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Harford cadet earns Ira C. Eaker Award

Col Weiss presents Cadet Beth Peters with the Eaker award
Col. Jerry Weiss presents the Eaker award to C/Lt Col Elizabeth Peters during a recent Harford Composite Squadron meeting. (Photo credit: 1st Lt Bill Peters)

By 1st Lt Brenda A. Reed
MDWG Public Affairs staff

3/6/2007–Aberdeen, MD–Cadet Elizabeth Peters from the Harford Composite Squadron of Maryland Wing was awarded the Ira C. Eaker Award recently during an awards presentation at her squadron.

The Eaker Award is awarded to cadets who progress through all sixteen achievements in the cadet program. Cadets earning this award are promoted to the rank of cadet lieutenant colonel. Less than five percent of cadets nationwide earn this award, with Peters being the 1,794th award given since 1964. This award honors the late Air Force General Ira C. Eaker, aviation pioneer, career military officer and one of the chief architects and visionaries of the US Air Force.

Cadet Peters joined the Maryland Wing in 2003. She has been an active participant in many activities since that time. She graduated from the Tri-Wing Encampment in 2003 and has returned each year to serve on staff. She was recently named Cadet Executive Officer of the upcoming 2007 encampment. In addition to this, she is a member of the Maryland Wing drill team and has competed as a member of the Maryland Wing Color Guard in 2004, where she traveled to Dayton, Ohio, to compete in the National Cadet Competition. She has attended the Air Force Space Command Familiarization Course in California. Peters was named the Maryland Wing NCO of the Year in 2004 and Cadet Junior Officer of the Year in 2006.

Peters is a sophomore at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, where she majors in biology.

CAP, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 60,000 members nationwide. CAP volunteers perform 95 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state, and local agencies.

Members take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the almost 25,000 young people currently participating in the CAP Cadet Program. CAP's cadet programs provide young men and women with a safe and motivating environment in which to grow and explore opportunities in the military and aviation industries. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 63 years.

There are approximately 1,300 members of CAP in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 34 search and rescue missions and were credited with 23 finds.

For information about the Maryland Wing of CAP, visit http://mdcap.org/ or listen to weekly episodes of "Civil Air Patrol Today" broadcast every Sunday morning on the following radio stations:

  • Annapolis, MD - WYRE-AM 810, 8:00-8:30 a.m. ET
  • Baltimore, MD - WFBR AM 1590, 8:00-8:30 a.m. ET
  • Ocean City, MD - WKHZ-AM 1590, 7:00-7:30 a.m. ET
  • Potomac, MD - WCTN 950 AM, 6:00-6:30 a.m. ET
  • Rockville, MD - WLXE-AM 1600, 7:00-7:30 a.m. ET
  • Washington, DC - WZHF-AM 1390, 7:00-7:30 a.m. ET

In addition, programs may be listened to at the Maryland Wing web site at http://mdcap.org/radio/ and can also be subscribed to as a podcast.

Maryland Wing Public Affairs also offers an e-mail alert system for news releases. When news breaks, a subscriber receives an automatic e-mail with a summary of the news release and a link back to the story on the MDWG web site. Signing up for e-mail news alerts is easy. Just go to: http://mdcap.org/?fuseaction=newsalert.form and fill in your e-mail address.

The Harford Composite Squadron meets on Monday evenings at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Prospective cadets and their parents are always welcome. For more information, visit www.harfordcap.org.