CITGO Petroleum Corp. Has Partnered With The Civil Air Patrol To Honor CAP Members For Their Service During World War II.

As a premier sponsor of CAP’s Congressional Gold Medal presentation, CITGO is sponsoring the purchase of replica Congressional Gold Medals to be awarded to CAP World War II veterans who will travel to Washington, D.C., for the medal presentation, as well as the celebratory reception/dinner. Those who are unable to travel to Washington will be presented a replica medal by CAP in their hometowns.

Congress awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to CAP in recognition of its founding members’ role in warding off deadly German U-boat attacks on vital merchant shipping off the East and Gulf coasts, especially oil tankers, during World War II. Prior to CAP’s coastal patrols, CITGO, then known as Cities Service Co., lost five tankers to enemy attack, with a cost of 73 lives and 260,003 barrels of various types of oil.

CAP escorted thousands of convoys and ships as well as tankers belonging to companies that ultimately became part of seven present-day oil companies, CITGO, BP, Chevron, Exxon, Sinclair, Sunoco, and Tesoro. CAP’s efforts helped push the submarine threat well away from coastal shipping lanes at a critical time for the nation when the military did not have enough resources.

Col. Frank Blazich, CAP’s chief historian, notes that one of the members of the Petroleum Industry War Council was W. Alton Jones, president of Cities Service Co. during the war. “On March 4, 1942, the committee approved forming the Temporary Committee on the Protection of Tankers which in turn that same day recommended using CAP aircraft for patrol duty off the East Coast. Thus, the experiment for coastal patrol bases and flights was born,” said Blazich.

“CITGO has a unique connection to CAP’s history,” said Rafael Gómez, vice president of government and public affairs with CITGO.  “CAP’s World War II members performed missions that were not only vital to the war effort but also vital to CITGO, which was Cities Service at that time.”

CAP’s highest-profile activity during World War II was its coastal patrols. Eventually, CAP established 21 coastal patrol bases that extended from Maine to the Texas-Mexico border. Coastal Patrol Base 9 at Grand Isle was activated on June 25, 1942.

All told, the coastal patrols flew 24 million miles to safeguard oil tankers and other merchant traffic from German U-boat attacks. For 18 months, from March 1942 to August 1943, CAP members flew over the waters of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico for that purpose, reporting 173 sightings of suspected submarines and occasionally attacking suspected submarines with small demolition bombs.

CAP’s more than 200,000 founding members were volunteers, a legacy of service that continues to this day. CAP’s World War II members flew their own airplanes at their own expense and at great peril, with little or no safety measures to fall back on. A total of 65 CAP members died in service to the nation, and though this rich history of service is well-documented, those who stepped up to protect the home front were never recognized … until now. Fewer than 120 of these men and women are still alive.

From Louisiana, the families of the late Trent Lane of Baker and the late Emma Moss of New Orleans will receive a replica Congressional Gold Medal in honor of their loved ones’ CAP World War II service.

(In the photo, Don Rowland, Civil Air Patrol chief operating officer, presents a replica of a CAP World War II Stinson to Eduardo Assef, CITGO vice president, refining, in appreciation for the oil company’s serving as a premier sponsor of the Congressional Gold Medal that CAP will soon receive at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Flanking the two are CITGO’s Toneu Vadell, and CAP Col. Rock Palermo)

FMI: www.gocivilairpatrol.com, www.capgoldmedal.com