{"id":10703,"date":"2018-04-13T10:45:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T14:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=10703"},"modified":"2023-02-13T10:02:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T14:02:35","slug":"colonel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/","title":{"rendered":"K Spanish Major Becomes Colonel in Civil Air Patrol"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next time you see Sarah Kleppe \u201919 around the Kalamazoo College campus, you might want to come to attention and deliver a sharp salute. The Spanish major<\/a> from Colorado is now a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol<\/a> after a ceremony at the CAP Michigan Wing\u2019s 2018 Conference in Bay City.<\/p>\n

\"Colonel
Sarah Kleppe \u201919, a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, shakes hands with Maj. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, commander of the Michigan Air National Guard, as she receives the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, the Civil Air Patrol\u2019s highest youth honor. Also on hand for the awards ceremony in Bay City, Michigan, was Maj. Gen. Amy Courter \u201983, former national commander of CAP and a Kalamazoo College trustee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kleppe is among the highest fliers in the CAP cadet corps \u2014 one of the fewer than 1 percent who manage to earn the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award<\/a>, the organization\u2019s highest youth honor. Recognizing excellence in leadership, character, fitness and aerospace education, it brings with it the cadet colonel rank, indicated by a three-diamond uniform insignia.<\/p>\n

To achieve the rank, the already busy K student had to take two rigorous closed-book exams on all the material she\u2019s learned in her six years as a cadet, pass a physical test based on U.S. Air Force<\/a> standards and write an essay.<\/p>\n

Like a typical K student, however, she says the work and study, along with years of weekly meetings, summer camps and other activities, are her idea of fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work but it\u2019s definitely a worthwhile program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She was thrilled to receive the Spaatz Award, named for the first Air Force chief of staff, from Maj. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, commander of the Michigan Air National Guard. Also on hand was Maj. Gen. Amy Courter \u201983, former national commander of the Civil Air Patrol and a member of the College\u2019s Board of Trustees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Spaatz Award was established in 1964, and the first recipient was Douglas C. Roach of Michigan, who went on to serve as a pilot with the Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatic team. Kleppe is still working on her pilot\u2019s license, and while she\u2019s not aiming to fly fighter jets, she hasn\u2019t ruled out joining the Air Force after graduation.<\/p>\n

\"Colonel
Sarah Kleppe \u201919, a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, is the recipient of the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, the Civil Air Patrol\u2019s highest youth honor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One thing is for sure: She will continue to be active in the Civil Air Patrol. She just turned 21 and is transitioning into the adult side of the organization, becoming cadet commander of Kalamazoo Composite Squadron. She also hopes to fill what she considers a gap in her cadet experience: participating in CAP \u201cSAREXes,\u201d or search-and-rescue exercises. As a civilian adjunct to the Air Force, helping find downed planes and rescue missing hikers is one of chief functions of the organization.<\/p>\n

Despite whatever she might have missed along the way, however, Kleppe says she gained invaluable skills and experiences. She credits the Civil Air Patrol with teaching her everything from how to write a resume and cover letter to the fundamentals of leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s given me confidence in myself and taught me a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cI would be a completely different person had I not gone through the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

And besides, she says, from her very first cadet meeting in high school, \u201cI had a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next time you see Sarah Kleppe \u201919 around the Kalamazoo College campus, you might want to come to attention and deliver a sharp salute. The Spanish major from Colorado is now a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol after a ceremony at the CAP Michigan Wing\u2019s 2018 Conference in Bay City. Kleppe is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":10704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[68],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-10703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-spanish"],"yoast_head":"\r\nColonel, K Spanish Major Receives Highest Civil Air Patrol Youth Honor<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sarah Kleppe \u201919 is now a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol after a ceremony at the CAP Michigan Wing\u2019s 2018 Conference in Bay City.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colonel, K Spanish Major Receives Highest Civil Air Patrol Youth Honor\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sarah Kleppe \u201919 is now a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol after a ceremony at the CAP Michigan Wing\u2019s 2018 Conference in Bay City.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News and Events\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/KalamazooCollege\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-13T14:45:29+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-13T14:02:35+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Colonel-Sarah-Kleppe-Civil-Air-Patrol.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1067\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@kcollege\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\",\"name\":\"Colonel, K Spanish Major Receives Highest Civil Air Patrol Youth Honor\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Colonel-Sarah-Kleppe-Civil-Air-Patrol.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-13T14:45:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-13T14:02:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Sarah Kleppe \u201919 is now a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol after a ceremony at the CAP Michigan Wing\u2019s 2018 Conference in Bay City.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Colonel-Sarah-Kleppe-Civil-Air-Patrol.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Colonel-Sarah-Kleppe-Civil-Air-Patrol.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":1067,\"caption\":\"Sarah Kleppe \u201919, a colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, shakes hands with Maj. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, commander of the Michigan Air National Guard, as she receives the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, the Civil Air Patrol\u2019s highest youth honor. Also on hand for the awards ceremony in Bay City, Michigan, was Maj. Gen. 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aria-label=\"archive of category Students\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/category\/students\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Students<\/a>","tags_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/tag\/spanish\/\" rel=\"tag\">Spanish<\/a>","social_share_info":"<a data-share=\"facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\" class=\"pl-facebook-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\" class=\"pl-twiiter-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a><a data-share=\"linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/colonel\/\" class=\"pl-linkedin-share social-share-default pl-social-share\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/a>","wordExcerpt_info":"<p>The next time you see Sarah Kleppe \u201919 around the Kalamazoo College campus, you might want to come to attention and deliver a sharp salute. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/programs\/spanish\/\">Spanish major<\/a> from Colorado is now a cadet colonel in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gocivilairpatrol.com\/\">Civil Air Patrol<\/a> after a ceremony at the CAP Michigan Wing\u2019s 2018 Conference in Bay City.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10704\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10704\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10704\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Colonel-Sarah-Kleppe-Civil-Air-Patrol-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Colonel Sarah Kleppe Civil Air Patrol\" width=\"584\" height=\"389\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10704\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Kleppe \u201919, a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, shakes hands with Maj. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, commander of the Michigan Air National Guard, as she receives the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, the Civil Air Patrol\u2019s highest youth honor. Also on hand for the awards ceremony in Bay City, Michigan, was Maj. Gen. Amy Courter \u201983, former national commander of CAP and a Kalamazoo College trustee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kleppe is among the highest fliers in the CAP cadet corps \u2014 one of the fewer than 1 percent who manage to earn the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gocivilairpatrol.com\/programs\/cadets\/stripes-to-diamonds\/spaatz-award\/\">Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award<\/a>, the organization\u2019s highest youth honor. Recognizing excellence in leadership, character, fitness and aerospace education, it brings with it the cadet colonel rank, indicated by a three-diamond uniform insignia.<\/p>\n<p>To achieve the rank, the already busy K student had to take two rigorous closed-book exams on all the material she\u2019s learned in her six years as a cadet, pass a physical test based on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airforce.com\/\">U.S. Air Force<\/a> standards and write an essay.<\/p>\n<p>Like a typical K student, however, she says the work and study, along with years of weekly meetings, summer camps and other activities, are her idea of fun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot of work but it\u2019s definitely a worthwhile program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>She was thrilled to receive the Spaatz Award, named for the first Air Force chief of staff, from Maj. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, commander of the Michigan Air National Guard. Also on hand was Maj. Gen. Amy Courter \u201983, former national commander of the Civil Air Patrol and a member of the College\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/about\/board-of-trustees\/\">Board of Trustees<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaatz Award was established in 1964, and the first recipient was Douglas C. Roach of Michigan, who went on to serve as a pilot with the Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatic team. Kleppe is still working on her pilot\u2019s license, and while she\u2019s not aiming to fly fighter jets, she hasn\u2019t ruled out joining the Air Force after graduation.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10705\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10705\" style=\"width: 385px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-10705\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2018\/04\/Colonel-Sarah-Kleppe-Civil-Air-Patrol-2-600x463.jpg\" alt=\"Colonel Sarah Kleppe Civil Air Patrol\" width=\"385\" height=\"299\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarah Kleppe \u201919, a cadet colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, is the recipient of the Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, the Civil Air Patrol\u2019s highest youth honor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One thing is for sure: She will continue to be active in the Civil Air Patrol. She just turned 21 and is transitioning into the adult side of the organization, becoming cadet commander of Kalamazoo Composite Squadron. She also hopes to fill what she considers a gap in her cadet experience: participating in CAP \u201cSAREXes,\u201d or search-and-rescue exercises. As a civilian adjunct to the Air Force, helping find downed planes and rescue missing hikers is one of chief functions of the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Despite whatever she might have missed along the way, however, Kleppe says she gained invaluable skills and experiences. She credits the Civil Air Patrol with teaching her everything from how to write a resume and cover letter to the fundamentals of leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s given me confidence in myself and taught me a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cI would be a completely different person had I not gone through the program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And besides, she says, from her very first cadet meeting in high school, \u201cI had a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10703"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18995,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10703\/revisions\/18995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10703"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=10703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}