The young men and women who make up its ranks are indeed being molded into the leaders of tomorrow. And recently, four such cadets proved their mettle.

On April 29, Cadet Senior Master Sergeant Hannah Brown, Cadet Master Sergeant Cheyenne Heiser and Cadet Master Sergeant Gavin Swanson participated in the 2017 New York Wing Conference Aerospace Education Display Competition in Lake George.

The competition, which had cadets research an aerospace topic of their choice and then prepare a tri-fold display summarizing the topic, involved nearly a dozen teams across the state.

In the end, the Jamestown Composite Squadron team, one of two representing the Western New York region, came in second place — a testament to their creative selection of the WWII-era TDR-1 drone as a topic.

Cadet Second Lieutenant Dyresse Batten was recently awarded the General Billy Mitchell Award, a milestone award that only 15 percent of Civil Air Patrol cadets achieve. P-J photos by A.J. Rao

“I hatched the idea of doing the display on the TDR-1 drone,” Swanson said. “It was an unmanned WWII drone that flew in the South Pacific in the Russell Islands. It was all wood — so it was cheap for the war effort and effective for its time.”

Swanson said he did a month of research on the project. The display itself, complete with three models of the aircraft, took nearly two weeks to complete, added Brown.

Thanks to the Lucille M. Wright Museum, the cadets were also able to display a vertical stabilizer used on the aircraft to good effect.

“We were amazed (that we placed) because a lot of the other groups put a lot of money into their projects,” Swanson said. “The first place group spent about $6,000 and we spent $100. So we used little money and used our resources well.”

This was the fifth year the squadron participated in the competition and the first time it placed, according to Lieutenant Colonel Ellen Maternowski, commander of the Jamestown Squadron.

Indeed, another budding success story for the squadron involves Cadet Second Lieutenant Dyresse Batten, who was recently awarded the General Billy Mitchell Award, a milestone award that marks the completion of the program’s Leadership Phase.

Only 15 percent of Civil Air Patrol cadets obtain the award.

“It’s much more than just a certificate and a ribbon, it actually gives you the ability to go into the military as an E-3 (Airman First Class),” Batten said. “So you’ll basically already have the jump on others.”

Batten, a 10th grader from Fredonia, has been with the Civil Air Patrol for four years and plans on attending the U.S. Air Force Academy.