Public Affairs: Style

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Style

Abbreviations

CAP Grade Abbreviations & AP Style

Every Civil Air Patrol member should read this. Please share!

Which is correct?

A) LtCol

B) Lt.Col.

C) Lt Col

D) Lt. Col.

Hint: It depends on whether it is written for internal or external purposes.

Did you know we do not use superscript for grades with '1st' '2nd'?

C) Lt Col is correct for Internal CAP correspondence & memos

D) Lt. Col. is correct for use in Public Affairs products, (ie, external published content)

For Facebook, WAWG leans toward using Air Force (CAP) Grades as per the AP Style Guide (see CAP Grade Abbreviations below).

CAP Grade Abbreviations – as per CAPR 35-5 and CAPR 52-16

(Note that the appropriate CAP abbreviation for Cadet Senior Airman is C/SrA with a lowercase R).

CAP Knowedgebase - Difference between rank and grade?

Do you know the difference between "rank" and "grade"?

JBLM PAO's Style Guide

This document from the JBLM PAO may help you when attempting to format different military names.

Boilerplate

Civil Air Patrol, the longtime all-volunteer U.S. Air Force auxiliary, is the newest member of the Air Force’s Total Force. In this role, CAP operates a fleet of 560 aircraft, performs about 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 lives annually. CAP’s 58,000 members also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. CAP also plays a leading role in aerospace/STEM education, and its members serve as mentors to 24,000 young people participating in CAP’s Cadet Programs. Visit www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com for more information.

(updated 1-Feb-18)

You can also find the most current version on the national GoCivilAirPatrol.com site under Public Affairs / Resource Library / Tookit.

WAWG

Locally, Washington Wing Civil Air Patrol members operate a fleet of 24 vehicles and 14 aircraft (Cessnas 172s, 182s, and a 206, as well as 2 Blanik gliders) for inland search and rescue missions and cadet orientation flight instruction. The wing is comprised of 691 adult members (ages 18+) and 711 cadets (ages 12-21), organized into 27 squadrons, who contributed a value of $4.9 million in volunteer hours to their local communities and the state of Washington in 2017. Visit www.wawg.cap.gov for more information.

- Wing Commander, Col Shelly J. Norman
- 144 aircrew personnel
- 515 cadet orientation flights
- 1,537 total hours flown
- 779 emergency responders
- 15 VHF/FM repeaters
- 230 VHF/FM stations
- 41 HF stations

(updated 11-Nov-18)

Unit

Consider developing local boilerplate text for your unit. Tip: Include your charter date and mention the communities from which you draw your membership.

Branding / Resources

Commander Orientation Kit

Grammarly

Grammarly is an online grammar and spelling checker that improves communication by helping users find and correct writing mistakes. It’s easy to use:

- Copy and paste any English text into Grammarly’s online text editor, or install Grammarly’s free browser extension for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
- Grammarly’s algorithms flag potential issues in the text and suggest context-specific corrections for grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. Grammarly explains the reasoning behind each correction, so you can make an informed decision about whether, and how, to correct an issue.