OLD TOWN — A change of command ceremony was held March 22 at the Old Town Municipal Airport to install Lt. Col. James Jordan as the new commander of the Maine Wing of the Civil Air Patrol. Jordan has been a member of the Civil Air Patrol since January 1995. He is a search and rescue mission pilot with more than 3,000 pilot hours. Jordan served as the squadron commander for Bangor’s 35th Composite Squadron for 10 years and most recently served as the deputy commander of the Maine Wing.
Col. Daniel Leclair, commander of the Northeast Region of the Civil Air Patrol, officially installed Colonel Jordan in a ceremony attended by a number of CAP members participating in a monthly training mission. The wind chill outside was minus 20 degrees.
Being wing commander is a full time job, but in his spare time, Jordan likes to fly, with his wife Coral in his Cessna Skyhawk he has owned since 1982. He also volunteers as a Patient Air Lift Services pilot, and is an Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and Experimental Aircraft Association member.
Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 60,000 members nationwide. CAP, in its air force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and has been credited by the center with saving more than 100 lives this fiscal year. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug 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 25,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 68 years. For information on CAP, visit gocivilairpatrol.com.