May 7, 1962 - A “tremendous need” for manned aircraft still exists, and fliers will be in demand for many years to come, President Kennedy said today. Mr. Kennedy made the statement at a meeting with 52 Civil Air Patrol cadets in the Rose Garden of the White House. He was presented an honorary lifetime membership in the organization by the cadets, most of them teenage boys and girls. The President told the cadets that they and their associates and advisors in the patrol were doing a “valuable service to your country.” He said he was “sorry I wasn’t in it when I was younger.” Besides its work in searching for lost planes and rescuing crash survivors, “the very vital role the C.A.P. plays in supplying future cadets for the Air Force” was cited by Mr. Kennedy. The President presented the patrol’s second-highest award, its Medal of Valor, to James Ronald Aaron, 14, of China Lake, Calif. The boy was seriously injured in the crash of a light plane in the Sierras last March 18, but he crawled up a mountainside to get aid for the unconscious pilot.
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