Jack’s connection to flight goes back to a childhood spent tracking the Apollo program. He built two cardboard spacecrafts of his own, named Charlie Brown and Snoopy, and shadowed the Apollo 10 rehearsal for the moon landing.
That early fascination found a home decades later in the Civil Air Patrol, where he now holds the rank of Major.
He’s reached Level 5 and earned the Gill Robb Wilson Award, CAP’s highest recognition for senior member professional development, the kind of honor that comes only from investing in both leadership and personal growth within the organization. His CAPstone project was designing an educational program on bringing sustainability to the Civil Air Patrol.
CAPstone Project
Jack also serves as a volunteer university instructor across all five CAP instructor levels, holds a Master Aerospace rating, and is currently working toward Master Safety, Senior Emergency Services, Senior Education and Training, and Cadet Programs ratings, the same stack-of-credentials pattern that runs through everything else he’s built.
As a Safety Officer, Jack has taken part in a long list of CAP activities and training events:
· Aerospace Week at Kennedy Space Center
· EAA meeting trip
· Pre-Encampment Weekend
· Black Spade Wilderness
· Wing Honor Guard
· Wing Cadet Competition
· Wing RCLS week
· NC Wing Encampment
· MAR Honor Guard
· MAR CLS
· Assistant Administrator, Wing Ranger School
He also attended Expedition 36, Space Academy for Educators, in Huntsville, Alabama. Of the fifteen educators in his group, most had joined CAP to get access to STEM material like this.
He’s a Certified Senior Technical Manager through the Association of Technical Management and Applied Engineering, and on the flying side he’s a student pilot and hang glider pilot, has completed private pilot ground school, and holds a 107b remote pilot certification for drones.
All of it builds on a foundation laid years earlier as an EMT and an American Red Cross Instructor Trainer Educator for first responders and lifeguards. For Jack, CAP Aerospace isn’t a new interest — it’s a lifelong one that finally has an organization built around it, letting him share the enthusiasm he’s had since he was a kid gluing together cardboard rockets.
