Civil Air Patrol cadet rises to the top at Medford ceremony
Ian Cheshire, 19, followed his two older brothers in excellence as he was awarded the General Carl A. Spaatz Award at a ceremony held Tuesday evening, September 6, at the Medford Airport in the Medford Composite Squadron headquarters. The award was presented by Col. Wm. “Nick” Ham, Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Oregon Wing Commander, along with Oregon state senator Jeff Golden.
Family, friends, and squadron members attended the event. Cheshire is the third son of Lt. Col. Walther Chesire, U.S. Army (Ret.) and Mrs. Kathryn Cheshire. Older brothers, Christian, and Caleb, also earned the prestigious award while they were members of CAP. The Christian is now attending Air Force flight training, while Caleb just graduated from USAF ROTC at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Of their middle son’s accomplishment, the elder Cheshires said, “It's such a joy to see God's goodness and blessing upon Ian's life and upon all his Civil Air Patrol endeavors.” They continued, “Thank you to all who have supported Ian and our family over the years!"
The Spaatz Award is Civil Air Patrol’s highest cadet honor. It is presented to cadets who have demonstrated excellence in leadership, character, fitness, and aerospace education. Cadets qualify for this prestigious award after devoting an average of five years to progress through sixteen achievements in the CAP Cadet Program. Along the way they develop self-discipline, a strong sense of personal responsibility, the ability to lead and persuade, and the foundation necessary for pursuing a career in aviation, space, or technology. The award also comes with a promotion to Cadet Colonel (the highest grade available to a cadet).
The new Cadet Colonel joined CAP at the age of 12 in August 2015. Almost all his service has been with the Medford Composite Squadron. However, he did also serve in the Hawaii Wing’s Hickam Composite Squadron from January to May 2016.
Cheshire will be attending Arizona State University this fall, with an eye toward a major in Sports Business. Once he completes his bachelor’s degree and Air Force ROTC, he plans on joining the Air Force. Again, following his brothers’ lead.
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 over 24,000 young people participating in CAP’s Cadet Programs.