San Diego, CA (1888PressRelease)
August 30, 2007 - San Diego based U.S. Civil Air Patrol Squadron 57 is deeply saddened to announce the death of Captain Richard “Dick” Akita who passed away in his sleep Tuesday, August 28, 2007. No other details of his passing were immediately available.
"The Akita family is in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time," wrote the organization's state level commander, Colonel Jesse Muniz, in an email to Civil Air Patrol volunteers.
Akita was serving as Commander of the organization's San Diego squadron at the time of his death; he became Squadron Commander in December, 2006.
"I've never seen an individual move into the Squadron Commander job so quickly and handle it as well as Dick did," said Major Randy McClure, a regional commander. "[Dick] stepped up, worked hard, put in the time, and did a fantastic job," he said. "The squadron has a very bright future as a result of his contributions."
On Sunday, August 26 -- two days prior to his death -- Akita flew a training mission with squadron members Capts. Claudette DeCourley and Shairrie Van Duzer when their aircraft was re-tasked to search for an Emergency Locater Transmitter (ELT) indicating a possible downed aircraft. Akita and the aircrew members located the ELT in a Cessna 182 at Perris Valley Airport and a CAP ground team disabled the beacon. "I'm devastated," wrote DeCourley in an email to unit members. The aircrew was credited with a Non-Distress Find for the mission.
Akita served as a Civil Air Patrol Mission Scanner and Mission Observer. A former Naval aviator, he was an FAA-licensed private pilot. Akita also volunteered in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary as a Vice Captain and was Vice President for Programs for the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, San Diego Chapter.
He is survived by his wife Janet of Carlsbad and a son, Mike. Services are being planned.
Squadron 57
Squadron 57 is a senior member squadron of U.S. Civil Air Patrol with a primary focus on emergency services. Members of the unit have participated in numerous distress and non-distress emergency missions in 2006.
There are over 40 squadron members. Squadron business meetings on the second Tuesday of the month are currently held at the Operations Bldg at Montgomery Field with other meetings held at Senior Aerospace - Ketema, Building 1, 790 Greenfield, in El Cajon on Thursday evenings. More unit information is available at http://sq57.cawg.cap.gov/. Squadron 57 welcomes active aviators to join CAP.
Civil Air Patrol
The U.S. Civil Air Patrol was founded on Dec. 1, 1941, less than a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. CAP, the official auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with more than 55,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 95 percent of inland search and rescue missions, as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, and was credited with saving 59 lives in 2006. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Members play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the more than 22,000 young people currently participating in the CAP Cadet Program. For more information, go to www.cap.gov.
