Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: Alright, we are live. Okay,

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: welcome back. It's 10:00, and we have with us the Civil Air Patrol in Vermont, and Lieutenant Colonel Scott Lau. He is going to give us a presentation on what, where, why, when, and how. And so you also have with you

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: I'm Brian Bennington. I'm the lead commander here in Vermont.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you very much for joining us. Welcome, and the floor is yours.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Thank you very much. Thank you for allowing this time for us. One of the things I'm very fond of saying is that Vermont is small, but we are mighty. And the same can be said about Civil Air Patrol. We're a small wing, but we do an awful lot. It's been two years since I've sat in front of this committee, and it seems like going yesterday, but it's a totally different universe for us. Because two years ago, we were still really feeling the effect of COVID. It was a real stomach punch for us. And it took we lost well, I don't mean died. I mean, we had attrition. We had members that just had to take care of their families, had to move on, couldn't work, put the time into it, plus it was just a little dangerous. So when I came here two years ago, I came here with a message for everyone, which is and the gist of it was that Civil Air we're kind of rebuilding our wing. And if we're going to rebuild it, why not rebuild it in a way that suits the precise needs of all the agencies within the state? The very first person that I presented that to was commissioner for public safety, which I met at the Governor's Coffee. And she directed me to this person sitting in the corner who's representing public safety here, Corey Chase, she directed me to him. And that launched a whole new revival and restructure of our wing. And so, the other thing I want to point out here is that these folks here, this is my core team. We've got, and I'll get to this in a moment here, Rutland, what this is about here, but I've got our veteran cadet ambassador on this side of the room here, and then the up and coming ones, and press relations folks. I'm really excited to have them be here, because they really are the people who make me look really good and therefore make the Wing Commander look good. So these are the real folks who get the jobs done.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Would you like to introduce

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Yes, I'm to start with, and I'll hand it off to our commander of the Burlington unit, the Champlain Composite Squadron, Lieutenant Jeff Palmer.

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: Greetings. Thank you very much. I'm Lieutenant Palmer. I'm with the newly charted Vermont fourteen in honor of Vermont. We've restructured and recharted out of Burlington over here for the entire state. So, my group, starting from across the room. Cadet Captain Ben Previch, he is my Deputy Commander at the Squadron. Cadet Air Force First Class, Kinsey. New, but mighty. He outranks me, because she knows all the generals and everybody. Have Cadet Lieutenant Neely. He is in my aerospace and heading up some of our new flight simulator programs that we're doing. Not from my squadron, but from one of our peers here in Montpelier. It is Cadet Webb. And he's been doing search and rescue activities real fast. A new senior member, senior member of Kinsey, parent of the small but mighty Unit Kinsey. And we are, like a lot said, we're the ones that are embracing the ideas and tactical ones to get it done. Thank you.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Turning it back over to you.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: Thank you. You, Lieutenant Palmer. So,

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: the two reports I handed out, which are available digitally to anybody who lets me know they need one, this is the report that we give Congress every year. And it's basically, to be kind of direct here, how do we spend money last year? It's basically what it is. And what did we accomplish? So this represents the entire organization. I want to point out, not the whole thing, but when you have time, please go through this. On page five, it talks about the, that's really the whole report right there. It's a snapshot of what our organization accomplished. And the one that I The number I want to point out there is the number of Is that backwards? It's a little different than a Lean report. Let's start off this page. But somewhere in there, it talks about the amount of money that was given to the organization versus how many volunteer hours we put in, it ended up being a 4.5 per, $4.5 return on every $1 the American taxpayer send us. And Here you go. Okay.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Mhmm. Page four. Page four.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Oh, right in front of me. Yeah. Right. We're the wrong page. It's four. Right. So the state this is a little skewed, but bear with me here, that the the the, agency of, transportation gives us $60,000 a year. And last year, and this is on the state reports, last year we returned, it was an estimated $1,300,000 of volunteer time in exchange for that 60,000 that we get from the state. So that's like a crazy number, like a 22 to one ratio. So that's the financial nickel and dime review of a report for how the money is being spent from the state here. I wanted to also draw attention here. This always embarrasses the Wayne Kannaner here, but because he's in it. He's embarrassed. He's there. Okay. But he'll still tell me that I'd never do that again. Anyway, I'm really proud of this picture. This is Carl and I spent and other officers in other locations, we spent some time with emergency management and observed how they conducted training. The idea being that we're constantly looking for how do we plug in our resources into the state agencies. And the catchphrase here that everyone's really can understand is, we are a resource multiplier. We provide personnel. We provide equipment. In fact, the thing that really triggered it with Commissioner of Public Safety is I presented my favorite mission, training mission, which is I call the 8,000 foot tower. That's where we take an airplane, you go up 8,000 feet, fly to the middle of the state, do little circles, and now the first responders have a tower to communicate with. We have a repeater inside the airplane, and now they have a communication tower simulating a complete catastrophic failure of communications for the state. You can still talk to each other with CAP flying in this mission. That's just an example. I can go on and on. The message I want to convey to you is that we have resources. We have personnel. We have got some very amazing people who've signed up. They're new energy, ready to take this stuff on. But the question is that I have for you, open question for now and all the representatives that you know might be interested, is how can we craft our resources to fit the specific needs of the state? We can train with the emergency services. Can do we can in fact, we're in the process of upgrading our communication system to be able to talk to your first responders. I can go on and on for an hour about the capacity we have. And as my main commander constantly reminds me, I keep forgetting, we're not three airplanes and two twenty people. We are 70,000 people and hundreds of airplanes. And my wing commander here, Colonel Benedict, with one phone call, can get dozens of airplanes showing up in Vermont

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: to take five sixty around the country. So if we had a problem, I can drop a dime and pull an asses from everywhere. It was a big problem. During the twenty twenty three flooding, was at a different position that I was on what we call Regent staff as a Standiva Officer. We had four aircraft over the state of Vermont from multiple states. Two of them were from here and others working from other states to do pictures that FEMA wanted during that time. So we want, I think it was three weeks, we need something like 22,000 pictures from FEMA. And we had the aircraft come from all over in Lincoln. So multiply our force week time if

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: we needed it. Maybe, could you talk a little

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: bit about our meeting with the

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: Red Cross the other day?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Could you identify yourself, please?

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: My name is Corey Chase. I'm a member of the Civil Air Patrol. I didn't wear my proper attire today. I'm also an employee of the Department of Public Safety and the Radio Technology Services Director of the Department of Public Safety. Colonel Bennington asked me to comment on a recent meeting that the American Red Cross has a relationship national on level with the Civil Air Patrol. They're currently Civil Air Patrol and Red Cross are now engaged on a local level to develop the relationships necessary to fulfill the ideals of that nationwide MOU. The kinds of things that they can do that are being worked out, the details about which are being worked out now are how American how the civil air patrol can help support the American Red Cross, shelters, emergency shelters that they have around the state. And they also can help the Red Cross to one one of the things that the Red Cross has to do to, as part of their their mission is is validate, for instance, during during recent floods, there there were initial assessments of how bad the damage was. But in order to demonstrate that that, that the the damage was, in fact, as bad as it as it appeared to have been, there needed to be boots on the ground to go and do that. And the Red Cross was was doing that, that worked boots on the ground. It it it's turned out that the the the Civil Air Patrol did support the Red Cross in that effort, but there are ways that that the Red that the Civil Air Patrol can can improve the way that they do that. And that's this recent recent meeting last week, it's an example of how we're trying to improve engagement on a local level to develop more capability.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: We are very excited that they asked to do a joint exercise with them this summer to, know, the blades are sharpened when they grow up against each other. So spent some time learning our processes, and they, us. In fact, I don't remember who was the most excited, but we have a building in Rutland that the state of Vermont built for us about thirty years ago.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: It has a huge classroom with a

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: lot of offices around it, and they didn't know that we could offer that to them as a resource to have local training. And I don't remember who was most excited on the call, said, All you do is call one of my people. We'll give you the code to the door and the bill is yours. It was funded by by a lot of money, and it's available to any emergency services that help it, but would like to use it for training or whatever, or as an EOC if there was a problem down that area. So I'm jumping on you.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Not at all. That's why he's here. But I want to pause on that. Discovered over the years, the state, practically everyone in this building forgot or didn't know that our Rutland base was built by you. By the state

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: of Vermont.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: By the state of Vermont. Yes. And is is is the only building in the hangar hangar. The only building in the state on any airport that the FAA says, Fine, go for it. Because having Boy, they are really particular. And being And saying, Hey, can we can we have our base be a multipurpose emergency services? Was set up with that advice. It was set up with that advice. And they approved it. And all the rest of them, they say no, but then it's too late for Rutland. It's already established. So the Rutland base is an auxiliary space for you. It's already there. So you get the idea. That's kind of my job. Obviously very excited about it, is to be able to bring this incredible resource multiplier in personnel and equipment and trucks and communication system, all this, to the state, and we're just here to say, what do you need us to do? So I'm not asking you for something, I'm offering something, which is we're here.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Can We're we trying to reengage with the state. There was a time prior to when my team took over that they allowed that relationship to wane over the years. And we're working really hard with these guys and with Corey's help and to rebuild the relationship with State of Washington, least you know we exist. Connecticut Altered Gas Order when they've recited says that they want to be a service to their community state and they, and we do too. Whatever we can do to help, that's what we're for.

[Cadet Capt. Ben Previch, Champlain Composite Squadron]: I'm sorry, is there a question or is?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: It's interesting and exciting to hear about your involvement with public safety and with emergency management, because that's something that we are constantly trying to, You know, it's difficult sometimes budget wise and people wise to figure out on a state level. And so it's nice to know that you're collaborating because it's important that we have that. I mean, hopefully we won't have more floods or fires or anything.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: It's You're behind the tenth, right? If we're the worst about July 10.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Yeah, right. I know. But unfortunately,

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: it seems like it might let's hope it's not an annual occasion. But it is good to

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: know that you're there and that we have that as a resource. It's really

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: important. And we can reach across state boundaries, like I said, just make a call, we can pull up from systems.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: The folks that are met during the National Guard Open House, folks that are involved with forest fires, preventing and dealing with them, came to us and said actually, I'll be honest with you. They came to us and said, we don't have money for this, but it's like, that's happened. You don't have to come with us with money. Come to us with a problem.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Well, that's something state government likes to hear. Thank you.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Right. I'm sure I'm

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: all concerned. I'm still going to be asking somebody for some

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: money. The

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: idea is that we're more interested in that. And they wanted we talked about it in very high speed, and they want someone can you have people man the towers? And the ultimate goal was and this is my favorite example. The ultimate goal is they want to be able to do air sorties with the National Guard. Big problem. The National Guard doesn't want us anywhere near. They don't want to have helicopters flying next to our fixed wing airplanes. But my point is, give us the problem. We'll sort it out. So if someone says no to you, we're not saying no. We're saying, hand it off to us. We'll deal with it.

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: As long as it falls

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: within what we can do.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: As long as it falls within what we're capable of doing.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Because we're an auxiliary of the Air Force, when it comes to them. So if there's a natural disaster like that, know, state can reach out to our National Operations Center, or they probably don't know anyways. And the Air Force issues us a mission number, which provides insurance and funding. And then what we're trying to work out with Cory and some other things is a way to bridge a gap between when something happens and before it becomes a federal issue where we have almost unlimited funds. And we're working on a project we're working on through courteous and others to find a way of funding the gap until it's deflated or something that they wanted done that didn't necessarily fall under the federal umbrella, if you will. So if it's a missing aircraft, or if it's a force fire, or if it's floods, the National Operations Center will fund that and give us a mission number. And then we spin up under that, and that's probably just all the funding we need. But there are other things going forward that necessarily fall in that category. And we're working a way to work around that, too, so we can still help where we get it. It's a funding stream, of course, you just saw everything. But as he mentioned, our aircraft are Cessna 172s to 182s, the volunteer crew, if we stretch it to the high end of the budget, it's a couple $100 an hour. And if you had to go into the military, you're talking $10,000 an hour, 20,000 an hour, depending on what platform they're on. So we're very reasonably priced compared to that. And we can do a lot of things they can do. We can go places they can't

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: go because our airplanes are small.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: I fly them, I could vouch for that.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Yeah, it's not a magic wand, but we're not afraid of the work. And where you are hitting a wall, like I said, just hand it to us, we'll get back to you. Who wants to say

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: something? We

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: each represent three different levels, playing government, and I am closest to boots on the ground at the local community level. And I would ask for something that help open my Because personal at the boots on the ground level, I'm a parent, I'm a community member, I'm working around it, and we teach the youth of tomorrow leadership of self before others. And so, we're constantly trying to be not only a force multiplier, but a hope multiplier. So, like, our teachers who don't know what STEM resources they have, we've got STEM, we've got programs. We can come in and help you get the resources you can't get because of x, y, z. We help community members, beyond the end of whole, connect back with the sense of purpose. Technology is leaving us by. Well, you don't have to be digitally literate. We teach digital classes. We'll put you in front of a computer. Don't be afraid of AI. Here's what it can do for you. Here's what the world needs now. So, rather than letting folks get disengaged, we find ways for them to plug in and pass on knowledge, and continue amplifying the experience we already have in the community back to the community. So we do have three core programs. We teach aerospace, emergency services cadet programs, leadership. But it's really, at my level, it's more how do we get the community connected and helping one another. So, we think of natural disasters as floods and fires and things like that, but we do have some cultural natural disasters going on right Two, isolation, anonymity, fear of the computers, fear of the unknown, and we're here. Food drives, food deliveries helps. That's all core to our mission. So thank you. I would ask that you help us open doors to connect. Help us connect to one another.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you, Lieutenant Palmer. And you're the Burlington going, is that

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: correct? Squadron.

[Cadet Capt. Ben Previch, Champlain Composite Squadron]: Squadron. The Vermont Winds.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Right. So you just happen to have in the room Vermont NEA listening. So perhaps you can connect with the teachers and educators at some point. Any questions? Rep Morgan, Rep Scully, and then Rep Pinsonault, and Rep Waters Evans. Yeah,

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: gentlemen, the $334,000,000 obviously, that's the national budget. And what is what's Vermont's slice of that? Five d roughly? Do have a number roughly that From federal level? Mhmm.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Not as you you mean they buy our aircraft? It's jacked.

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: You don't really directly get handed

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: a piece of the pie.

[Cadet Capt. Ben Previch, Champlain Composite Squadron]: No. We get assets. It's all it's all It's

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: It's a federal pie. It's all fundamentally, it's not Okay. Gotcha.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: And we are responsible for keeping the lights on. So that money goes towards, you know, aircraft, vehicles, communications, but everything else, we have to figure out

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: how to So they they fund your cost per flying hour from the top down and

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: When we have a mission number.

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: You give them a mission number. They pay for it.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: With right. So if an aircraft goes missing, if there's a flood, they provide a mission number which provides funding which comes out of that bucket.

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: They buy your app gas. They buy your

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: maintenance.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Supplies for the aircraft, and

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: they do your

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: annual vehicles the same thing. Yeah. But as far as us keeping our lights on Yeah. That's fundraising ourselves or the small stipend that we get from Vermont, which has been the same for the last thirty years. At some point, we'd we'd love to have a little more than that. We understand what budgets are. We're working that process right now, but it isn't visible. So to keep our lights on, keep our inner on, we have to do that ourselves.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Do you know what that figure is?

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Say again?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Do you know what that figure is the state's?

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: What it costs us a year?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: No, the state's

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Well, it gives us $60,000

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: a year.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: And that's through And

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: see the secretary sitting here for

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: twenty or thirty years. And we appreciate it. Don't get me wrong. That doesn't buy as much as it used to.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Right. Thank you. Rep Morgan, is that it? So we can move on.

[Rep. Michael Morgan (Member)]: Yeah. Can let other people talk. I got I got other things, but it's not I can ask. Agree.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank you. Rep Scully?

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: Thank you, madam chair. Let me ask you, you reached out to the Burlington Coffin's department at all?

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: Honestly, sir, no, I'm fairly new to Vermont. I'm a Flatlander. I

[Martha Kenzie, Senior Member and CAP parent volunteer]: have. I got you covered, let's

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: take a moment.

[Martha Kenzie, Senior Member and CAP parent volunteer]: I have.

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: For you. And please, your name? Martha Kenzie. Martha? Yes. And who did you reach out to at Burlington Police?

[Martha Kenzie, Senior Member and CAP parent volunteer]: So, I don't remember his rank. His name is Sergio. I can call Caldieri perhaps. But I've communicated with him on a couple of different community investment involvement.

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: Did you find your experience welcoming?

[Martha Kenzie, Senior Member and CAP parent volunteer]: Yes. Or

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: is it questionable? No. The

[Martha Kenzie, Senior Member and CAP parent volunteer]: communications I've had with our various police departments have been very positive. So I've worked in Burlington slightly, and then I'm working more closely with South Burlington because where our facility is actually located. And I actually reached out to them, Lieutenant Ballmer, about our open house at the May, and asked if the South Burlington Police and Fire would both be willing show up and participate, because they do want to build those relationships. And both South Burlington Fire and South Burlington Police are wanting to come and just build on those relationships. The reception has been very welcoming. Good.

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: You. And thank you so much. May I impose on your presentation and speak to your senior cadet? Well, absolutely. I was actually going to wrap up mine's part.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: We have

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: a few more questions, reps.

[Rep. Scully (visiting or rotating member)]: Oh, I'm sorry.

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: I'm sorry. Perhaps you can connect with him at the No, no worries. Thank you. Rep Pinsonault, you've had a question.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: No, I don't really have a question. I just want to say in support of the CAP, the Civil War Patrol. My son was a participant in the Rutland squadron. And I believe my husband's military reserve unit in Rutland built the building as one of their engineering projects when it was being built.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: You did a good job.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: Thank you. So my son was diagnosed with a learning disability and was told by one of his teachers that he was not college material and probably would graduate high school. But he loved planes from the time he was about four or five years old, and so we got him into the Civil War Patrol, and it was the best thing that we could have done. And he built leadership, he got his pilot's license, ended he up being employed by the State of Vermont, was Governor Chamblin's pilot. And then unfortunately, the State of Vermont sold the airplane. So that ended his career as Governor Chamblin's pilot. But anyways, is then he became an engineer for Dubois and King, helping design airports. Really didn't like that job as much as it was a very good, well paying job and decided that he wanted to become a pilot mechanic, I mean, an airplane mechanic instead. So he's now on the second or third level of that. Working at the Rutland Airport, becoming a mechanic and getting his hands dirty and still flying and absolutely loves it. So it was because of the civil air tool that got him through college. Success stories. It's a great success story.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Give a lot of those. A thirty second follow-up to what Pat Palmer said. You know, we consider ourselves a leadership laboratory for the youth of the world. We have 35,000 cadets nationally, 114 in Vermont, and we're trying to build the next generation of leaders for our country, whether it's military, political, civilian industry, we don't care. We want to build a leadership mentality and skill set and carry that into the future. Our country needs leaders in every discipline you can think of. They do. We are very proud of them.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: And during his time, they did the, it was during the ice storms of New York, the Adirondack region, they were gone for like a week delivering water to the communities.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Probably working with the Red Cross.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: Right? And then they did a couple of airplane searches for crashed airplanes.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: We have eight mission pilots in Vermont at the moment, and we'll have 12 by the May. We got four that are ready to take a checkride.

[Rep. Sandra "Sandy" Pinsonault (Member)]: And one of them, were the first ones on the scene. It's like they are boosted around. That's what we did. Thank you. So kudos.

[Rep. Chea Waters Evans (Ranking Member)]: Thank you. Rutland Evans? I think we're all on the same page because I was just going to ask, I don't want to put any of the cadets on the spot, but if they wanted to speak to their experience, I would welcome that, I think Rep. Kelly and Rep.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Pinsonault and I wear all of his Be efficient.

[Cadet Capt. Ben Previch, Champlain Composite Squadron]: I'm a Cadet Captain McCrevich. I live in Willis, and I go to the Champlain Valley Composite Squadron in Burlington. I joined Civil War Patrol almost three years ago now, and I joined with the aspiration for aviation from a very young age, like you said, ma'am, about your son. And I was not very sure about the military side of that. Knew that like, similar patrol, like, you know, Force officers are what you are going to expect, but I was not very interested in the military at all. When I first joined that program, I took my first orientation flight. By the way, a cadet, when they first joined this program, you get five free flights in the aircraft, and that's what really starts your introduction to flying. That was where I was like, This is for me. I cannot think of any other job that does not involve aviation for my future. After staying in the program for a while to here, I have really realized that the Air Force is where I want to go. So I've been trying to get connections to go to the Air Force Academy. This program, I have met people that have been to the Academy that are actually current in the Academy. And so many connections have really helped me to start where I need to go to get there. Like, you apply your junior year. I'm currently a sophomore, believe it or not, I'm only 16, but it's really given me preparation to know what I have to do because so many times people just find out about it too late, and believe it or not, that doesn't give you as high a chance to get to be at those academies. So it's something I'm just really thankful for. And also, just as a person entirely, if you had asked me to stand up right here, before I joined SolarAPPY on this introduction to leadership, I'd be like, No, not for me. But overall, this program has just really opened my mind to what the world has to offer. Connected me with so many great, amazing people, and overall, it's one of the greatest decisions I've ever made in my life.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: That's really

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: what I had

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: to say.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: And he's going to a

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: flight academy this summer to go start with his spouse license at New York Wayne. It's a national activity that's held in New York Wayne.

[Cadet Capt. Ben Previch, Champlain Composite Squadron]: Yeah, that's another thing that we do. We have things called national caden special activities such as flight academies, emergency services academies, and leadership academies that really help you get into those career level things. I think it'll go solo in one week's time. Was on that program for seventeen years before

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: I took this job. Amazing.

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: Thank

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: you for speaking so eloquently about your experience. We do have time for one more question. Rep Stone has a question. I just wondered if you could say how if you were an adult watching at home and you want to volunteer, how do you go about signing up? Could you walk us through how to do that?

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: I'm going to elbow everyone and jump into it. Call me. Make sure that I be I have the longest rate being able to work one on one with members, and I can go through the process with them, answer all questions, give them a private tour, all that. But it really boils to answer your question, attend a few meetings and see if the chemistry is right, if it really appeals to you. And if so, then we'll talk about the next level of getting it started. And there's so much more we did not touch. What I'll say is we have 22 career tracks that adults can follow. It's a matter of what's your passion, what are you interested in. Let's find you a place.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: You can fly on our airplanes. If out

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: for pilots, that helps you maintain your license.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: It does. Does. You don't

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: know if Colonel Wells' phone number to call him, just go to our website, microphone, the Civil Air Control. And if you can

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: join the legislative squadron, or someone that's outside of that, then you can put someone else

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: on. So that's a whole other program that we need to learn more about. So perhaps you can back come back another time and speak about the legislative's quadrant. I just wanted to ask briefly. Mister secretary, you don't typically come to our committees. Is there anything that you're here to say today? Thank

[Joe Flynn, Secretary of Transportation (VTrans)]: you very much, representative Hango. I'm actually meeting with Colonel Lau and Civil Air Patrol, and I was asked to join them at ten. And I would simply say that in seventeen years of working for the state and three administrations and 10 in this job as secretary of transportation, I've never been in the mezzanine. I'm calling all over

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: the building asking, where's the mezzanine?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Just to be fair, we've only been

[Cadet Capt. Ben Previch, Champlain Composite Squadron]: here council.

[Joe Flynn, Secretary of Transportation (VTrans)]: This is this is really nice.

[Martha Kenzie, Senior Member and CAP parent volunteer]: We've been here for

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: a year. This has only existed for a year as a legislative

[Joe Flynn, Secretary of Transportation (VTrans)]: Sorry about that. First of all, it's a it's a pleasure to be in here, and I always appreciate, but as a reminder, what all the committees in the legislature do, but I'm here really to meet the Civil Air Patrol. So I just thank you for

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: Thank the opportunity to say you, Secretary Flynn. With that, I really hate to do this. We have to move on to our next guest. It's a totally different subject. But thank you all for being here. Thank you for your service. And really, this is an exciting program. I hope you can expand further because I'm certainly looking forward to something in Northern Vermont.

[Lt. Col. Scott Lau, Civil Air Patrol (Vermont Wing)]: Thank you for You asking

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: want to take

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: a five minute recess?

[Corey Chase, Director of Radio Technology Services (VT DPS) and CAP member]: I'm to over the room.

[Col. Brian Bennington, Vermont Wing Commander, Civil Air Patrol]: Nick?

[Rep. Lisa Hango (Vice Chair)]: You. So we

[Lt. Jeff Palmer, Commander, Champlain Composite Squadron (Burlington)]: can say goodbye to our guests.