Brig. General Amy S. Courter Named Interim Leader
Aero-News has learned
the Civil Air Patrol’s Board of Governors, in a
teleconference Tuesday night, voted to remove Maj. Gen. Antonio J.
Pineda from his position as CAP national commander. The
board’s action comes two months after the chairman of the
Board of Governors, Maj. Gen. Richard Bowling, CAP, announced the
11-member board had suspended the CAP national commander for a
period of up to 180 days.
As ANN reported, Pineda's
suspension occurred after the board convened a special August 5
meeting to receive the initial CAP Inspector General’s Report
of Investigation concerning allegations that a CAP Florida Wing
member took US Air Force Air Command and Staff College tests for
Pineda in 2002 and 2003.
"This action was taken after careful review of the facts and
circumstances and after numerous discussions of the report of the
investigation against Gen. Pineda," said Bowling.
Vice Commander Brig. Gen. Amy S. Courter, who has served as
acting national commander since Pineda (shown at bottom) was
suspended by the Board of Governors on August 5, now takes
leadership of the Civil Air Patrol as interim commander as
prescribed in the CAP Constitution and Bylaws. She will hold the
position until the August 2008 CAP board meeting, where members
will vote to select a new commander. Courter (shown below) is
eligible to run for the position.
The Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the US Air
Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 55,000 members
nationwide.
"The members of the Civil Air Patrol are patriotic and highly
dedicated volunteers of this great nation who routinely place duty
before self to serve their communities," said Courter. "Their
contributions during the search for aviation legend Steve Fossett,
during Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and thousands of other noteworthy
missions throughout our 66 years of service have made a profound
difference in the lives of thousands of Americans of all ages. I am
honored to serve as interim national commander of Civil Air
Patrol."
Courter joined CAP’s Michigan Wing in 1979 and most
recently served as chair of the CAP Professional Development
Committee. She served as commander of the Michigan Wing from 1999
to 2002 and as senior adviser to the CAP National Cadet Advisory
Council.
Courter worked for 20 years as vice president of Information
Technology with Valassis, a global billion-dollar marketing
services company based in Livonia, MI. Courter started her own
company in 2006, Amy’s Creative Solutions, to allow her the
flexibility to devote more time to her volunteer work in CAP. She
consults on leadership, strategic planning, technology and program
management.
The Civil Air Patrol was founded on December 1, 1941 -- less
than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the
United States into World War II. Today, CAP performs 90 percent of
continental US inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the
Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and was credited by the AFRCC
with saving 58 lives in 2006.
In addition to their search and rescue duties, CAP volunteers
perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions
at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Members also
play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to
the more than 22,000 young people currently participating in the
CAP cadet program.