Lt Col. McCrum became the New Jersey Liaison officer in 1993 while still on active duty in the Air Force. He retired from the Air Force in 1996 to become a CAP corporate employee serving both New Jersey and Pennsylvania Wings. Lt Col. McCrum guided the wings with great success through a time of great change, helping to increase the professionalism and safety of all the programs.
In his new job he will be flying Boeing 747s for Atlas Air starting the fall of 1999. Lt Col. McCrum will leave us as CAP Liaison Officer to rejoin as a volunteer for NJ Wing, Civil Air Patrol.
Left to right: LT Col. Richard
McCrum NJ/PA Wings LO, Holding Eagle is Col. Josesph Convery, NJ Wing Commander. LT Col
McCrum , presented Col. Convery with an Eagle, that belonged to his father.
FT. DIX, NEW
JERSEY - The New Jersey Wing held their fourth annual Spring Ground Search and Rescue
School this April. Twenty students, both seniors and cadets, attended this challenging
training program under the direction of Captain William Strupczewski. They spent three
long weekends in the field at Fort Dix, NJ learning and practicing the skills needed for
Ground Team Member. 
The general assembly speaker was Roscoe J. Dabney, one of the Tuskegee Airmen. His speech enlightened the attendees about the adventure of flying during world war two and the challenges of black flyers in the days when the armed services were anything but integrated. His good humor and entertaining accounts were enjoyed by all.
Afternoon sessions were full of optimism, with New Jersey membership numbers growing the fastest in CAP, with new Emergency Services memorandums of understanding with other organizations, new Counter Drug Missions, Aerospace Education with new initiatives, and great accomplishments in the Cadet Program - having the National Champion Dragon Drill Team.
At the evening banquet Brig. Gen. James Jaeger, USAF Ret. - the first Spaatz cadet to reach the grade of Brigadier General spoke. He challenged the Cadets to learn all they can from the CAP program, and the seniors to make the program as rewarding as possible.
The conference had the largest attendance of any in New Jersey Wing history, with nearly 300 members attending the day's sessions. This high level of participation assures that New Jersey members are well informed and motivated to do the "Missions for America."
The focus of the conference was on standardization - so that members from each wing can safely and effectively support missions in other wings. The standardization comes from several areas - standardizing equipment, such as the airspeed indicators - standardizing procedures, such as having identical aircraft documentation across the region and - working together in training exercises and evaluations, so that we can work together smoothly on actual missions.
In order to make it possible to marshall the resources to deal with the disaster relief efforts which CAP is now charged with, we are improving our effectiveness by training together.
On behalf of the New Jersey Wing Dragon Drill team, we'd like to extend a congratulations to the rest of our competitors. The New Jersey team and the Northeast Region has experienced a tremendous amount of success at the national cadet competition. In short, the Dragons would also like to congratulate all those competitors of the past, present and future which have pursued excellence.
Walead Latif
ARETE