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Two Osprey cadets get USAF commission

Purvis and Mower
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Civil Air Patrol Maryland Wing members and newly commissioned US Air Force 2nd Lts. Shaharazad Purvis and Wayne Mowery celebrate at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va. (Photo credit: Capt. Karl Lotvedt, CAP)

By Capt. Karl Lotvedt, CAP
Commander, Osprey Composite Squadron

6/14/2012–BALTIMORE, MD–Two cadets from the Civil Air Patrol Maryland Wing’s Osprey Composite Squadron became officers in the United States Air Force on May 28. Wayne Mowery and Shaharazad Purvis were commissioned as second lieutenants at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va., and were sworn in by Col. Robert Pecoraro, commander of the US Air Force ROTC Detachment 330 at the University of Maryland.

Mowery joined Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in February of 2004 and Purvis joined in February of 2007. Both quickly excelled in their studies and progressed in CAP to become cadet colonels, the highest rank achievable by a cadet, each earning the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, the highest award in the CAP cadet program which less than one percent of all cadets are awarded. Both were awarded ROTC scholarships and graduated with honors from the University of Maryland in College Park.  Mowery also was presented the ROTC distinguished graduate and ROTC Northeast Region Cadet of the Year awards at the commissioning ceremony.

Mowery, now a senior member holding the grade of captain in CAP, was selected to receive a flight scholarship and attended Maryland Wing’s Solo School. This flight academy teaches private pilot ground school and provides the first 15 hours of flight instruction to selected CAP cadets. Mowery has since become a private pilot, is in the process of becoming a certified CAP pilot and will be going to Air Force flight training to become an Air Force pilot. His training will be at Sheppard AFB in Texas and will last for two years. As a cadet, Mowery was active in the wing encampments, serving as cadet commander of the Maryland-Delaware Encampment in 2009. Mowery was named the 2009 Maryland Wing Cadet of the Year. He currently serves as the activities officer and emergency services training officer at the squadron.

Purvis, also a CAP senior member and captain, attended the Cadet Officers School at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Ala., where she studied leadership for two weeks. Purvis was also very active in the Wing encampments and a member of the Osprey squadron emergency services ground team. For the Air Force she was accepted in the Language Enabled Airmen Program (LEAP), which provides specific training in a foreign language. Her technical school with be at Goodfellow AFB in Texas for eight months focusing on Persian. After training she will be an intelligence officer in the USAF. While in college she helped to train the ROTC honor guard at the University of Maryland.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 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 was credited by the AFRCC with saving 113 lives in fiscal year 2010. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 26,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 69 years. It is the largest sponsor annually of Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. For more information on Civil Air Patrol, visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com or www.capvolunteernow.com.

More than 1,500 members of CAP serve in Maryland. Last fiscal year wing members flew 42 search and rescue missions and were credited with 31 finds. For more information, visit www.mdcap.org.

The Osprey Composite Squadron meets every Tuesday at 7:00 PM at the American Legion Lodge Post 38 at 3300 Dundalk Ave. in Dundalk, Md.