Local Civil Air Patrol Members Travel to Washington, DC to Meet with Congress

Washington, D.C.– Civil Air Patrol members from across New York State joined members from all over the country last week to inform and educate members of Congress about Civil Air Patrol’s missions.

The New York volunteers joined approximately 200 CAP members including wing commanders, selected seniors and cadets from around the country to join Civil Air Patrol national headquarters staff in about 450 meetings with legislators and government officials across the nation’s capital.

The team from New York included:

• Colonel John Jones, New York Wing Commander (Utica, NY)
• Lt. Col. Michael Woolfolk, New York Wing Chief of Staff (Rye, NY)
• Lt. Col. Franklin Birt, New York Wing Government Relations Advisor (Binghamton, NY)
• Major Grant Sussey, New York Wing Director of Operations (Watertown, NY)
• Major Joe Gallo, Central NY Group Commander (Syracuse, NY)
• Captain Adam DeLitta (Westchester, NY)
• 1st Lt. Gavin Davis (Shortsville, NY)
• Cadet Colonel Ishan Swali,18 years old (Troy, NY)
• Cadet Major Rebecca McGarvey, 19 years old (Rochester, NY)
• Cadet Capt. Lauren Gomez-Nieto, 17 years old (Long Island, NY)
• Cadet Capt.John Murphy, 17 years old (Long Island, NY)
• Cadet 2d Lt. Benjamin McGarvey, 16 years old (Rochester, NY)

During the meetings, the team learned that Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (R-NY) will be co-leading a bipartisan letter of support with Congressman Mike Thompsom (D-CA) for CAP’s FY24 appropriations request to help continue the great missions CAP performs.

While in Washington, D.C., Col Jones presented C/Capt Gomez-Nieto with a Meritorious Service award for her work with New York Wing’s Cadet Advisory Council.

About Civil Air Patrol
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 58,000 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 24,000 young people participating in CAP’s Cadet Programs.

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