the Group when it came to Emergency Services, because the pilots of the group treated the plane and the group as more of a flying club than a way to help out in times of crisis. Stan saw in me an opportunity to change what was like the status quo in the Group and he encouraged me to not only learn all that I could but to qualify under the then “new program” or “Incident Command System” way of responding to disasters and incidents. Stan called me on every opportunity to come train and participate in real life emergencies and so I quickly became one of the first to qualify as an Incident Commander under ICS in New York Wing in an extremely short time of only two years after joining. In those first two years at Stan's prodding I participated in over 24 training and actual ELT ground team and later airborne search missions.
I remember very clearly to this day the very first “actual” ground team search for a downed aircraft that Stan not only called me for but had me and my son Marc go out with him on a night foggy search for a down piper aircraft in the “Gunks” area of Ulster County, NY. There was a known Piper aircraft that had crashed with a couple of fatalities in the Gunks and Stan asked us to help get to the crash (using an ELT to find it) with the express purpose of turning the aircraft ELT off to prevent it from flooding ATC and the SARSAT system with ELT signals from a known crash site.
The site was half way up in the mountains and although the bodies had already been removed no one involved knew about the ELT and so we were tasked with finding it “again” and shutting off the ELT. After a couple of hours between driving up there in Stan’s station wagon and us using the DF to locate the crash site we finally found it. It was very profound as it was my first (unfortunately of ultimately many) of seeing a crashed aircraft. Honestly I was very taken aback at the sight and was actually very worried for my son seeing such a site and how it might affect his desire to pursue flying. Stan was the consummate professional explaining so very much about what had happened, how the crew so foolishly flew into instrument conditions without an instrument rating, and all the mistakes that were made to lead to such an accident. So instead of it being a negative experience, Stan was able to turn it into a teaching moment that I am sure has served my son to have a very healthy respect for careful aviation decision making as he makes his own decisions as a pilot now.
In retrospect I wished I had thanked Stan for that, but instead we were focused at the task at hand as Stan taught us how to remove the back panel where the ELT was located in the tail and how to shut it off and record all the various pieces of information that the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) wanted collected about ELT activations at the time.
I was thankful that it was not traumatic for my son, and the three of us (Stan, myself and my son) talked for a long time about the tremendous service we were doing and just how satisfying it was to be part of an organization like CAP where we could give back to our country.
Rest in Peace Stan. You left a tremendous legacy in how you trained and shaped so many minds.
Lt Col Paul Ghiron, CAP
Director of Emergency Services
New York Wing
January 25, 2022
High-Flying High School Senior Earns Top Civil Air Patrol Award
When Grant Becker was 13, he sat in the co-pilot’s seat of a small Cessna 172 plane that was taking off at Westchester County Airport. At an altitude of 1,000 feet, he was allowed to take control and do basic maneuvers. “I loved it,” he said, recalling the flight that marked the first leg of his pilot training.
A member of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) since 2016, Becker, a Pleasantville High School senior, just earned his private pilot’s certificate through the Civil Air Patrol’s Cadet Wings program, which provides cadet scholarships funded by the United States Air Force to cover the cost of flight training.
When Becker initially received his private pilot’s license, he said he took his mother for a ride in one of the flight school planes. “She really liked it a lot,” he said.
November 22, 2021
Westchester Cadet Squadron 1 is selected as Civil Air Patrol’s National Squadron of Distinction for 2020.
Link to article in CAP Volunteers Magazine
November 11, 2021
Photos of Putnam County Composite Squadron color guard at VFW Post 1374 in Carmel on Veterans Day.
March 8, 2021
Read the Mustang Monthly
A Newsletter Published by the Putnam County Composite Squadron
202103_NY033_Mustang_Monthly_Cadet__A12C8DE2247CF.pdf
January 23, 2021
New York Wing held the change of command ceremony at Grifiss National Guard Base in Rome, NY. Congratulations to Col John Jones on his promotion to Wing Commander. Best wishes and congratulations to out going Wing Commander Col Tom Carello for successful completion of his term and his many accomplishments.