About Us
WHO WE ARE
It has been our pleaser serving for 80 years in Hancock County Maine. From hand propped plains of old to modern reliable aircraft and drones we relentlessly work for the good of the community , state , and nation.
Civil Air Patrol, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with 60,000 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 is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of 80-100 lives each 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 more than 26,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for 80 years.
OUR HISTORY
Our roots trace back to World War II as Coastal Patrol Squadron #20. Our members patrolled the local waters off Maine searching for enemy submarines in defense of our nation and its merchant mariners supplying troops overseas. Our name has changed from Coastal Patrol Base #20 to Hancock County Composite Squadron to our current, Downeast Patrol Composite Squadron loften referred to as The Bar Harbor Squadron. Visit National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol and look for the book From Maine to Mexico to give you an in depth history of our founding member's lives and our organization.
Dorothy and Lawrence Pigeon, from Broad Brook, CT spent most of 1942 and the beginning of 1943 in Bar Harbor Maine. Dorothy and Lawrence were married just prior to their service. Dorothy shared operations board duties with Ruth Bedford and fondly remembers Briggs Cunningham buying everyone at the base a lobster dinner. She wrote the history of the base which included the fire that demolished most of our buildings in the winter, requiring the base personnel to rebuild. Larry Pigeon a Harvard graduate was among the group of three individuals first to leave Connecticut for Coastal Patrol in his own airplane. with Don Willis. He spent time in Atlantic City but ended up as operations officer at Bar Harbor. Coastal Patrol 20.