After the formation of the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in December 1941, the first order of business was to assign Wing (State) Commanders in all 48 states. The first commander in South Dakota was a newspaperman by the name of Thomas B. Roberts, Jr., who lived in Pierre. At that time the designation of the wing was Wing 77. In May 1955 that was changed to 40001, and in 1999 it again was changed to SD001.

The earliest hard evidence that has been found concerning the South Dakota Wing is a letter dated January 12, 1942. That letter has a Spearfish letterhead and is signed by Clyde W. lce, Group Commander. Quite a bit has been written about the Coastal Patrol activity during WWII. Well, there were members of this Wing that participated in that activity. As of 2003 one of them, Verne Kraemer, lives in Nemo, S.D.

Another wartime activity took place in Rapid City. Early in WWII the Army Air Forces were critically short of both pilots and aircraft, and found itself desperately in need of a means to rapidly transport critical items between bases. To fill that need, a CAP Courier Service was organized under the Second Air Force. CAP pilots started flying Courier routes out of the Rapid City Army Air Base in November 1942. The routes were triangular and the first was to satellite bases in Pierre and Ainsworth. With their low power aircraft and minimal instruments, the total route could not easily be completed in one day and thus the pilot stayed overnight at the second stop. Later other routes were added. One was to Alliance and Scottsbluff, and another was to Cheyenne and Casper. Most often when they returned to Rapid City, the pilots just picked up another load and continued to the next destination. The cargo the Courier Service transported was quite varied, and might include: rifles, parachutes, high priority mail, emergency parts, instruments and even base payrolls.

In the South Dakota Courier unit there were only seven regular pilots, and their personal airplanes. However, there were two "alternate" pilots, a mechanic and a dispatcher. To qualify for the Courier Service the pilots were required to have at least 150 hours of cross-country flying time. None of them was instrument-rated, although one had a commercial-rating. Of course, the planes only had basic instruments anyway, and only one had a radio transmitter.

However, the fact that the pilots were not instrument-rated makes it seem even more miraculous that they flew almost every day, even in weather when the Army Air Forces would not launch their B-17s. They would take off with ceilings as low as 150 feet and other IFR conditions. By 1943 the South Dakota pilots were on a schedule for seven routes per day, and their completion rate was phenomenal. In many months it was 100 percent, and they kept up that pace for about 14 months.

The CAP also started recruiting young people for a Cadet Program in the fall of 1942. The program actually was intended for the preliminary training for pilots, who were very scarce, as well as a preliminary training for military service. At the beginning of the Cadet Program the young person had to be 15, 16, or 17 years of age and was required to have an individual sponsor who was a Senior of the same sex. Gradually the requirements have been relaxed.

After World War II, the United States Air Force was established as a separate branch of the United States military. The Civil Air Patrol became the official auxiliary of the Air Force. The three missions of the auxiliary were established as Aerospace Education, the Cadet Program and Emergency Services. South Dakota Wing adapted to it’s revised missions with enthusiasm.

In 1950, a catastrophe struck the South Dakota Wing. Much of the top Wing Staff was killed in an aircraft accident, including the second Wing Commander, Col. James Barnett, Sioux Falls. They were on the way to a meeting in Washington, DC, in a C-45. During the next two years Forrest Elliot and Frank Prather, filled the position of Wing Commander. 1950 also was about the time that the Wing patch was created, rumors say by a female cadet from Flandreau.

Joseph Floyd, the founder of KELO, was the fifth Wing Commander. It was under his guidance that the Wing Radio Network was established. It had its beginning in November 1954, when Governor Sigurd Anderson made the initial broadcast over the Wing Net. South Dakota Wing has had a total of 22 Commanders in approximately 62 years, almost half of them are still living in 2003.

Over the years there have been many changes in South Dakota Wing and in the way its members have served their neighbors. The Search and Rescue operations, for which we have become so well known, actually were extensions of the Coastal Patrol operations. The activity in Search and Rescue spread throughout the country during WWII and has continued to this day, although it is becoming a smaller part of the overall CAP mission.

In the 1970s CAP filled a perceived need for Aerial Radiological Monitoring for Civil Defense. The CAP has continued to prove its flexibility by directing its available resources toward other places where help has been needed. For a period in the 1980s, the Wing filled a need to transport human organs and blood in emergency situations. Fairly recently the CAP has been flying missions for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Customs Service.

Senior member encampment staff circa mid-1980s

Then there was a Wing program in which a highly trained fireman was flown over large fires to inform and direct ground operations. Now Wing aircrews are trained and perform the same task without outside help.

In 2000 the Wing started flying missions tracking mountain lions for state researchers. That has been extended to antelope and elk.

In 2003, CAP is looking forward to another task, Homeland Security. After the World Trade Towers disaster, CAP was the first to fly over "Ground Zero." Wings across the country, including South Dakota, have placed a new emphasis on Homeland Defense, mindful that this important new mission was also the original mission of the Civil Air Patrol.