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C/Lt Col Grant McDaris Receives Outstanding Leadership Award at NCSA

Cadet with officers
Pictured L to R: Lt Col Gary Dahlke, FLWG-CAP, Lt Col Schalvo, USAF, C/Lt Col Grant McDaris, and Capt Michael Marzano, ILWG-CAP, at the Air Force Space Command Familiarization Course graduation banquet. Photo Credit: 1st Lt Douglas McDaris, CAP (click image to view full size)
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NC-019 cadet shines at the Air Force Space Command Familiarization Course

By 1st Lt Douglas McDaris, CAP
Asst Squadron Activities Officer, Asheville Composite Squadron

6/18/2018–ASHEVILLE, NC–C/Lt Col Grant McDaris from the Asheville Composite Squadron attended the Air Force Space Command Familiarization Course (AFSpC-FC) on 2-9 June 2018 at Patrick AFB, Florida. At the NCSA, C/Lt Col McDaris was selected by the USAF and the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Cadre to receive the Outstanding Leadership Award.

The Outstanding Leadership Award award is presented to the cadet who exhibited and demonstrated leadership over and above what is expected of cadets attending the course. At age 15, C/Lt Col McDaris was the youngest of 28 cadets from around the nation attending the course and he was the only North Carolina Wing Cadet to attend.

The AFSpC-FC is sponsored by the 45th Space Wing (Air Force Space Command), Patrick AFB, and CAP. The program teaches cadets about our nation’s space missions, programs, and diverse career opportunities with the goal of motivating these outstanding young scholars to seek challenging careers in engineering and sciences. Tours, briefings, and activities are led by experts in their respective aerospace fields. 

Key highlights of this course are the on-site visits and access to a wide variety of restricted operational areas on both Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and Kennedy Space Center (KSC), as well as formal, informative briefings from Air Force and NASA engineers, astronauts, and other specialists within the aerospace field. 

The course has been in place since 1996 with tour access and briefings provided by the 45th Space Wing and NASA/KSC. The program is a career orientation and aerospace educational program designed to give cadets an executive introduction to Air Force and NASA space operations. Cadet participants and officer staff were competitively selected at the CAP National level to participate in the annual AFSpC-FC.

As one highlight of the course, the cadets were also able to view a night time launch of a Space X rocket.