When the government’s emergency response agencies needed to know the extent of the damage in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, they called in the Civil Air Patrol for an aerial assessment of the shoreline. When folks get lost in the Great Dismal Swamp, the Civil Air Patrol is in the air then, too, providing help with search and rescue efforts.

As the auxiliary service for the U.S. Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol is an important, though often overlooked, facet of the nation’s emergency response efforts, flying 85 percent of inland search and rescue missions, participating in disaster relief and humanitarian missions and even helping with efforts to combat the flow of drugs into the United States.

But one of the organization’s most important purposes is providing aerospace education to new generations, and the CAP headquartered at Hampton Roads Executive Airport, located off U.S. 58, just over the Suffolk border in Chesapeake, is looking for teens who would like to benefit from that effort.

During an open house from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight, visitors will have a chance to learn about the volunteer organization, find out how they can join and get an idea of the skills they could learn as CAP volunteers.

Anyone between the ages of 12 and 18 can join CAP as cadets; adults — who are typically retired Navy and Air Force pilots — come in as seniors and usually act as mentors to the cadets. The cadets develop leadership skills, along with a sense of the importance of community service, and many of them wind up in the military.

For those who have climbed through the ranks and taken advantage of the CAP’s intensive flight academy, they can start their military or professional careers with a pilot’s license, giving them a potential advantage over their peers coming straight out of high school with no such experience.

There are many after-school and weekend volunteer opportunities to help build a habit of altruism among teens. The Civil Air Patrol, however, is probably the only one around that also teaches them to fly.