A few weeks ago, while doing some research, I stumbled upon an emperor I knew nothing about. A fellow named Silbannacus, who lived early in the third century AD. We don’t know much about this man, but the experts believe that he was a soldier who tried to become emperor through political maneuvering. That would have happened around 250 AD. What's interesting is the very fact that we don’t know much about him – we’re not even sure of his full name, though some authorities call him Marcus Silbannacus. In fact, the only way we even know he existed at all is because of two coins (and a third one of dubious authenticity), each an antoninianus, worth about two denarii. These were discovered in the late twentieth century – the last one in 1996 – bearing his portrait and inscriptions indicating that he was Emperor. (Click on the coin's image for a larger image and historical details.)

Were it not for these two coins, found at different European locations, we would never have heard of Silbannacus. History had simply forgotten him. (For a Roman, to be forgotten was the ultimate insult.) However, he was rediscovered nearly two thousand years later, when someone dug up a little piece of metal that had his name stamped on it. So why would the Romans, so well known for their record keeping excellence, have written nothing about a man who, even if for a very short time, had worn the Roman Imperial robes of purple and even had coinage minted in his name?

All I can offer is speculation, but here it is. I think Silbannacus was a man of low character and capability, unworthy of being an emperor (some historians call him an usurper). He appears to have made his way to the top in the old fashioned way – by climbing over dead bodies. He was a politically motivated man, not really looking out for the best interests of his citizens, or of the Roman Empire itself. In fact, it would seem that he was only interested in getting his way. And even though he evidently did manage that – at least for a short while –, he was ultimately swept into the dustbin of history. Silbannacus was not great. He did nothing great. All he did was scheme. And after being wiped off the stage of life, he was omitted from the record.

Since the Roman Empire no longer exists, none of us can ever hope to be a Roman emperor, nor is it very likely that we’ll ever have coins minted in our name, but we do have the opportunity to take a hard look at ourselves and decide whether we can achieve greatness as individuals.

In CAP, we are given the opportunity to serve our fellow man in a way that other volunteer organizations rarely provide. In our dedication to excellence in the performance of that service, I know that each one of us can achieve personal greatness. 

Every year, hundreds of natural disasters – ranging from blizzards and wildfires to hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding – wreak havoc on families, homes and entire communities across America. Often times, people are reminded to take action to prepare before these events happen, but sometimes they occur without warning. Our lives can be changed in an instant by a number of different emergencies, and we are constantly reminded of this each time we watch the news.

Yet, too many Americans have not taken steps to prepare. There are simple steps each of us can take to prepare before an emergency happens, and as a response organization, Civil Air Patrol members need to do their part to prepare not only themselves, but those around them. Emergencies will happen, but taking action now can help us minimize the impact they will have on our lives.

That's why this September – National Preparedness Month – is all about helping individuals, families, businesses and communities to take action! September is an ideal time for individuals and families to update their emergency supply kits and family emergency plans, and to become better informed about different threats and local emergency plans.  Many things can change over the course of a year, and it is imperative that your entire family have the most up-to-date emergency contact information and a family emergency plan as children head back to school. It's about talking to your families and figuring out what you should do if an emergency happens in your community. Where will you meet? What emergency supplies will you need and where should you keep them? 

This nationwide effort is to encourage individuals and families to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools. Throughout September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will work with a wide variety of organizations like the Civil Air Patrol to highlight the importance of emergency preparedness and promote individual involvement through events and activities across the nation, such as first aid training, town hall meetings and much more. Many CAP units have already scheduled events, and many more will be scheduled in the coming weeks. The themes for each week are:

Week 1 – September 1-8: Back-to-school / Ready Kids

Week 2 – September 915: Business preparedness / Ready Business

Week 3 – September 16-22: Multicultural preparedness

Week 4 – September 23-30: Home and family preparedness

This week, I would like to encourage you to do one of the simplest things that individuals and families can do to be prepared: develop or update your family emergency plan. To develop one you should ask yourselves some important questions such as, "In the event of an emergency, is there a safe place for my family to meet even if we are separated?" This is especially important if you aren't allowed back into your home or neighborhood. "What is the evacuation location and plan of my child's school?" "Does my child's school know the best way to reach me in an emergency, and do I know how to reach my child's school in case of a family emergency?" "Does everyone in the family have one another's contact information and the contact for an out-of-town relative to take roll-call?" If you have a plan already, review it again, and make sure that your entire family really knows the plan.

Free preparedness resources are just a click away at www.ready.gov. The site has information about the simple steps you can take to prepare and provides templates such as a Family Emergency Plan and an Emergency Supply Checklist. There are also special sections for kids, ages 8-12, (Ready Kids) and small- to medium-sized businesses (Ready Business).

Our beloved Chaplain (Maj) Ron Whitt has accepted the position of Texas Wing Chaplain, which had been briefly vacant as a result of Chaplain (Lt Col) Nancy Smalley's acceptance of her new post at Southwest Region. Rather than abandoning Group III, Ch. Whitt has now embraced all of Texas Wing. A larger flock is his.

So for this month, since a replacement for Ch. Whitt has not been found, I've selected a message written by U.S. Air Force Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Charles C. Baldwin, Air Force Chaplain Service, on the subject of "A Rich Heritage of Religious Freedom and Respect."

The 77th Infantry Division was activated on 18 August 1917, fought in Europe during WW I, and in the Pacific during WW II. From the start it was a reserve division, composed largely of draftees, most of whom were drawn from the New York City area. The division’s shoulder patch is a golden Statue of Liberty on an elongated blue trapezoid, a symbol that unified as diverse a cross-section of the population as you could get. Its nickname, of course, is “The Statue of Liberty Division.”

In 1945, an American reporter joined the division just before the battle of Ie Shima. There, a fierce engagement took place, and the reporter was killed in an ambush, literally riddled by machine-gun fire. After the battle had been won, and in their sorrow – since they had grown to like and love this easy-going civilian – the soldiers put up a simple plaque reading, "At this spot, the 77th Infantry Division lost a Buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945." (A war correspondent ranked as "Captain" in the military; the title "Buddy" was measured on a different scale.) The division was inactivated on 15 March 1945 in Japan, but lives on in Fort Totten, NY as a reserve installation. In the lobby of the headquarters building, respectfully displayed on an otherwise bare wall, a replica of the Ie Shima plaque greets the visitor and keeps alive the memory of a great man.

At this wall, I have had the honor of keeping a moment of silence. More than once.

Serving in the Civil Air Patrol seems cushy by comparison. No ambushes, no raging battles, no devastating bombardments, no weapons of mass destruction. Yet, this month, on 20 August 2007, the Civil Air Patrol lost three buddies. They were not the first, nor will they be the last. They simply joined the ranks of those we have lost in the line of duty, unheralded, alone, and sorrowfully missed. When their Cessna 182 crashed in mountainous terrain, Lt. Col. James H. Henderson, Sr. Mbr. James R. Meyer, and Capt. Patricia A. Larson died instantly.

Who were they? The cold statistics tell us that the pilot, Lt. Col. James H. Henderson, was 52, lived in Cowley, Wyo., and was a member of the Wyoming Wing Headquarters. One of his crew members was Sr. Mbr. James R. Meyer, age 53, who lived in Sheridan, Wyo., and was a member of the Wyoming Wing's Cloud Peak Composite Squadron. The third person lost on that day, crew member Capt. Patricia A. Larson, was 52; she, too, lived in Sheridan, Wyo., and was a member of Wyoming Wing Headquarters as well.

Two men, one woman, searching for a missing 16-year-old who later was found by someone else, unharmed. Two men, one woman, three lives snuffed out in an instant when their CAP aircraft crashed in heavily forested, rough terrain. Two men, one woman, each of whom had a complete life, with acquaintances, friends, likes, dislikes, hobbies, families, fellow-workers, neighbors, community activities… Two men, one woman, whose thread of existence touched countless others. Two men, one woman, dedicated to helping others.

WAXAHACHIE, TX – On 18-19 August 2007, for the first time, Texas Wing ran a decentralized Wide Area Exercise (WAX) that met with good initial results. For the last few years, the wing had been practicing the Distributed Search and Rescue Exercise (DSAREX) concept, where a central Command Post coordinated the actions of one or more remote Staging Areas, each with a Staging Area Manager. This represented an improvement over the previous concept, which called for concentrating all assets at a single location, then operating from that location as a single mission base with a single incident commander

The flaw in the Distributed Command concept is that "targets of opportunity" are often missed because the Staging Area Manager must obtain specific administrative and command authorization before executing them. On the other hand, concentration of all assets represents a waste of resources, time and effort, in a state that – at 267,000 sq. miles – is larger than many nations (New Zealand, for instance, is slightly smaller than Texas).

An improvement over the Distributed Command concept is the Area Command, where a centralized Area Command Post exists, but the Staging Areas are now replaced by Incident Command Posts (ICPs), which are considerably more autonomous. This exercise, that received overall direction from the Amarillo HQ Area Command Post (which in turn counted a collocated operational ICP among its assets), demonstrated that, although significant refinement is still necessary, Texas Wing can make the Area Command concept work.

Over the weekend, in spite of unfavorable weather, the Waxahachie ICP managed to complete 19 air sorties and 16 ground sorties. On Saturday, over 60 CAP members were signed in at the ICP in Waxahachie. The results speak for themselves – the added complexity of being a very large state with a wing that has almost 80 squadrons can be managed effectively.

During a sortie, these aerial photos of the Spring Creek Crossing bridge, spanning Grove Creek in North Waxahachie, were taken in order to establish whether the bridge might suffer damage from rising waters – a consequence of recent torrential rains that had fallen upstream. (Photos: 1st Lt Kelly Castillo)

Located in the Group III area, the Waxahachie ICP, at the Mid-Way Regional Airport in Midlothian, had the following squadrons participating – Black Sheep Composite Squadron (CS) of Mesquite, Addison Eagles CS, Crusader CS of Grand Prairie, Gregg County CS, Kittinger Phantom Senior Squadron of Austin, Waxahachie Talon CS, Tyler CS, and Red Oak Cadet Squadron, all from Group III. Also participating was the Mineral Wells "Phoenix" CS, near Ft Worth and part of Group II.

Lt Col Owen Younger, the Incident Commander at the Waxahachie ICP, said, "This month’s Wide Area Exercise is very important, because Hurricane Dean could pose a serious threat to Texas, and this could well become a dress rehearsal for Texas Wing's coming missions."

(Parts of this article were contributed by 1st Lt Kelly Castillo, Black Sheep CS PAO.)

At the PAO Academy, in Atlanta, CAP's new branding was unveiled. No more "Performing missions for America" – now, it's "More than meets the skies." In an impassioned display of people savvy and pride of accomplishment, this new theme was presented to us as the result of National's PA and Marketing long work. Some attendees liked it, some didn't. I've got to be honest: I wasn't too hot on it myself, but decided to give it a chance. (Did you notice this newsletter's masthead? And this website's masthead, too? That pretty and discrete, "More than meets the skies..." with an added ellipsis, in imitation of "Performing missions for America..."?)

I caught my flight back to Austin and, unexpectedly, got upgraded to first class. I was still wearing my short-sleeve blues, so I guess that at the check-in gate they saw a fellow "air person" in me, and took pity. I thanked them, of course. Whatever the reason, I still didn't get a meal (no one did), but got my choice of drink for relaxation (Chardonnay, please). Cushy big seat, too, covered in plush leather (leatherette?). Then, back at home, business as usual. Hurricane Dean formed, the Hurricane Dean Task Force was created, and I was tapped for Information Officer. The work to get the equipment and personnel out of the way got started, as we prepared to meet the challenge, with thousands of details to take care of. Preparing to face a hurricane is not an easy job, nor is it simple. It takes a good team to get it done.

The IO has a great job, though, able to pick the best points, play the crowd, and cater to the weeklies and Sunday supplements. Not the dailies, I'm afraid. By the time your news release has been written, the reporters already have read the same sources you have, and they're going to press. By the time your copy is approved and you can e-mail it away, the papers are on the stands or bundled on the sidewalks. You can't win that race. So I shoot for the weeklies and Sunday supplements instead. And for that you need more than news; you need a story. A story with people in it, and at least the possibility of danger, and a good dollop of community service.

Most of the arguments against "More than meets the skies" centered on, "But what does that mean?" Well, folks, it means what you want it to mean. And in the publishing business, your article needs a good hook. I looked around for one, and with all the chatter about the new branding still fresh on my mind, with everyone pro-ing and con-ing the issue, I decided to take the plunge. For this one, it was going to mean, "Here we are, ready and willing, all dressed up and no place to go, with a vanishing storm that's too chicken to come and hit us" sort of thing. Not really, I'm jesting of course. The devastated Caribbean islands don't admit such levity. Those poor people in Yucatan and Mexico's mainland deserve respect. Those priceless archeological digs, first lost, then found, and now exposed so any big old hurricane can come along and mess with them would be a terrible loss to culture and heritage.

     I tend to follow my instincts. A fair number of times they pay off, and I get an article published (this one at left is a live hot-link to the San Marcos Daily Record). As a precaution, since links die, I decided to improve my chances. You might want to click here or on the picture at left for a modified hard copy, text unchanged, advertisements removed.)

ADDISON, TX – This day had been a very long time in coming; some sixty years and counting, in fact. Starting in June, 1941, and ending in 1946, against the odds, nine hundred and ninety four bright young Americans (who happened to be black) graduated from aviation training at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, Alabama, earned a U.S. Army commission and Army Air Corps silver wings, and went on to serve their country with distinction and true heart.