CIVIL AIR PATROL Allison G. Catheron II   Diabetes may have cost Allison G. Catheron II a chance to attend West Point, but he found a way to make sure his insulin dependence didn’t keep him from military service during World War II. “Because I had diabetes since age 9, I knew I was not going to get into regular military service,” he said. “So I trained with the Civil Air Patrol, beginning in March of 1943.” The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) was organized in December 1941, days before Pearl Harbor, by civilian pilots and aircraft owners eager to assist with the war effort at home. While attached to the U.S. Army Air Corps, CAP pilots and technicians flew tow target, military transport, courier, border patrol and anti-submarine missions.  “German submarines were causing a lot of trouble along the coast,” Catheron said. “The CAP had 21 squadrons patrolling the sea between Maine and the Gulf of Mexico. At first I was with the 17th Anti-Submarine Squadron, which was based on Long Island.” CAP pilots and crew flew 500,000 hours during World War II, and 64 were killed during the war years. CAP pilots received the first Air Medals presented in person by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the war. Catheron came from a military family. His father, Robert Scott Catheron, was a dental surgeon from Nova Scotia who served in France twice during World War I. After one stint with the Royal Army Medical Corps, he served a second tour of duty in France as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. “My father reconstructed the faces of soldiers who had been hit in the face,” he said. “I remember we had a book of photos of his patients before and after surgery. Some of the work he did with those wounded men was pretty dramatic.” Another World War I veteran, U.S. Army Maj. Lyman Sheridan Frasier, met Catheron through the Civil Air Patrol and was eager to nominate him for admission to West Point. “And he would have, too, if I hadn’t had diabetes,” Catheron said. “I would have liked to have been a professional military officer, but that wasn’t possible. I became a forester.” Catheron, now 80 and living in Franklin, was 19 when he dropped out of high school in Needham, Mass., to begin his training with the Civil Air Patrol. After being based in New York while on anti-sub patrol duty, he was later reassigned to CAP tow target squadrons in Maryland and Delaware that assisted in the training of gunners manning coastal anti-aircraft batteries and aircraft spotters using searchlights. “I mostly worked security, but I did fly on both day and night tracking missions as an observer, helping pilots fly the ship some and running the radio,” he said. Many of the missions he crewed involved Stinson single wing aircraft and enclosed-cabin Waco biplanes. His one close call occurred during a storm while on an after-dark mission being flown in a Waco involved in searchlight spotter training. “We were flying down over Cape Charles in Virginia one February night when a terrific wind storm came up and we were blown inland,” he said. “The door of the ship blew open, and the pilot asked me to go close it. Just then, as I was headed toward the door, the ship took a tremendous dip, and I came close to going out.” Catheron was wearing a parachute, but had never been to jump school. “Our training consisted of someone saying: ‘Here’s a parachute; put it on.’ I knew what to do if I needed to use it, but I had never jumped.” Catheron held the CAP rank of sergeant when he was discharged in June of 1945. After completing high school in Massachusetts, he eventually enrolled at the University of Maine. Like other civilians who had served with the CAP, Catheron was not eligible for G.I. Bill benefits used by many regular military veterans to pay college tuition costs. Nonetheless, while studying at UMaine, he continued his military training. “I joined the infantry ROTC [Reserve Officer Training Corps] program,” he said. “I wasn’t paid, but it allowed me to go through basic infantry combat training with the 82nd Airborne’s 505th Regiment. I really enjoyed it. We wore regular Army uniforms and were issued M-1 rifles and trained in small arms. I grew up with small arms. The first gun I ever shot was a Luger pistol.” Catheron’s involvement with the military ended in 1950, when he graduated from UMaine with a degree in forestry. Seven years later he married his wife, Shirley. The couple has two children. Military service, Catheron believes, builds character and instills discipline. He’s not in favor of mandatory military service. “I’d much rather have it remain voluntary,” he said. “I think you get better soldiers that way.”  — Tom Walsh