(Fremont County, WY) – Wyoming Wing Commander, Col Rick Fawcett, attended the May 11th meeting of the Wind River Composite Squadron. Though this local unit of the Civil Air Patrol has met as an element since early 2018 and was charted in October of 2020, this is the first time a Wing Commander has visited them.
Col Fawcett was appointed Wyoming Wing Commander in 2020. He is a retired USAF officer and served in the Air Force Reserve and Wyoming National Guard. Col Fawcett is a graduate of the Wing Commanders College and numerous other prestigious leadership schools. He serves on the faculty of the National Emergency Services Academy’s (NESA) Incident Command Staff School, instructs nationwide on the NESA Mobile Training Team, and is an Adjunct Instructor for FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute.
“The Wyoming Wing is blessed to have a leader of his qualifications and experience,” shared Karl Falken, Wind River Composite Squadron Commander.
Prior to chartering as a squadron, the unit was an element of the Yellowstone Regional Composite Squadron out of Cody, which initially sponsored the unit. With good support from the Wyoming Wing, the membership has grown steadily since then to become the third-largest Civil Air Patrol squadron in the state. This achievement by the members has been all the more remarkable since it occurred during the 2020 pandemic when the organization as a whole lost nearly a third of its membership.
Falken credits this to the high quality and good motivation of the local members. To emphasize this, he asked that the charter be presented by Col Fawcett to the attending group as a whole rather than any individual.
The occasion was also marked by the promotion of two cadets to Achievement 8, which is named after American Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon: C/MSgts Nicholas Stong and Ciely Daly. This promotion confers the grade of Cadet Chief Master Sergeant.
Besides meeting rigorous criteria for achievements in academic performance and physical fitness, the award recognizes outstanding performance in leadership in attitude, CAP core values, communication skills, sense of responsibility, and interpersonal skills.
“Their next promotion will be the prestigious Mitchell Award which will make them the first home-grown cadet officers!” Falken noted.
The Wind River Composite Squadron hopes to mark this milestone in the near future.
Going forward, the squadron also hopes to soon qualify their first mission base, ground team, and aircrew members to make our assets locally available to Fremont County.