Civil Air Patrol to Host OPGO!2010

June 15, 2010 - PRLog -- Contact:          Kevin Jarchow, 1Lt Civil Air Patrol
       Public Affairs Officer
                        Operation GO! 2010
       KJ2602@yahoo.com

May 14, 2010

OPGO! 2010 to be held on June 19th, 2010.

Paul C. Miller/Sparta Airport will host annual Civil Air Patrol event.

Sparta, Mich –  About 50 members of the Western Michigan Group of the Civil Air Patrol will be hosting OPGO!2010 at the Paul C. Miller/Sparta Airport. The event will be open to the general public from 9am to 3pm on Saturday, June 19th.

OPGO!2010 is an open house, skills demonstration and flight day all rolled into one.

Included in the agenda are a model rocketry display and demonstration, aerospace education briefings, search and rescue demonstrations, plus much more.

As part of the activities, CAP will feature both glider and powered –aircraft orientation rides for Civil Air Patrol cadets.

Sparta Fire Department will be on hand to display their equipment and answer questions about their services.

The Salvation Army will also be on site to provide lunch and snacks.

The focus this year will be on the glider orientation rides. “Last year we were disappointed that weather prevented us from getting the glider to the airport. So far the weather looks good for this year’s event,” according to 1Lt Kevin Jarchow, Public Affairs Officer for OPGO!2010.

Jarchow went on to say that “Civil Air Patrol gives young people and adults the opportunity to serve America in a remarkable number of ways. Adult members and cadets are trained in search and rescue skills and aerospace education.”

CAP, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a non-profit organization with more than 56,000 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 103 lives in fiscal year 2007. 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 the nearly 22,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 66 years. For information, go to www.cap.gov.

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The Grand Rapids Senior Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol is dedicated to the CAP missions of Emergency Services, Aerospace Education and Cadet Programs. We conduct airborne and surface based search and rescue operations in support of our assigned missions