Massachusetts Wing Member Receives Honors
Lt. Colonel Charles F. Neudorfer II was recently honored and presented with the Civil Air Patrol 50-Year Award for dedicated service recognizing his contributions to Civil Air Patrol beginning when he joined Civil Air Patrol as a cadet on February 1, 1971, a few weeks before his 17th birthday.
From the start, Lt Col. Neudorfer was an active cadet member of the Indian Head Cadet Squadron which was based in Hanson, Massachusetts . . . but that was only the beginning of an impressive tour of service.
Throughout his 50 years, Lt. Colonel Neudorfer would serve at the following Squadrons across the nation. Membership with the Barre Composite Squadron, VTWG, the Quincy Composite Squadron, MAWG, the McConnell Composite Squadron, KSWG, the Mount Vernon Composite Squadron, National Capitol Wing, the Fox Valley Cadet Squadron, ILWG, the Brockton Cadet Squadron, MAWG, the Bristol Cadet Squadron, MAWG and the Old Colony Cadet Squadron, MAWG to name a few.
But he served outside of Civil Air Patrol which included serving in the United States Air Force from December 1976 to October 1983 and the Massachusetts Army National Guard from April 1985 to February 2014
In addition to receiving numerous CAP awards and ratings, Lt Col. Neudorfer is most proud of receiving the General Billy Mitchell Award, the Gill Robb Wilson and the Meritorious Service Award with device.
When he was asked “What was your biggest achievement of the last 50 years?
He has three achievements that he was most proud of.
The first was that he was able to be an active aircrew member during the beginning of the Kansas Wing Blood Run program, which is still active today. The blood run program is a partnership between the Kansas Wing and American Red Cross (ARC) where the ARC, in an emergency, requests Kansas Wing to transport via airplane or ground vehicle blood products and/or tissue that are needed somewhere else.
Secondly, and taking place in the early 1990’s - he was able to hold Level 1 clinics, once a month for about a year. He says “I taught Level 1 to about 12 students during each clinic. Due to this work, I was named Senior Member of the Year for Massachusetts Wing and Northeast Region for the year 1992”.
And the final, and probably most importantly was while he was at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, he met a young lady, who he was able to keep a friendship with for about 40 years. That friendship ended in the two getting married in July 2019.
Over the past 50 years, Lt. Col. Charles F. Neudorfer II has served as cadet leadership officer, cadet activities officer, testing officer, deputy commander for cadets, deputy commander for seniors, administrative officer, personnel officer and is a two-time squadron commander for the Bristol Cadet Squadron and the Old Colony Cadet Squadron.
Currently he serves as the Director of Administration and the Assistant Director of Personnel for Massachusetts Wing.
Massachusetts Wing has always been extremely proud of his work and contributions made for Civil Air Patrol and the Wing which is why the members of Massachusetts Wing would like to thank Lt. Col. Charles Neudorfer for his service and continued support of the program along with congratulating him on this milestone achievement.
