For the Reporter

The Green River Composite Squadron joins other units of the Civil Air Patrol throughout the country in observing the organization’s anniversary on Dec. 4, announced Lt. Col. Paul Hansen, squadron commander.

The anniversary and open house party begins at 7 p.m. at Auburn Eagles, 702 M St. SE, Auburn.

Mayor Nancy Backus will present the squadron with a proclamation declaring Dec. 1-7 as Civil Air Patrol Week in Auburn. The City of Kent is doing the same.

Cadets and senior members will speak with members of the public who may be interested in joining. There will be presentations related to each of the Civil Air Patrol’s congressionally-assigned missions: emergency services, aerospace education and cadet programs.

For more information, visit www.grcscap.com or facebook.com/grcscap.

Civil Air Patrol was founded Dec. 1, 1941, by a group of aviation enthusiasts and private pilots who wanted to donate their time and aircraft to protect the nation’s coastlines during World War II and to perform other critical civil defense missions.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 57,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC with saving 90 lives in fiscal year 2008.

Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to more than 22,000 young people, participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 67 years.

For more information, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com.