AUBURN — The Lewiston Auburn Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol hosted a promotion ceremony on Feb. 4 at the Lewiston Auburn Airport to promote Maj. Warren King of Auburn to lieutenant colonel.

King has been a member of the Civil Air Patrol since joining the Lewiston Auburn Composite Squadron in 2008.

He is a search-and-rescue mission pilot with nearly 6,000 flight hours. He has been flying for over 50 years, starting when he served in the Air Force in the 1950s. 

King has served previously in the roles of Maine wing maintenance officer and squadron maintenance officer. He is serving as director of maintenance for the Northeast Region, an area covering nine states.

Col. Daniel Leclair, commander of Northeast Region Civil Air Patrol, officially promoted King in a ceremony attended by CAP members and members of the public.

Director of maintenance for the region is a demanding job, with 70 airplanes, six gliders and pilots spread across nine wings from New Jersey to Maine. Gliders need rebuilding, new planes need testing and delivery, and older planes need work to stay operational.

King keeps region aircraft flying and has mentored a number of Maine Wing pilots in the proper care and flying of CAP aircraft.

He is qualified in all CAP aircraft from the computer glass Cessna 206 Stationair to the steam gauge Cessna 172 Skyhawk.

In 1955 King joined the Air Force and trained as a flight engineer in in cargo planes, including the C-119 Flying Boxcar and the B-26 bomber.

He spent time flying missions from Korea and Japan, monitoring Russian ships in the Bering Sea. He learned to fly using the GI Bill after leaving the Air Force, and spent many years as a crop duster, spraying grasshoppers in New Mexico, rice and soybeans in Louisiana, and spruce budworm in Maine forests. He flew small dusters, including a Pawnee and AG Cat, and larger ones including an AG Tractor, Douglas C-54 and a converted PV-2 Neptune that he flew more than 2,500 hours.

King and Story were also awarded the Paul E. Garber Award. The award recognizes people at CAP who serve more than two years in a command staff position, attend Regional Staff College, and receive the silver star for mastering a specialty position.

King served as maintenance officer for the Maine Wing and Northeast Region. Story served as public affairs officer for the Maine Wing and Northeast Region. She now serves as recruiting and retention officer for the Maine Wing.

Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 61,000 members nationwide.

CAP, in its Air Force auxiliary role, performs 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and has been credited by the AFRCC with saving more than 70 lives this fiscal year. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counter-drug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to over 25,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 74 years.

FMI: www.gocivilairpatrol.com.