Volunteers serving America’s communities, saving lives, and shaping futures.

Student pilot and aviation enthusiast Gabriella Orme has created her own company, working as an aviation welder. She shares her CAP story with the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

I have always been fascinated and intrigued by aviation and aerospace. Airplanes, the Apollo program, the X-15, pushing the limits of our knowledge and doing things for the first time, exploring the unexplored.

In elementary school, when most of the boys wanted to be baseball players or firemen, I wanted to be an astronaut and test pilot. When I was in ninth grade I saw a commercial about CAP on TV and saw kids my age standing around a small aircraft. The commercial mentioned flying, and I was determined to be a part of that organization. I joined in 1974 and have been a member since then.

I am a physician, trained in family, internal, pulmonary and critical care, and aviation medicines. I am also an FAA senior aviation medical examiner.

CAP provided me a flight scholarship when I was 16 years, and I learned that I could master new and very different skills. I was selected to be the cadet commander at the encampment at Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West.

CAP's emphasis on leadership and character development makes the cadet program one of the most distinctive and robust youth programs in the United States.

I am grateful to CAP and the influence it has had on my life. I am grateful to those mentors who were role models to me and for creating a safe environment that allowed me to grow and fail without judgment or criticism. I am grateful to CAP for believing in me when no one else did. CAP saves lives by also changing the lives of young people. CAP allows our children to see their value, merit, and worth. That is the gift of the cadet program to our nation's young people. That is what makes CAP special.