Many adult staff members of the Warwickshire & Birmingham Wing Air training Corps and other local people will no doubt remember Andy Sumner, who served for many years with 121 (Nuneaton) and 198 (Hinckley) Squadrons before he emigrated to the United States of America.

Andy was commissioned into the RAFVR(T) and reached the rank of Flt Lt before he made the life changing decision to emigrate. Thankfully Andy couldn’t leave his interest in the Air Cadet movement behind and soon joined the US Civil Air Patrol (CAP), which has a Cadet contingent equivalent to the UK’s Air Cadets.

Andy's story is quite unique in that he is thought to be the only RAFVR(T) officer known to have moved to the US and attained his equivalent rank of Captain in the CAP.

But Captain Andy Sumner’s impressive career in the CAP has just gone one stage further and Andy has now been promoted to Major Sumner, which is the equivalent to Squadron Leader.

Maj. Andy Sumner is now the Squadron Commander of the Capital Composite Squadron, VT033 Civil Air Patrol, which is based at Edward Knapp State Airport in Vermont. If you would like to know more about the CAP and Capital Composite Squadron, VT033 you can now visit their new website at http://capital.vtwg.cap.gov/ You can also find out more about Maj. Andy Sumner’s story in one of our previous articles Letter From America.

On behalf of 121 (Nuneaton) Squadron and the Warwickshire & Birmingham Wing as a whole, I would like to congratulate Andy on his promotion to Major.