Speaker 1: Stuff You Should Know Tour two thousand nineteen, starting in
Speaker 1: Chicago July, Yeah, and then Toronto the next night. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be at the Harris Theater and then the day
Speaker 1: and fourth, and you can go get tickets, get them,
Speaker 1: get them now because they are going fast, that's right.
Speaker 1: Then August twenty in Boston at the Wilbur August in Portland,
Speaker 1: Maine at the State Theater, the Plaza Live in Orlando
Speaker 1: on October nine, the Civic Theater in New Orleans on
Speaker 1: October and then our beloved Bell House in Brooklyn, New York,
Speaker 1: October YEP. Head on over s y s K live
Speaker 1: dot com has everything you need and we will see
Speaker 1: you guys live in person. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and we're
Speaker 1: flying high for this for this episode of Stuff you
Speaker 1: Should Know. Civil Air Patrol, I've got a different version
Speaker 1: of it. Okay, well, air PU, civil air Patrol, Civil
Speaker 1: air about air Patrol. Oh, do you remember when I
Speaker 1: used to put that in your head? Yeah? It's like
Speaker 1: the good old days when used to earworm me. I
Speaker 1: think that's the greatest er worm of all. It's pretty good.
Speaker 1: It's in my head now, good hair. I like that Patrol.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about the Civil Air Patrol and we're
Speaker 1: gonna just say what it is right out of the gate. Okay,
Speaker 1: go ahead. Now, let's talk first about what I ate
Speaker 1: for breakfast? Okay, you have Did you have bacon? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't eat breakfast. Civil Air Patrol is a nonprofit
Speaker 1: group that's a civilian group of um, well of playing enthusiasts,
Speaker 1: but the much more than that they are. They have
Speaker 1: sort of a quasi military hierarchy. They are under the
Speaker 1: control of the U. S. Air Force, and what they
Speaker 1: do a lot these days is things like search and rescue.
Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about them in in our
Speaker 1: Star episodes. Um but they have a very cool, kind
Speaker 1: of rich and colorful, colorful history. And I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get John Roderick of the indie rock band The Long
Speaker 1: Winters my pal and from the podcast. While he does
Speaker 1: a lot of podcasts, which one should we say, friendly
Speaker 1: Fire sure his war movie podcast, he was a member
Speaker 1: of the Civil Air Patrol and I texted him and said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd love to get a quote from you
Speaker 1: on your experience, and he says, heck, yeah, uh and
Speaker 1: then he never said anything. So if it comes in,
Speaker 1: we'll read it. If not, just know that John was
Speaker 1: a teenage member of the Civil Air Patrol, which you
Speaker 1: still can be. Yeah, you definitely still can be. It's
Speaker 1: still around. There's there's From what I saw, it's something
Speaker 1: like sixty strong today. No, not bad at all. Um.
Speaker 1: And I get the impression it's a little bit like
Speaker 1: the Eagle Scouts of the Air for like under eighteen people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Cadet program. It sounded very much like sort of
Speaker 1: boy Scouts meets r OTC. Yeah, because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of emphasis on like public service and being like an
Speaker 1: upstanding person and um, you know just just um not
Speaker 1: stealing things. I think there's a big emphasis on that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But also you get the feeling there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of like you want to go on the Air Force,
Speaker 1: right son? Right, Well, I think that is kind of
Speaker 1: either if it's not a stated part of it, um.
Speaker 1: If it's um, it's still like a definite function of
Speaker 1: the Civil Air Patrols, it's it feeds into the actual
Speaker 1: Air Force cadet program, and you can actually benefit from
Speaker 1: being in the Civil Air Patrol if you do plan
Speaker 1: to go into the Air Force. Apparently you can enter
Speaker 1: the Air Force at a higher pay grade if you
Speaker 1: have worked up to a certain rank in the civil
Speaker 1: Air Patrols. So if you're interested in being a good citizen,
Speaker 1: if you like to fly, if you want to be
Speaker 1: in the Air Force, um, you could do a lot
Speaker 1: worse than joining the Civil Air Patrol. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 1: If you want to be a part of what they
Speaker 1: say is about a hundred saves a year out in
Speaker 1: the wilderness, or if you just want to be a
Speaker 1: part of an organization that had a very cool origin,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about right now. Okay, let's early on
Speaker 1: in aviation history and like the nineteen twenties and thirties,
Speaker 1: still in its infancy, but it was big enough to
Speaker 1: where people could like own a plane and they could
Speaker 1: buy their own personal plane and get their pilots license. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is that's really fast if you think about I mean,
Speaker 1: Brothers flew at Kittie Hawk in Yeah, I mean a
Speaker 1: couple of decades later, people are like, I want to
Speaker 1: own a plane and fly it. That's how everybody talk
Speaker 1: that mid Atlantic accent. That's right, hey, Chuck. By the way,
Speaker 1: I want to shout out what I have come to
Speaker 1: think is one of the top three facts of stuff
Speaker 1: you should know of all time, that the Brits originally
Speaker 1: sounded like Americans and that the Brits lost their American
Speaker 1: accent rather than the other way around. Is that true? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Don't you remember in our accent when podcast? When did
Speaker 1: they sound like Americans? It started up to about the
Speaker 1: twenties or thirties, and then the BBC came along on
Speaker 1: the radio and they made a conscious decision to sound
Speaker 1: like Oxford types who had basically affected an accent um
Speaker 1: in order to separate themselves and sound classier. So you're saying,
Speaker 1: with the BBC adopted, if there was audio recording from
Speaker 1: nineteen then a guy from central London would sound like
Speaker 1: me right now, basically. Yeah, So they're getting it wrong
Speaker 1: in all those movies too, then yes, but these are
Speaker 1: also the same movies where like Nazis sound like British
Speaker 1: people on the BBC. So it's all kinds of messed up,
Speaker 1: all right. I love that you just bring out a
Speaker 1: random effect from an old show is the fact of
Speaker 1: stuff you should know all time history. But let's go
Speaker 1: back in time. Let's hop in the way back machine
Speaker 1: and go back to the Great War, the Second World War,
Speaker 1: when there were people in this country that love their
Speaker 1: flying civilians, and they saw the beginning of the war
Speaker 1: in the late nineteen thirties when europe European fascist basically
Speaker 1: said nine no more civilian flying, it's all shut down.
Speaker 1: And so the aviators over here, civilian aviators were like, WHOA,
Speaker 1: that's not cool. We like flying our planes. Maybe we
Speaker 1: should get organized and see if we can actually add
Speaker 1: value to the military as civilians. Because that was back
Speaker 1: when all Americans wanted to pitch in a little bit
Speaker 1: to help out the war effort. Right. There was um
Speaker 1: one guy in particular, guy named gil Rob Wilson, but
Speaker 1: he was not the only one. There's another dude named
Speaker 1: Milton Knight, and both are credited with founding basically civilian
Speaker 1: Air Force auxiliary programs to say, hey, military, we're not military.
Speaker 1: It's cool, but there's other stuff we can do to
Speaker 1: help you guys out. And let's also not forget that
Speaker 1: if we can use our collective clout to popularize flying
Speaker 1: and aviation and just get more Americans interested in it
Speaker 1: and showing that that, hey, you can actually learn to fly,
Speaker 1: come hang out with us and will show you how.
Speaker 1: We'll we'll be generating a pool of pre trained uh
Speaker 1: UM pilots who can transfer over to the military if
Speaker 1: the US ends up going into World War two. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Almost like a reserve unit, even though it is not that. No,
Speaker 1: it's an auxiliary union, which means it it's it's an auxiliary.
Speaker 1: It's on the side. It's in addition to it's not
Speaker 1: it's not like a reserve unit that can be called
Speaker 1: up to active duty military like the reserves. It's a
Speaker 1: civilian volunteer force. Right. So gil Rob Wilson was working
Speaker 1: on this and kind of concurrently there were some some
Speaker 1: state based aviation groups for civilian civil uh civil defense
Speaker 1: units that were kind of cropping up here and there
Speaker 1: on the East coast uh and so he kind of
Speaker 1: saw the writing on the wall and wanted to make
Speaker 1: things official. So he developed a plan for the Civil
Speaker 1: Air Patrol, got support very importantly, got support from a
Speaker 1: gentleman named Fiorello LaGuardia. You don't put any mustard on LaGuardia.
Speaker 1: It's just a cruddy airport. Okay. Actually, like LaGuardia. It's
Speaker 1: six coming along, but it's still kind of creutzy. It's fine,
Speaker 1: not None of the New York airports are great. Have
Speaker 1: you have you ever seen the uh the pictures of
Speaker 1: the abandoned t W A terminal at LaGuardia from like
Speaker 1: the jet age of the sixties. It's amazing. It's like
Speaker 1: a time capsule, frozen in time. And I think they
Speaker 1: converted it into a hotel recently. But like goes, somebody
Speaker 1: did a really good photo spread, like back in two dozen,
Speaker 1: twelve or whatever. Um, just look up t W A terminal.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's JFK and not Laguire. I think it is JFK. Um.
Speaker 1: Either way, it's still worth checking out. I'll check it out. Okay.
Speaker 1: So LaGuardia. He was a director of the Office of
Speaker 1: Civilian Defense at the time. Uh he. Of course the
Speaker 1: airport was named after him. He was mayor of New
Speaker 1: York City at one point. He was an aviator in
Speaker 1: World War One, so it was really a big deal
Speaker 1: to get him on board. UM. And they designed their
Speaker 1: little logo, which is a blue circle with a propeller,
Speaker 1: three propellers in a white triangle, and initially they were
Speaker 1: handled by is. This was pre Air Force, before the
Speaker 1: Air Force was officially established after World War Two. It
Speaker 1: was part of the U. S. Army Air Corps What
Speaker 1: was the U. S. Army Air Corps, which I think
Speaker 1: we made the distinction in the Tuskegee Airman. So everyone
Speaker 1: kind of gets on board and LaGuardia signs the Civil
Speaker 1: Air Corps as it was known, originally into existence on
Speaker 1: December one, ninety one. And as you will note that date, Uh,
Speaker 1: it was very relevant because just six days later is
Speaker 1: when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, we could use this help. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: mean remember this is like a surprise attack by the
Speaker 1: Japanese on Pearl Harbor. So it was pretty prescient of
Speaker 1: Gil Rob Wilson and Fiorello LaGuardia to to get this
Speaker 1: thing organized and together, because yeah, within a week they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, we probably can use you guys. The
Speaker 1: problem is that the Air Corps initially was like, what
Speaker 1: are we gonna do with these like these civilians? You know,
Speaker 1: super gun? How civilians do I imagine? Right? Exactly which
Speaker 1: which is like even worse to have to deal with
Speaker 1: in like just regular old civilians who don't know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Um. In some cases it turned out that
Speaker 1: it was actually the Civil Air Patrol was really helpful,
Speaker 1: um because one of the really overlooked things about World
Speaker 1: War Two is that German U boats, you know, like
Speaker 1: a variation of a submarine, but they just couldn't stay
Speaker 1: under quite as long. They wreaked absolute havoc on um
Speaker 1: the United States coasts um during World War Two. Basically
Speaker 1: within a month of Pearl Harbor, four to six weeks
Speaker 1: after Pearl Harbor, the first US freight or the city
Speaker 1: of Atlanta was sunk by a U boat off the
Speaker 1: coast of North Carolina. And that was the first of
Speaker 1: I think three hundred and nineties seven ships that were
Speaker 1: either um sunk damaged by U boats in six months
Speaker 1: off the coast of America. Yeah. So at this point,
Speaker 1: the Civil Air Patrol has one wing is what they
Speaker 1: called it, per state. Uh. I have no idea how
Speaker 1: many states there were. I think it was forty eight,
Speaker 1: just kidding, uh. And each one of those wings was
Speaker 1: divided into squadrons and they were operating out of civilian
Speaker 1: airports mostly, but then in nineteen forty two they were,
Speaker 1: um they started opening up some dedicated civil air patrol
Speaker 1: bases in certain states around the country. So all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, there are uh in ninety people enrolled in
Speaker 1: the civil Air Patrol, and these German U boats are
Speaker 1: doing damage off the coast, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: they were like, well, listen, we weren't sure quite what
Speaker 1: to do with you guys. You've been helping us out.
Speaker 1: You've been delivering some things and even some personnel at
Speaker 1: times and munitions, but we think, what, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't have the resources in our what will soon be
Speaker 1: called the Air Force to just patrol all up and
Speaker 1: down the East coast all the time. So that's where
Speaker 1: you're going to really uh be valuable to us. And
Speaker 1: that was really the first big, kind of important use
Speaker 1: of the civil air Patrol in World War Two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was effective too because with U boats, part
Speaker 1: of the doctrine of um of U boat warfare sub
Speaker 1: Commander Nous was that if you saw a plane overhead,
Speaker 1: you dove um to get away from that plane because
Speaker 1: they were very vulnerable from an aerial attack. So um,
Speaker 1: just seeing a civil air patrol plane overhead meant that
Speaker 1: the sub had to break off from pursuit of whatever tanker, freighter,
Speaker 1: troop transport it was about to sink, um and and
Speaker 1: dive in and evade that plane, just even an unarmed
Speaker 1: civil air patrol plane because they didn't know they're unarmed
Speaker 1: at the time. I don't think exactly exactly. Um, So
Speaker 1: this actually started working out pretty well. But there was
Speaker 1: one incident in particular off the coast of right at
Speaker 1: Cape Canaveral. From what I understand, a U boat got
Speaker 1: caught on a sandbar and was just laying there exposed,
Speaker 1: trying to get free for about thirty minutes, and a
Speaker 1: civil air patrol plane was circling it had spotted it
Speaker 1: had called in for reinforcements I think, for an aerial
Speaker 1: strike from the Air Corps UM for the sitting duck
Speaker 1: of a U boat, and before the air strike could
Speaker 1: get there to blow the U boat up, it got
Speaker 1: itself free and made its escape got away. Um. And
Speaker 1: this was enough. It was a frustrating enough if the
Speaker 1: pilot was just like, I want a bomb so bad. Well,
Speaker 1: in very short order, the air UM, the Air Corps
Speaker 1: commander hap what was his name, Henry hap Arnold. Hap
Speaker 1: Arnold said give him those bombs, and the Civil Air Patrol,
Speaker 1: not in any way a military organization, a civilian auxiliary
Speaker 1: group was given depth charges and bombs to drop on
Speaker 1: U boats from that point none for the rest of
Speaker 1: World War two. Yeah, so here's the deal with that.
Speaker 1: They they had to bomb from very very high up. Um.
Speaker 1: They had to use improvised bomb sites because you know this,
Speaker 1: they didn't just have this stuff lying around, and they
Speaker 1: needed this stuff for the real I was about to say,
Speaker 1: the real planes for the military. So they weren't like,
Speaker 1: here's the best bomb sites we have. So there's really
Speaker 1: no like um. I think the Civil Air Patrol probably
Speaker 1: likes to claim that they actually bombed you boats, but
Speaker 1: there aren't any official on record bombings that were carried
Speaker 1: out by Civil Air Patrol that like sank you boats
Speaker 1: at you talked to. Germany was like that never happened,
Speaker 1: didn't affect us. Civil Air Patrol was like, no, it's
Speaker 1: more like yah, right. So it is in dispute. In particular,
Speaker 1: one sub that some uh Civil Air Patrol guys dropped
Speaker 1: depth charges over in New Jersey and they said a
Speaker 1: geyser of oil and water erupted from the water, which
Speaker 1: would indicate that they had sunk this this U boat.
Speaker 1: But like you're saying, the Germans don't have any record
Speaker 1: of anything like that, so they probably they probably didn't
Speaker 1: at the very least, though they did harass the German
Speaker 1: U boats. And whether it was directly because of civil
Speaker 1: Air patrol UM patrols over the coastline or not. By July,
Speaker 1: about six months after the first attack, German U boats
Speaker 1: like pulled off of American coastal waters and stopped attacking.
Speaker 1: So it probably wasn't entirely coincidence. It probably wasn't entirely
Speaker 1: because of the civil air patrol, but they almost certainly
Speaker 1: played a prominent role in in Germany's discontinuation of their
Speaker 1: sub attacks in American waters. Yeah, so here's what we'll do.
Speaker 1: We'll do a stat cliffhanger. Okay, we'll take a little
Speaker 1: break and come back with a little bit of statistical
Speaker 1: evidence to support your claims are right for this? All right,
Speaker 1: So you said they made a difference, and the numbers
Speaker 1: kind of back it up. First of all, they were
Speaker 1: only supposed to do this for ninety days, while they
Speaker 1: kind of got the real plan together for the military.
Speaker 1: They ended up doing this coastal patrol for eighteen months,
Speaker 1: so that alone kind of says it was working, or
Speaker 1: at the very least, they weren't quick enough to get
Speaker 1: there the real plan going. But here's the stats. A
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy three subs spotted and ostensibly brady out
Speaker 1: in You know, they weren't just spotted and then forgotten
Speaker 1: about right there, Like I don't feel like calling it
Speaker 1: in this time. Eighty two depth charge bomb attacks against
Speaker 1: those subs impressive, pretty impressive. And again, let's say they're
Speaker 1: not actually bombing them out of the water. It's got
Speaker 1: to be disconcerting to have civilians up there dropping bombs
Speaker 1: on you. Sure, it's like the North Avenue irregulars put
Speaker 1: in the air. Uh they you know, there were mines
Speaker 1: out there. They found seventeen floating mines and rescued three
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three people and ships. Uh that had
Speaker 1: trouble reported, which I don't think we mentioned. Like America
Speaker 1: likes to think that, like, oh well, yeah, the fighting
Speaker 1: didn't happen over here in the United States. But if
Speaker 1: you looked on the East coast, uh, like on the water.
Speaker 1: Chances are you might have pulled a service person out
Speaker 1: of the water from one of these bombings. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: it happened. There were people in the water that needed rescue,
Speaker 1: and the civil Air Patrol was there. I read an
Speaker 1: account of a family that lived on the coast off
Speaker 1: of Hatteras. Apparently Cape Hatteras the waters off had were
Speaker 1: called torpedo junction. This happened so frequently. Um, but they
Speaker 1: like they're the windows would rattle in your house when
Speaker 1: uh a torpedo struck like a tanker something, you know,
Speaker 1: eight miles away off the coast like it was. You
Speaker 1: just do not get raised with that in history. It's
Speaker 1: just not talked about. But it was a pretty big
Speaker 1: for six months. It was a big problem for the
Speaker 1: United States. Yeah, and this was, um. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of bravery involved because these little planes. They were stretching,
Speaker 1: these pilots and their experience and these planes and their
Speaker 1: mechanical capabilities to the utmost degree to fly these things
Speaker 1: that far off shore to do these patrols. And they
Speaker 1: still did it. Um. They flew five hundred about five
Speaker 1: hundred thousand hours during the war combined. And they were
Speaker 1: not getting rich doing it. Uh. They were reimbursed for fuel,
Speaker 1: but they were paid eight dollars a day, which even
Speaker 1: back then was not a lot of money. Now I
Speaker 1: calculate it's about a hundred dollars today. It's not bad. Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: come nothing of it if you're not doing anything else
Speaker 1: but take it dropping bombs on Nazis, that's kind of
Speaker 1: fun and getting a bucks for it, right. Uh. And
Speaker 1: in the end, thirty pilots of the civil and the
Speaker 1: Civil Air Patrol died flying in accidents. Um. And that's
Speaker 1: in addition to the ones in the Coastal Patrol. That's
Speaker 1: just total. I think there were twenty six on the
Speaker 1: actual coastal Patrol that died. I thought it was like
Speaker 1: sixty five. This is twenty six deaths and they lost
Speaker 1: ninety planes. Got so um like this was a really
Speaker 1: big deal. I mean like it was. It was saying
Speaker 1: like you you and you you know you, you the
Speaker 1: guy who owns the TV rishpair shop, and um, you
Speaker 1: the guy who owns the barbershop next door getting these
Speaker 1: planes and start dropping bombs on these U boats. That
Speaker 1: was a big deal to to do to civilians and um.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and fourteen, Obama posthumously in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases awarded the UM the Medal of Honor, the
Speaker 1: highest citizen honor. UH that anybody in the US can
Speaker 1: get to. Everyone who was in the Civil Air Patrol
Speaker 1: during World War Two, all two thousand people. And you
Speaker 1: know what fun fact that you're gonna love. That barber
Speaker 1: dropped his scissors and ran out of the barbershop to
Speaker 1: go get in his plane halfway through a haircut. And
Speaker 1: that's how the mullet was born. Nice was it? Floyd
Speaker 1: was Griffith was the first one with the mullet. And
Speaker 1: I bet you didn't know that the mullet was born
Speaker 1: in the midnight. I suspected as much business in the
Speaker 1: Front war in the rear right exactly. Man William was
Speaker 1: the first mullet created. Do you know, I remember, very
Speaker 1: very distinctly the first time I heard that term. I
Speaker 1: was on set of a TV commercial. Um And this
Speaker 1: was many, many years after the mullet. But when I
Speaker 1: was in high school, it wasn't called the mullet. It
Speaker 1: was just sort of kind of the cool hairstyle for
Speaker 1: a little while, called the burnout. But I remember when
Speaker 1: I heard them the mullet, I was on set and
Speaker 1: one of my friends said, I said, who is this
Speaker 1: guy who's Lee? And he said he. I don't know
Speaker 1: why this stuck with me. He said, he is that
Speaker 1: wedge of grossness over there with the mullet head. I
Speaker 1: can see this sticking with you. It's pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Lea's who he is. Poorly. What else did the Civil
Speaker 1: Air Patrol do? Though? They did some other weird things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the the thing during World War Two that they're definitely
Speaker 1: remembered for was the UM the bombing sorties and spotting
Speaker 1: U boats, but they did plenty of other stuff. Basically, UM.
Speaker 1: They did anything the Air Corps needed of them, which
Speaker 1: is things like we need to get this commander from
Speaker 1: you know St. Louis to uh Louisiana, can you give
Speaker 1: him a ride St. Louis de baton Rouge. They did
Speaker 1: that like pretty much constantly. They ferried UM supplies around,
Speaker 1: they ferried people around. That was a huge part of
Speaker 1: the war for here at home by the c a P.
Speaker 1: Here's a cool thing that they did that also sounds frightening.
Speaker 1: They would tow what's called target gliders for anti aircraft guns.
Speaker 1: So you're a plane, you're in your little uh, single
Speaker 1: engine plane, your civilian you were pulling behind you a
Speaker 1: glider that big guns on the ground are taking target
Speaker 1: practice at. Yeah, hopefully with a really long toe line.
Speaker 1: I wonder how long that could be though, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it almost seems mean spirited that assignment. Who did
Speaker 1: that fall to? You know, the guy who drove the
Speaker 1: uh the driving range of golf ball pick up Volkswagen. Oh,
Speaker 1: they yeah, he'd be prepared for that kind That's exactly
Speaker 1: who did it. I'll bet you're right. So that was
Speaker 1: a huge one. Um. Apparently an equal amount to the
Speaker 1: danger of being shot out of the sky accidentally. Um
Speaker 1: in that assignment was also accidentally looking into the searchlights
Speaker 1: that they used in these training exercises, because at least
Speaker 1: one pilot was blinded by them and crashed from being
Speaker 1: I guess disoriented afterwards. Here's one final mission. In Texas.
Speaker 1: The Civil Air Patrol was charged with culling the wolf population.
Speaker 1: So apparently it, you know, would reduce pressure on the
Speaker 1: cattle herds that these wolves were killing, and they needed
Speaker 1: this this beef to feed soldiers and citizens. So they said,
Speaker 1: get up there in your planes and start shooting at wolves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and At first when I was reading that, I thought
Speaker 1: they were saying they needed the wolf meat to feed
Speaker 1: the troops. I was like, then I understood what it
Speaker 1: was saying. Um, but yeah, they would shoot the wolves
Speaker 1: with handguns out of their planes. That's right. I think
Speaker 1: it's said wolves instead of wolves wolves. So so World
Speaker 1: War two comes and goes, Civil Air Patrol proves its
Speaker 1: metal and the Army Air Corps is dissolved and basedically
Speaker 1: turned into the Air Force. Air Force came after World
Speaker 1: World War two. Um, and it was from what I understand,
Speaker 1: kind of a bit of like hot potato afterward to where, um,
Speaker 1: no one really wanted the Civil Air Patrol right because
Speaker 1: one of these a law that was basically passed HR
Speaker 1: forty four, which is really significant to you if you're
Speaker 1: in the Civil Air Patrol. It basically said, no, the
Speaker 1: air the Civil Air Patrol isn't going anywhere. We're going
Speaker 1: to establish its its existence under law, but we are
Speaker 1: never ever going to arm them again. That's just not
Speaker 1: gonna happen. Let's just not speak of this anymore. Let's
Speaker 1: pretend it never happened. But no one's ever gonna drop
Speaker 1: a bomb again with the Civil Air Patrol and so
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem like they were particularly sought after, but
Speaker 1: they ended up falling under the um the command of
Speaker 1: the Air Force after it was established, and bounced around
Speaker 1: a little way a few places within the Air Force
Speaker 1: and then finally landed in the Air Combat Division. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, post war, they really really made their
Speaker 1: name and continue to make their name with search and rescue. Uh,
Speaker 1: if you're lost in the woods, or if they're natural
Speaker 1: disasters or big weather events, um, then the Civil Air
Speaker 1: Patrol is likely to be involved. There was a big
Speaker 1: earthquake in Alaska, n where um, the the Alaskan Civil
Speaker 1: Air Patrol and this was where Roderick was in the
Speaker 1: Civil Air Patrol in Alaska. Yeah, that's where he's from.
Speaker 1: But this was sixty four, so he would have been
Speaker 1: just a little kid then, um, if not even alive
Speaker 1: yet actually, so I don't think he was in that one.
Speaker 1: He may have just been a glean. But their Civil
Speaker 1: Air patrols, hangar and planes were all destroyed. So volunteers,
Speaker 1: you know, got it together, got eleven private planes started
Speaker 1: flying supplies in there, and um, these were good you know,
Speaker 1: these are good pilots and these aircraft did things that
Speaker 1: military aircraft couldn't do a lot of times. Well that's
Speaker 1: where that's where they're The role of the civil air
Speaker 1: patrol and search and rescue really kind of came became obvious,
Speaker 1: like almost out of the gate because they were doing
Speaker 1: searching air rescues during World War Two as well. Um,
Speaker 1: the just the fact that their planes weren't fighter jets
Speaker 1: was a huge advantage for them in search and rescue
Speaker 1: because you want to fly lower and you want to
Speaker 1: fly slower when you're looking for somebody. So the fact
Speaker 1: that you have these this group of you know, tens
Speaker 1: of thousands of civilians who are either flying, flying instructors
Speaker 1: learning to fly, have their own planes um partially funded
Speaker 1: by by taxpayers for even more planes. UM, that's a
Speaker 1: really great resource to be able to tap into. When
Speaker 1: something happens in disaster strikes and you want to look
Speaker 1: for people, you just say, hey, can you guys go
Speaker 1: search for you know, these people, or go fly around
Speaker 1: this floodplane see if there's anybody on um any rooftops
Speaker 1: and then radio it in. That was a huge role
Speaker 1: and probably the most prominent role that civil air patrol
Speaker 1: still holds today is in search and rescue. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they didn't. You know, they don't just fly around and
Speaker 1: radio it down all. They certainly do that. They are
Speaker 1: very active and in all manner and all parts of
Speaker 1: the search. Um they are you know, many of them
Speaker 1: cross train and like horseback riding and cross country skiing,
Speaker 1: across fit across fit of course. Uh so they you know,
Speaker 1: they can kind of they can kind of do it all. Um.
Speaker 1: Now they have these what's called cell phone forensic teams
Speaker 1: and they can analyze cell phone tower pings and topo
Speaker 1: maps and it's it's become a much more sophisticated, um
Speaker 1: sort of search and rescue, largely because of the Civil
Speaker 1: Air Patrol. Right, But ironically, some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: some of the talents and expertise they've developed in this
Speaker 1: search and rescue area, like have nothing to do with planes,
Speaker 1: and so they might assist in a search and rescue
Speaker 1: without ever taking the air in some cases. But they
Speaker 1: still had their cool uniform, sure, and they still march
Speaker 1: when they're told to. Should we take a break? Sure,
Speaker 1: all right, We're gonna take another break and talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the evolution of the c
Speaker 1: a P. So, like I said, Chuck. They were shuffled
Speaker 1: around after World War Two and then um, they're still
Speaker 1: under and and you know, kind of linked to the
Speaker 1: Air Force. Um, but they are definitely civilian, like all civilian. Um,
Speaker 1: you can't get into the Air Force. And they do
Speaker 1: have this kind of quasi military structure. They have ranks
Speaker 1: and things like that, but the ranks that they have
Speaker 1: are strictly limited to the civil Air Patrol. Like if
Speaker 1: you become I think the highest you can become in
Speaker 1: the civil Air Patrol is a major general, that would
Speaker 1: not translate over to the Air Force. Like you wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to move to the Air Force and be
Speaker 1: like I'm a major general. They'd be like, let's uh,
Speaker 1: let's reset things show right. Um. But like I said,
Speaker 1: if you start to work your way up in the
Speaker 1: civil Air Patrol, you can transfer over to the Air
Speaker 1: Force with some credit. Like it's not like it's just
Speaker 1: a complete waste of time if you want to go
Speaker 1: into the Air Force. But um, and I think five
Speaker 1: they got their first non military commander, first civilian commander,
Speaker 1: and that really kind of set the tone from what
Speaker 1: I understand for this kind of division between the military
Speaker 1: Air Force and the civilian volunteer civil air Patrol. They
Speaker 1: that really kind of forever divided that line saying you
Speaker 1: got can have your ranks and your you guys march
Speaker 1: all you want and call each other's sir and salute,
Speaker 1: but your civilian and an auxiliary. Yeah. And like you said,
Speaker 1: they're under the Air Force still and ironically, um, the
Speaker 1: specific division of the Air Force there under the direction
Speaker 1: of now is the Air Combat Command, even though they
Speaker 1: cannot be used in combat. Uh, you're not gonna get
Speaker 1: paid even eight dollars a day anymore. It is full
Speaker 1: volunteer at this point. Um. In fact, you have to
Speaker 1: pay dues, membership dues every year, and you have to
Speaker 1: pay for your own uniform. Uh. And if you really
Speaker 1: want to go at large, you can just buy fake
Speaker 1: epaulets and medals. And you really, I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you can. You probably get made fun of her, yell
Speaker 1: at whatever. It sounds like I'm making fun of civil
Speaker 1: Air Patrollers, and I'm certainly not, because well, they definitely
Speaker 1: are great, and the idea and the whole purposes is
Speaker 1: pretty great. But I definitely from reading about, like you know,
Speaker 1: people who had been in it and some of their
Speaker 1: when they were asked online like what did you what
Speaker 1: was your experience? I get the impression that there is
Speaker 1: a uh an element of blow hardness among some people
Speaker 1: in the Civil Air Patrol. Whereas some are there to
Speaker 1: like learn to fly and for the love of flying
Speaker 1: and or because they do want to go into the
Speaker 1: Air Force, there are people there who might abuse their
Speaker 1: rank or status in the Civil Air Patrol that you schmucks.
Speaker 1: There are schmucks there for from what I understand here
Speaker 1: there although it doesn't seem to be systemat sucks everywhere.
Speaker 1: Um So, like I said at the beginning, there are
Speaker 1: a nonprofit and there are a few people to get
Speaker 1: paid a salary. Obviously, when you get to the administration,
Speaker 1: the national level, you're gonna have to pay some people
Speaker 1: to run this thing. Um. The Air Force does pay
Speaker 1: expenses if they are asked to performed mission so well.
Speaker 1: Plus also, if you're on a mission and something happens
Speaker 1: to you, you are at that moment covered by the
Speaker 1: military's life insurance, so your family is well cared for
Speaker 1: after that. Yeah, it's a very good point. Actually, Um,
Speaker 1: the member dues do pay for some planes, for some equipment,
Speaker 1: some fuel, hangar, space, maintenance, stuff like that. Right now,
Speaker 1: there are about five hundred and thirty single engine planes
Speaker 1: and the Civil Air Patrol in the United States. A
Speaker 1: lot of these are those. Uh, And I'm getting more
Speaker 1: and more into planes lately. The more we've talked about
Speaker 1: these planes, You're getting so old, dude. I must be
Speaker 1: because I looked at Assessina one seventy two and I
Speaker 1: was like, I mean, does that seat how much does
Speaker 1: that cost? Really? Like, wow, well, no, I can't afford
Speaker 1: it buy a plane. That's That's what I'm saying. Like
Speaker 1: having that thought, you've threshold, like there's you know, planes
Speaker 1: are cool, Let's go to a museum to see a plane.
Speaker 1: How much would it cost for me to buy this
Speaker 1: plane and fly at myself. That's the transition, and the
Speaker 1: transition to is the thoughts of like, you know, when
Speaker 1: when Emily and I are retired and Ruby lives somewhere,
Speaker 1: it sure would be nice to just hop in the
Speaker 1: Cessna and fly out and see her. Sure that is
Speaker 1: like the oldest of old man talk. But then I
Speaker 1: saw there like two d dollars. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe you're like, maybe I can buy one of them
Speaker 1: houses with the fly up driveways. Like John Travolta. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, dude, he has his own passenger airliner. Yeah
Speaker 1: it's crazy. Well he's also rather wealthy, that's true. Uh
Speaker 1: So there are more than uh four thousand planes though
Speaker 1: used in any given year. Um so, I guess that's
Speaker 1: the official fleet that the Civil Air Patrol runs. Right,
Speaker 1: But if you are a member of the Civil Air
Speaker 1: Patrol and you have your own plane, they'll be like,
Speaker 1: can you bring your plane along? We need to use
Speaker 1: it for the search and rescue. Right. And they don't
Speaker 1: just do sour stuff. They work, um also with the
Speaker 1: Forestry Service and the d e A. They look out
Speaker 1: for forest fires, they conducts land surveys. They started to
Speaker 1: do more and more um flies over farms in Kentucky,
Speaker 1: if you know what I'm saying, to see what they're growing. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they started in I think the Customs and Border Patrol
Speaker 1: said hey, um, how would you guys like to look
Speaker 1: for marijuana plants to prevent marijuana cigarettes from being smoked
Speaker 1: by me? And yeah, they jumped on it. I read
Speaker 1: an article this is this is so Civil Air Patrol
Speaker 1: the idea of like getting to to prevent drugs from
Speaker 1: hitting the streets. Um, they they I guess the whoever
Speaker 1: was interviewed, I didn't catch you it was, but an
Speaker 1: official at the Civil Air Patrol, like in the higher
Speaker 1: up in the national organization probably said something like they
Speaker 1: they helped get a billion dollars worth of drugs, which is,
Speaker 1: of course, like the manufacturers suggests a retail product um
Speaker 1: of drugs off of the street in two thousand and seventeen,
Speaker 1: and that they were on track to hit about the
Speaker 1: same number in two thousand and eighteen. That's it's a
Speaker 1: lot of marijuana cigarettes. Yeah, I can't help I probably
Speaker 1: shouldn't even just say this. I gotta hear it. We
Speaker 1: can edit it out later. Who the standard ground guy
Speaker 1: in Florida? Oh um, oh man, George Zimmerman. Yeah, some
Speaker 1: of this sounds a little bit like that, like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not a copper in the military, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: play like I am. I want to bust drug dealers. Well,
Speaker 1: that actually made me wonder do they do they patrol
Speaker 1: the southern border? I think they looking for I couldn't
Speaker 1: see anything that said they did. Well, it said they did.
Speaker 1: They patrolled the southern border in World War Two looking
Speaker 1: for seven tours entering that's that's what triggered out, Like,
Speaker 1: well wait a minute, that plus you know busting you
Speaker 1: know pot growers do they do? They look for UM
Speaker 1: people crossing the border illegally, and I didn't see anything
Speaker 1: about them being used for that that might use it
Speaker 1: could be. Yeah, they don't report that. But it was
Speaker 1: hilarious the the guy interviewed maybe the major general who
Speaker 1: was talking about how they got a billion dollars they
Speaker 1: helped with getting a billion dollars of drugs off the streets. UM.
Speaker 1: They were saying, we don't talk about that very much.
Speaker 1: We don't release press releases because we don't want UM
Speaker 1: to basically step on the d e A S operations
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But trust us, that's how much
Speaker 1: we get off of the streets. It was pretty cute.
Speaker 1: They also work in just general UM aerospace and flying
Speaker 1: education and advocacy. They do lectures and seminars, They put
Speaker 1: together training manuals online, just trying to advance aviation and
Speaker 1: the knowledge and love of aviation and Chuck. I also
Speaker 1: saw in another article some other stuff that they do
Speaker 1: is just pretty interesting. UM that is much more tied
Speaker 1: to the military. So you remember there under like the
Speaker 1: Combat Division. Um, well, the Combat Division puts them to
Speaker 1: pretty good use sometimes, like if you are flying a
Speaker 1: drone under f A regulations, that drone has to be
Speaker 1: escorted by human in a plane over um over regular airspace,
Speaker 1: nonmilitary airs base and so to get out of the
Speaker 1: United States, a drone usually has to fly over non
Speaker 1: military airspace. And so one of the things that the
Speaker 1: Civilian Air Patrol does is they escort drones, which means
Speaker 1: that that's something that the military doesn't have to do.
Speaker 1: And for just one base with the drone escorts they provided,
Speaker 1: this commander figured that they saved the military something like
Speaker 1: four grand a year by doing this. Grottis basically they
Speaker 1: also survey military training routes, so they basically fly over
Speaker 1: the routes that test pilots are going to fly to
Speaker 1: make sure that somebody hasn't put up power lines since
Speaker 1: the last time they used them. Um. They they simulate
Speaker 1: flyers that have accidentally entered restricted airspace for intercept training,
Speaker 1: which has got to be kind of neat um and
Speaker 1: that they're they're actually learning to fly drones themselves now too,
Speaker 1: which is probably a pretty in demand skill if you're
Speaker 1: somebody going into the Air Force these days. I think
Speaker 1: it's adorable that they saved the military food dollars a year.
Speaker 1: But well that was just one base too. But yeah,
Speaker 1: he even he had enough self awareness that he was
Speaker 1: saying like, yeah, I think he called it budget dust,
Speaker 1: but he said, you know, it's it's still counts budget dust.
Speaker 1: I love that half a million bucks is budget dust. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then they have their cadet program. We mentioned earlier about cadets.
Speaker 1: This is if you are under the age of eighteen,
Speaker 1: you can still be in their cadet program. Once you're
Speaker 1: over eighteen. Um, you know, you don't have to do
Speaker 1: this until you're twenty one, but you can at eighteen, uh,
Speaker 1: turn into a what's called a senior, which I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting that a seer could be like nineteen, right,
Speaker 1: I can actually I found out why because that seems
Speaker 1: kind of weird, doesn't it. What that they're called seniors.
Speaker 1: Well that so if you enter in your over eighteen,
Speaker 1: you have to be a you're have to be considered
Speaker 1: a senior. But if you enter the Civilian Air Patrol
Speaker 1: before you're eighteen, you can wait to become a senior
Speaker 1: till your twenty one. And the reason why is because
Speaker 1: you can get hammered when you get that rank you
Speaker 1: get right, you just keep putting it off. It's called
Speaker 1: delayed gratification. UM. You can get your training to get
Speaker 1: your pilots license through the Civilian Air Patrol for basically
Speaker 1: like half price of what you would pay a flight school.
Speaker 1: And it was it's such a great deal that flight
Speaker 1: schools complained to the government and so this is unfair competition.
Speaker 1: So there's a rule with the Civilian Air Patrol that
Speaker 1: if you enter the Civilian Air Patrol over the age
Speaker 1: of eighteen, you are automatically considered a senior and you
Speaker 1: do not qualify for instruction to get your pilot's license.
Speaker 1: If you start before then and you start getting your
Speaker 1: pilots license, you can delay being considered a senior till
Speaker 1: your twenty one, so you have an extra couple of
Speaker 1: years to complete your training to get your pilots license
Speaker 1: at half price. That's the reason why you can delay
Speaker 1: being a senior until your twenty one. Sounds like quite
Speaker 1: a deal. Yeah, it is half price. Everybody loves half price. Uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, like we mentioned earlier, just to kind
Speaker 1: of put a cap on it, the UM, the cadets.
Speaker 1: It is a bit like boy Scouts meets r otc um.
Speaker 1: They get to actually get in planes. Like if you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a kid, if you've gotta be twelve years old,
Speaker 1: but if you are interested in flying and getting your
Speaker 1: license or going into the air force, um, you can
Speaker 1: you can train, and you can uh get yourself up
Speaker 1: in the ranking system through the years, and you can
Speaker 1: get seat time and planes and get flying experience, learn
Speaker 1: to fly drones. It's a big one. Yeah. So uh,
Speaker 1: I think it's like a pretty cool program for kids
Speaker 1: to get into. Yeah. And if drug dealers just make
Speaker 1: you so mad you can't even see straight, it's another
Speaker 1: thing you can do, that's right, get rid of that. Uh,
Speaker 1: you got anything else? Got nothing else? John Roddey and
Speaker 1: never responded, So I'm just gonna go with his one statement,
Speaker 1: which was, I'm a proud veteran. This is al Air Patrol. Well,
Speaker 1: thank for almost nothing, John Rodders. Great story. Uh. If
Speaker 1: you want to know more about the Civil Air Patrol, well,
Speaker 1: then go join the Civil Air Patrol. Uh. And since
Speaker 1: I said that, everybody, it's time for listener, ma'am. This
Speaker 1: is from a fellow Toledo in josh. Oh. Yes, hey guys,
Speaker 1: I'm a Spanish teacher and a second language acquisition NERD.
Speaker 1: In a recent episode, you guys mentioned that you're not
Speaker 1: fluent in the second language until you dream in that language. Uh, chuck,
Speaker 1: I remember I said I had heard that before. Um.
Speaker 1: As romantic and poetic as this sounds, it's totally made up,
Speaker 1: which is what I figured. UM. Also, later in the episode,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that someone who learns the second language as
Speaker 1: an adult will never reach the fluency of a native speaker.
Speaker 1: This is true sort of. It depends on your definition
Speaker 1: of fluency. Though. Speakers of English is the second language
Speaker 1: who have been in an English speaking country for years
Speaker 1: or even decades will still have an accent, make mistakes
Speaker 1: in word order, or have trouble with the vocabulary. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the end, I argue that fluency is overrated and
Speaker 1: what we should focus on is proficiency. Being hyper focused
Speaker 1: on becoming quote fluent end quote leads people to be
Speaker 1: paralyzed when speaking, and they'll spend years studying a language
Speaker 1: but never be confident in their abilities to ever use it. Uh.
Speaker 1: Side note, even though this dream thing is a myth,
Speaker 1: I totally still celebrate with my students when they come
Speaker 1: in and tell me about having dreams in Spanish, even
Speaker 1: if it's not true. Uh, it's still fun when kids
Speaker 1: feel confident, and I'd lead them to believe it is true.
Speaker 1: Looking forward to future podcast guys Lisa and Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 1: Hi Josh, Go Rockets, Hi Lisa, Go Rockets and go
Speaker 1: mud Hens and go Falcons. What are the Rockets? Toledo
Speaker 1: Rockets the University of Toledo. Okay, Yeah, because you know
Speaker 1: Taleda is so well known for its space program. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know why they're called the Rockets. Now that
Speaker 1: they think about it, I'm ashamed. Who knows. Well, Thanks
Speaker 1: a lot, Lisa, And if you want to be cool
Speaker 1: like Lisa or like me and say you're from Toledo,
Speaker 1: whether you are or not, it's fine. We probably won't
Speaker 1: check bonnet. You can get in touch with us myriad ways. Um.
Speaker 1: You can go onto our website stuff you Should Know
Speaker 1: dot com and check out our social links, or you
Speaker 1: can send us an email to stuff podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeart Radios. How Stuff Works. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: for my Heart Radio viasitt the iHeart radio, app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.