Civil Air Patrol Cadet Second Lieutenant Katherine Knight from Cumberland County Composite Squadron, which meets at Portland International Jetport, received the General Billy Mitchell Award from Col. Mitchell Sammons at the Squadron’s Headquarters on April 7.

Knight is the daughter of Thomas and Ellen Knight of Raymond and is a student at North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth.

To receive this award, a Civil Air Patrol cadet is required to be challenged by completing five achievements in the cadet program. This includes participating in encampment activities involving ground search and rescue where the cadet learns the techniques as taught by the volunteers of Civil Air Patrol under the guidance of the U.S. Air Force. The Cadet is required to pass a comprehensive aerospace and leadership closed-book, timed 90-minute test with a grade of 80 percent or higher. The passing of a physical fitness test of running a mile in eight minutes and doing push-ups, are also required. The leadership training deals with the military style leadership aspects of cadet life. Should the cadet enlist in the Air Force with the Mitchell Award, they are entitled to the grade of E-3.

This award is named in honor of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell who proved to the U.S. Army and Navy the importance of air power that could be used on aircraft carriers prior to World War II. He was one of several Army Air Service flyers who supported the idea to separate the Air Service from the Army and Navy. Controversy developed as to whether an airplane could sink a battleship. It was decided to conduct tests off the Virginia capes and in June-July of 1921, General Mitchell’s bombers sank three captured German naval vessels and in September 1921, the obsolete USS Alabama. Two years later, additional tests were conducted off Cape Hatteras and two more obsolete US battleships were sent to the bottom.

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