The Northeaster
Newsletter of the Northeast Region, Civil Air Patrol
SPRING 2003 as of April 19, 2003
THE NORTHEAST REGION MISSION:
"To serve our nine state region and our national by developing the potential of our youth; accomplishing local, state and national missions, and educating our citizens on the value of aerospace power."
Col Richard Greenhut, NER/CC Lt Col Constance O'Grady, NER/PAO
Coming Events:
21 APR NER Commander's Teleconference Call 2000 hours
23 APR NER Staff Teleconference
25-27 APR Connecticut Wing Conference, Holiday Inn, Cromwell, CT
25-27 APR Maine Wing Conference, Sheryl Tredwell, sherry@maine,rr.com
The Chalet Motel, Lewiston, ME Seniors/Guest $35 and Cadets $30.
30 APR Wing 1st Quarter PAO Report due to National/Region CAPR 190-1
2 - 3 MAY NEC Meeting
2 - 4 MAY NER Cadet Competition, Newport, RI
10 MAY NER Staff Meeting, Westover
19 - 22 MAY NER Chaplains College, Navy Chaplain School, Newport, RI
30 - 1 JUN New York Wing Conference, Oswego, NY
7 JUN NER Staff Meeting, Westover
13 - 15 JUN Pennsylvania Wing Conference, Greentree Holiday Inn, Pittsburgh, PA
Lt Lynda Paulsen This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 412-650-8163
19 - 22 JUN National Cadet Competition
30 JUN Region Historical Narrative due
30 JUN Chaplain Semi-Annual Report due to Wing HC
13 - 19 JUL NER Staff College, McGuire AFB, NJ
19 JUL NER Staff Meeting, McGuire AFB
31 JUL Wing 2nd Quarter PAO Report due to National/Region with Names & Addresses of unit PAO's. per CAPR 190-1.
9 AUG NER Staff Meeting, Westover, Conference Planning, MANDATORY MEETING
25 - 27 AUG National Board Meeting, MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV MONDAY - WEDNESDAY
6 SEP New Hampshire Wing Conference, The Holiday Inn, Concord, NH
12-14 SEP Northeast Region Conference, Crown Plaza Hotel, Worcester, MA
11 OCT NER Staff Meeting, Westover
31 OCT Wing 3rd Quarter PAO Report due to National/Region per CAPR 190-1
15 NOV NER Staff Meeting, Westover
1 DEC CAP Anniversary
13 DEC NER Staff Meeting, Westover
2004
31 JAN Wing PAO 4th Quarter Report due to National/Region with Names & Addresses of unit PAO's per CAPR 190-1
12 - 14 MAR Massachusetts Wing Conference, Sturbridge Hotel, Sturbridge, MA
Contact Lt Col Harry Mottley, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 414-442-4232
30- 2 MAY New Jersey Wing Conference, Bridgewater Marriott, Bridgewater, NJ
Contact: Major Karen Maneely This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SAFETY PLEDGE: I pledge to do my part to foster a safe environment during all CAP activities, to be a responsible steward of CAP resources and to fully prepare myself for the challenging missions that serve America.
Do you know of anyone in your Wing who needs to go to the Northeast Region Staff College in order to advance in grade? If so, please urge their attendance at this years' college. The dates are 13 to 19 July. The Director is Col. Bryan Cooper. Each student must fill out a Form 17 and submitted through your Wing to: Col. Joy Nelson, Curriculum Coordinator, PO Box 5, Oakdale, NY 11769-0005. The cost is $30. That includes registration, the cost of a picnic in the middle of the week, books and the DINING OUT where we all have a real good time, military style. Meals at Falcon Dining Hall cost $5 to $8 per day. Billeting at the NCO Academy dorms, one person per room at a cost of $24.50 per night.
Lt Col AL Hulstrunk Takes Top Honors At NCASE
CINCINNATI, OHIO - Northeast Region's own Director of Aerospace Education, Lt Col Al Hulstrunk, took top honors at the National Congress on Aviation and Space Education by winning the Crown Circle Award given to him by National Commander, Richard Bowling. There were five nominees submitted for this award but our own won out. The nominees were evaluated according to the following criteria:
Demonstrated involvement in, and commitment to, aerospace education
Outstanding leadership in aerospace education, locally, nationally, or internationally
Performance over an extended term (years) at a high level, and of great quality.
Our Al Hulstrunk was born in the month that Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic. Alfred Hulstrunk has been an aviation advocate and enthusiast all of his life. His parents directed the model airplane activities for the Newark, NJ Recreation Dept. for 40 years starting in 1930 and were avid glider fliers with the flying group Aero Club Albatross. Al's early years were focused toward in and outdoor model airplane activities with many summers at the gliding sites in Elmira, Cape Henlopen and at Great Meadows on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
In 1944, Al was glider certified and joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a Glider Pilot. He received training at Kelly Field in the then ubiquitous WACO CG-4A for Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan. Also as part of an Army research team, he participated in the development of bio-plastics, a technique of preserving and displaying biological specimens. Many awards and decorations were presented for his military activities, including the Army MERITORIOUS UNIT COMMENDATION.
Al acquired an undergraduate degree in Science Education and graduate degree in Biology in the late 40's while performing at air shows in his Aerobatic Glider Act and as a demonstration parachute jumper. Following graduation, he joined an American Geographical Society expedition to the ice fields of Alaska and collected associated glacial data and has since been a member of the Explorers Club and the National Speleological Society. With the group, Exploration Enterprises, he co-produced and was the group leader in "The Spelunker", the first underground TV documentary film.
In 1954, he built the planetarium at the Schenectady Museum as the Curator or Science and Staff Astronomer. He subsequently became the Science Supervisor for the Schenectady Public Schools where he developed an integrated science curriculum, an experimental outdoor education program and produced for six years, the weekly half-hour program "Science Adventures" for the CBS network station WRGB-TV. In the late 50's he also wrote and illustrated all of the science reading and comprehensive units for the SRA and as a Colgate University field investigator in Paleobotany, co-discovered the fossil Lycapod "Calpadexylon Deatsii". As a cave explorer and subterranean observer, he compiled and wrote the New York State Cave Survey, which provided maps, descriptions and pertinent biological, geological and meteorological observations.
As a NASA Spacemobile Lecturer in the early 60's, Al participated in the beginning of manned space flight as the educational associate of John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, representing them at many scientific, educational and technical functions throughout the world. As technical liaison representative for the first NASA hardware exhibit at the Seattle "Century 21 Exposition" and for the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and his publications "Experiences in Space Science" and "Astronomical Notes", he became known as the "Flying Educator".
In the mid 60's, Al joined the SUNYA Atmospheric Sciences Research Center as the Assistant Director and Senior Research Associate. He directed a varied fleet of center and bailment aircraft housed at the ASRC Cloud Physics Laboratory and hanger at the Schenectady County Airport. Because of flight demands, be became rated in single and flight checked in multi and free ballooning. He participated in many missions as a technical observer, research participant or as a member of the flight crew. Periodically, he flew single place aircraft missions to relatively high altitudes in the CAT air density pattern studies and into the Cirrus region to provide structural information relating to their crystalline and electrical characteristics. He also was directly involved with the tornado/hurricane dynamic vortex observations, the development of RPV's as instrumental platforms and the construction of a laboratory simulation for lightning strikes on full size aircraft.
Al directed a network of field stations throughout the world that were used for investigations into meteorological concepts. Because of his position, he was able to participate with numerous teams using aircraft, ships and special land conveyances. From Yellowstone to Kenya, from Pacific volcanoes to the Antarctic, from Lake Erie to the Sea of Japan, studies were made to understand the atmospheric phenomena, especially in frozen precipitation, ice crystal structures, cloud seeding techniques, pollution interactions and cloud dynamics. He also was involved with the salvage archaeology in the Glenn Canyon during the formation of Lake Powell and did extensive primitive site evaluations in northern Arizona.
During this time, he was appointed to the NYS Environmental Board as the Executive Secretary and to the State Nature & Historical Preserve Trust as an advising naturalist. He also organized the DEC Stony Kill Environmental Education Center and provided all the aerial survey information for the Delaware Reservoir Regulatory proceedings. As the program director for the National Science Institute (NSI), he organized materials, provided the evaluatory techniques for student selection and supervised the independent research investigations at varying field locations. This high school level program allowed highly motivated science/math students to develop independent research projects under the communication guidance of distinguished scientists. For the NYS-DEC Conservation Magazine and the Environmental Newsletter, he wrote numerous articles, including "Air Pollution Sampling Techniques" and the Bizarre and Curious of NYS"- its buried treasures, monsters, ghosts and other unusual phenomena.
An aircraft mishap disabled Al in 1978. Subsequently, the invented the Energy Field/Kirlian Effect Motion Picture Camera that was used for analysis during the '80 Olympic Games. He developed many innovative procedures as the photo effect producer for the theater motion picture: The Kirlian Whitness and as the special segment producer for the National Geographic Special's, "The Unseen World" and "Energy Fields in Nature and Man". He also provided time lapse field effect, photographic material for the CBS Body Human series program, "The Bionic Breakthrough". Al is the Co-author of a definitive two year, UFO study in the Capital District and was a group leader on the African Solar Eclipse Expedition, "Eclipse at Sea in 1973". He is also a founding member of a local naturalistic fraternal order, the Turtle Bay Winter Exploratory Group (TBWEG) which collects and compiles data on some of the large lakes of New York State. Hydrologic information, frozen conditions and processes and unusual events, such as creative sightings, are parts of the group's records.
As the Education Director for the Schenectady Museum, he initiated many aerospace presentations in the Planetarium and technical/artistic exhibits in the galleries. "Black Wings", "Sport Flying", Wings Across the Oceans", and "UFO Concepts" were some of the major happenings.
In the late 80's, as a founding advisor to the new aeronautical center, the Empire State Aerospace Museum, he became their Special Projects Coordinator, responsible for the interpretive aspects of information and hardware. Included in the Museum building and on the associated display area are many aircraft and aerospace associated items, including a space flight simulator, all part of Al's contribution to this ongoing aeronautical resource located at the "Little Peenemunde of the US", the former site of the GE Flight Test Facility at the Schenectady County Airport.
To continue his association with the aerospace community on an operational basis, he joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1986 as the External Aerospace Education Officer. In 1996, he became the Northeast Region Deputy Chief of Staff for AE with the rank of Lt Col. In this capacity, he has traveled throughout the nine-state region making civic group presentations, assisting state education personnel, presenting materials to museums and being involved in workshops and seminars at a variety of institutions. He has made direct contributions to every region conference. The "Build and Assemble Aircraft" project and the "Scratch-Built Rocketry" programs are examples. Al has always supported and participated in the Cadet Competitions, the Essay Contests and other Regional activities, such as Encampments and many of the Wing Conferences on a regular basis.
Al Hulstrunk is an active member of a research team that is investigating a "new" hurricane modification process. We is also the environmental consultant to the industrial/educational partnership, the Arts in Science Program, "The Hudson River School" and has written and illustrated four Space Module programs and Materials for the RPI/NASA instructional process, and continues to function with the ESAM as their educational and interpretive programmer and advisor, and aircraft acquisition expediter.
Lt Col Al Hulstrunk has participated in many underground expeditions with the NSS and continues to support, as a member of the WWII Glider Pilots Association, motorless flight activities. He flies when the opportunity arises, with museum related experiences in helicopters, blimps, free balloons, ultralights and experimentally rated home built aircraft. Al has presented many programs throughout the US on a variety of subjects. His "Fist Person" renditions of Edison and Sir Edmund Halley are quite enlightening. He has also presented many seminars and instructed courses in the area of PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT and the Esoteric Sciences. He has been supportive of youth groups, such as the BSA, GSA, 4-H and other organized educational groups. He continues to present an image of an educator, adventurer, investigator of unusual phenomena, research scientist and a supporter of the development of any and all experimental educational concepts.
An advocate of out-of-door experimental education, with training at the New Jersey School of Conservation, in the early 50's, he has designed many successful field activities. With progressing educational groups, cave exploration, mountain climbing, bog slogging, whale watching, birding, rafting and winter camping; archaeological probing, geological collecting and environmental assessment, have been part of his direct leadership. AS an artist and illustrator, a part time tinkerer, and a dabbler in mechanics, Al has built a car, an airplane, a house, and has displayed his artwork on numerous occasions. He is currently a lead developer for the New York State Wright Centennial Commission and is the creative supervisor of the ESAM "Animated Wright Exhibit".
