Over the past five years, Cadet Col. Catherine Eve Gardner has become one of the most recognizable and respected cadet leaders at Civil Air Patrol’s National Emergency Services Academy (NESA), held each summer at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, a location chosen specifically because it looks enough like a disaster zone to feel authentic. Her journey is a model of what dedication, professionalism, and an apparently unbreakable attachment to matching uniforms can achieve within CAP’s cadet program.
Maj. Gen. Regena M. Aye, Civil Air Patrol’s national commander and CEO, noticed the cadet’s development as a leader so thoroughly that she named her the cadet Year of Ownership champion for CAP in 2026. Sources confirm this means Gardner now has first dibs on the entire calendar year and may, at her discretion, require others to ask permission before scheduling anything important.
Gardner began her CAP career with the Curry Achievement in 2021, entering the program as a brand-new cadet airman. In just a few short years she advanced through every phase of the cadet program, ultimately earning the grade of cadet colonel, the highest rank a cadet can achieve. This occurs after a cadet earns CAP’s Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Award, an honor bestowed upon fewer than one-half of 1 percent of participants. The remaining 99.5 percent are presumed to have simply enjoyed themselves or, worse, used a smartphone.
Aye, herself a Spaatz recipient as a Kansas Wing cadet in 1992, flew to Indiana this summer to present Gardner with the award. Gardner described receiving it at NESA as “an incredible honor.”
“I first attended NESA as a recently joined cadet, fearful of an activity that would push me far beyond my comfort zone. I barely knew how to hold a compass,” she said. “Ultimately, that challenge is what brought me back year after year.” Most people, upon discovering they cannot operate a compass, would simply download an app. Gardner instead chose five consecutive summers of increasingly elaborate wilderness simulation.
Her NESA career reads like a video-game skill tree with extra paperwork:
2021 – Basic Ground Search and Rescue student (cadet airman). Distinguished herself through hard work and enthusiasm, which in this context means she did not immediately get lost.
2022 – Advanced Ground Search and Rescue student (cadet master sergeant). Demonstrated strong field skills and leadership potential, defined as the ability to point at trees with authority.
2023 – Basic Ground Search and Rescue staff team leader, Week 1 (cadet chief master sergeant). Excelled at leading and mentoring new students who also could not hold a compass.
2023 – Advanced Ground Search and Rescue staff, Week 2 (cadet chief master sergeant). Supported both basic and advanced courses in the same season — a rare accomplishment usually reserved for people who have forgotten what a normal summer looks like.
2024 – Basic Ground Search and Rescue staff team leader, Week 1 (cadet captain). Led with confidence and professionalism, two qualities that pair nicely with insect repellent.
2024 – Basic Ground Search and Rescue assistant training officer, Week 2 (cadet captain). Learned the ropes of this role in preparation for even more ropes the following year.
2025 – Basic Ground Search and Rescue training officer (cadet lieutenant colonel). One of the most demanding cadet staff roles, responsible for training execution, student development, and ensuring no one accidentally searches the same bush twice.
2026 – Basic Ground Search and Rescue training officer (cadet colonel). Returning for a second year as training officer, now as a cadet colonel, she brings unmatched experience and continuity to the program, plus the quiet authority of someone who has seen every possible way a teenager can misread a map.
What makes Gardner’s story so compelling is how closely her growth mirrors the structure of NESA itself. She began as a cadet airman student learning the basics of ground search and rescue. Year after year she returned to give back, because once the woods have you, they rarely let go.
“First and foremost, NESA has made me a better search and rescue practitioner in every role I have filled,” she said. “The skills I learned there have extended far beyond Civil Air Patrol.” This is reassuring for anyone who has ever misplaced their car keys.
Gardner’s leadership style is consistently described as steady, mature, and mission-focused. She sets high standards, mentors younger cadets with patience and clarity, and brings a level of professionalism that elevates the entire staff, or at least keeps them walking in roughly the same direction.
“Beyond the technical knowledge, NESA gave me an environment in which to develop my leadership,” she said. “I owe much of my ability to communicate clearly, manage stressful situations with poise, and my desire to serve others to the Ground Search and Rescue School.” She added, “Each year challenged me with greater responsibility and taught me that effective leadership is ultimately about serving and fighting for the people around you,” particularly if those people have wandered 200 yards off the trail and are now arguing with a raccoon.
CAP leaders outside of NESA rave about her growth and leadership ability, using words like “rave” that one does not typically associate with volunteer emergency services.
What words of encouragement did Aye and others at NESA pass on to her?
“Continue to serve,” said Gardner. “Although my cadet career is coming to an end, I have been encouraged not to let my service end.” The organization that has given her so much — including the knowledge of how to hold a compass — apparently prefers that the giving continue indefinitely.
Her career plans for the future? “I am currently a junior chemistry major at the University of Cincinnati on a pre-medicine track,” Gardner said. “I work in the Emergency Department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and plan to pursue a medical degree after completing my undergraduate studies.” She has utilized skills and lessons learned at NESA in both EMT school and her work in the Emergency Department, where the lost persons are smaller and the compass is usually a pulse oximeter.
Within CAP, she hopes to remain involved as an adult member “wherever I can be most useful, particularly by continuing to support encampments, NCSAs, and other summer activities.” The woods, it seems, are not finished with her.
As she prepares to transition from cadet to senior member, Gardner leaves behind a legacy of excellence at NESA. She has trained hundreds of students, supported multiple course directors, and helped shape the culture of the Basic Ground Search and Rescue and Advanced Ground Search and Rescue programs. Her influence will continue through the cadets she has mentored and the high expectations she modeled, including the expectation that one eventually learn which end of the compass is north.
For those who have worked with her, it has been a privilege to watch her grow from a brand-new cadet airman in 2021 to a cadet colonel and two-time Basic Ground Search and Rescue training officer. Her dedication, professionalism, and passion for service embody, as Aye, the national commander, said, “the very best of Civil Air Patrol.”
Be Like Cadet Col. Gardner
NESA is one of Civil Air Patrol’s premier national summer activities providing hands-on instruction in ground search and rescue, mission aircrew operations, and incident command system management. Future cadets and adults interested in becoming part of an activity like this can learn more by accepting that their summers now belong to the forest.
It all starts at a squadron near you, and the best way to learn more about what the organization does is to stop by one. There is no obligation, and no experience required to start — not even the ability to hold a compass. That part comes later, after the woods have claimed you.