I am going to depart from my usual posts today. Below is the text of a letter to the editor of News of The Force regarding the current negative publicity surrounding Maj. Gen. Pineda, the national commander of the Civil Air Patrol. I hope many of you will echo my sentiments. The articles can be found at refered to can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewsoftheForce/ .
Dear Editor,
I have been in CAP for almost 5 years and proudly serve as a chaplain in what I believe to be the finest volunteer chaplain corps in the nation. I have also found that the vast majority of people in CAP are fine dedicated people who give so very much in service of our nation. This includes Col. Rex Glasgow who was my region commander until his election as national vice commander.
Having said this I feel compelled to write regarding the articles that have been published in News of The Force, about Maj. Gen. Pineda and others in national leadership, over the last few months. As a chaplain I am dismayed that accusations of power brooking and misconduct continue to surface. As a chaplain I also strive to encourage the highest of ethical standards in my unit and wherever I may be called upon to serve. It is with this in mind that I am writing this letter.
Accusations and innuendo only serve to damage and destroy good people and good organizations. I have no idea whether anything that Gen. Pineda is accused of is true or false. The very fact that accusations continue to surface causes me to publicly ask Gen. Pineda to personally call for an open and independent investigation of the actions of all CAP national leadership including himself.
The best cure for accusation and innuendo is openness. When truth is openly brought before the public false accusations quickly evaporate. If the accusations are false then you certainly should have nothing to fear from a full, open, and independent investigation.
Gen. Pineda , your personal call for an independent investigation would do much to engender support for you as our national commander. Failure to call for an investigation while stories filled with accusation continue to surface will only erode confidence in your leadership and cast shadows over CAP at the very time CAP is working hard to forge itself new missions in the post 911 world. For the good of CAP please call today for an independent investigation so all these stories can stop once and for all.
Chaplain (Capt.) Randolph Colby CAP
ECCS KS125
pastorcolby@sbcglobal.net
http://www.chaplaincolby.blogspot.com/
316-942-6498
