Civilian Pilots Provide Target Practice

Participants include officials up the chain of command who must decide whether to intercept or shoot down an aircraft. Many involved in the exercises are not told that the Cessnas are "friendlies" until after they have been picked up by radar -- but well before any decision would be made to shoot them down.

During some exercises, the military also tracks the Cessnas with ground-to-air missiles. "Which can be kind of disconcerting if you're flying them," observed Lt. Col. Gerry Sohan of the Air Force District of Washington. None are fired, though.

The Civil Air Patrol is an auxiliary of the Air Force, which evaluates each wing every two years and provides about $30 million a year for planes, fuel and other expenses. The patrol owns more than 500 Cessnas, the biggest fleet in the world.

But the Air Force doesn't pay the volunteers, thus saving a huge amount of money.

"Just for the national capital region, one exercise would probably save close to $10,000," said Mark O'Brien, an employee with the 1st Air Force who is in charge of liaison with the Civil Air Patrol.

Civil Air Patrol members pay $65 a year in dues and buy their own uniforms. In return, they get the opportunity to fly at reduced rates or take cheap flying lessons. But, Gardella said, they receive something more important.

"Most of my flying has been for myself, for my own enjoyment," he said, referring to his many years as a private pilot. "I started to feel the Lord gave me the ability and resources and passion to fly, and so I ought to give something back."

That explains why he was lifting off into the sky in a Cessna shortly before midnight with Zuegel at his side. It was to be a long night; they were supposed to invade Washington twice.

Gardella isn't allowed to reveal what transpired in the nightlong exercise. But, contacted a few days later, he said he finished with such an adrenaline rush that he actually went to work instead of taking time off to sleep.

And were his co-workers impressed that he had been out all night trying to help defend the United States from enemies, zooming his little Cessna into restricted airspace to be a target for fighter planes, helicopters and ground-to-air missiles?

"They're not that into it," he said. "They're like, 'That's nice.' "