I was in the Civil Air Patrol nearly 40 years ago when I was in high school. It was a pretty good organization training us for search and rescue, teaching us survival skills and allowing us to help out and provide support for civil authorities when needed (e.g., traffic/pedestrian flow for parades and the like).
Learned lots of good stuff -- some of which I still remember after all these years
:-)
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I was in the CAP many, many years ago for a short time. If the squad is run by a competent commander, it's a great organization, especially if your son is interested in possibly joining the military. Unfortunately my squad was run by a complete doof and it was more the inmates running the show.
I do know a friend that used it to get a head start on his military career. If you hit certain ranks in the CAP, once you finish basic you can start out at a higher rank. At least it used to be that way, not sure now.
Let me know if you have any other questions and I'll try to answer what I can.
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