Flying protection routes over American shores to space exploration with NASA, Alabama resident Otha Skeet Vaughan’s passion is aviation, and his contributions to the field are being recognized with hundreds of others who served with Civil Air Patrol during World War II , Dec. 10 in Washington D.C.
Civil Air Patrol will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal during a ceremony on Capital Hill, where more than 100 WWII CAP members and their families are invited to attend as CAP is nationally recognized for the efforts of their home-front volunteers. The medal is one of the nation’s highest civilian awards.
Vaughan wouldn’t miss the ceremony for the world, he said.
Vaughan, who currently lives in Huntsville, began flying with his father, who was also a CAP member. Becoming a cadet in 1944 was the start of a 45-year career for Vaughan with the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency and then later with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
“My mother would drive me to CAP meetings. I was 15 at the time. She would drive me to the armory, where we had eight to 10 other cadets and we studied aeronautics,” Vaughan said. “I got my start because my father was in CAP as a
Article source: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/local/dispatch/2014/12/05/alabama-man-heads-washington-dc-cap-honor/19974563/
