CAP went on to target towing operations, courier service for the Army, liaison and cargo flights between war plants, Southern Border patrol against enemy infiltrators crossing from Mexico, and air search and rescue. Non-flying CAP members guarded airfields and trained a rapidly growing corps of CAP cadets. CAP searched for many military planes that had gone down on training or ferry missions around the United States. After a B-24 crash landed one winter atop Mount Baldy near Taos, New Mexico, a CAP Taylorcraft made six successful landings at 12,800 feet to deliver survival rations and recover crucial equipment. Nevada CAP actually had its own cavalry of sorts, conducting ground rescue operations in rough territory on horseback, including 24 mounts transferred from the Army’s now-obsolete Cavalry at Ft. Riley, Kansas.
Inland operations were typified by the flying of Liaison Pilot Bill "Pappy" Madsen, operations officer for the "Mountain Boys" flying from Peterson Field in Colorado Springs, Colorado. CAP’s operations in the Rockies actually pioneered many routes and mountain flying concepts still in use today. Colorado-based courier pilots operated 100 scheduled flights a day over 50 routes, carrying 3.5 million pounds of cargo to military bases in 17 states. Seven courier pilots died in the mountains of the West, with a like number perishing in the East on flights between war plants.
Women were actively recruited by CAP. In addition to support duties at Coastal Patrol bases, women pilots flew inland liaison, forest fire patrol and other missions. By war’s end, women made up 20 percent of the Civil Air Patrol. These women were not immune to duty’s dangers. Margaret Bartholomew, commander of the Cincinnati courier station, was lost in the western Pennsylvania mountains after departing Williamsport, unaware of a surprise storm ahead. Departing just as new weather information reached Williamsport, Bartholomew did not hear the tower’s desperate attempts to recall her flight.
In all, Civil Air Patrol flew a half-million hours during World War II and 64 CAP aviators lost their lives.
CAP’s role after the war was much in question, and it was widely expected to fade away along with most other wartime institutions. But military and political leaders rose to praise CAP’s unusual commitment and accomplishment. At a special dinner in Washington, DC in March, 1946, President Harry Truman, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, and no less than 300 members of Congress and 50 AAF generals gathered to praise its work. President Truman later signed a bill granting CAP a national charter, placing the organization in a unique status similar to the American Red Cross. The United States Air Force was created as an independent armed service in September, 1947, and the Civil Air Patrol was permanently designated as its official civilian auxiliary the following year.