Tennessee Wing Cadet Kidd Honors the Dead, Helps the Living
By Paul South
A Civil Air Patrol cadet with a servant’s heart may be the best-known twentysomething in this part of Tennessee, from the state capitol to city hall.
For seven years, Cadet Capt. Ella Kidd has answered the call in times of state or national mourning, responsible for lowering flags of government buildings in Cleveland and Bradley County to half-staff. She’s believed to be the longest serving flag sentry in the Volunteer State.
Her flag duty began with two buildings, the Bradley County Courthouse and the Cleveland Municipal Building. By her count, she now performs sentry duties for nine flags in the area. She does her duty rain or snow or dark of night.
Kidd began as the backup sentry, then became the lead sentry a year later.
“For a lot of people, it’s just pulling on a rope,” she said. “But it’s a lot more than that. It’s respecting and honoring a lot of different people, a lot of different things that have happened in America.
“It’s important to me.”
Military veterans, their service and their stories, drive her commitment to the colors.
“In the time that I have been flag sentry, I have spoken to so many veterans, people who were around during 9/11,” Kidd said. “I’ve heard so many stories … Just hearing the stories from other people, and they really, really earn your respect.
“There are people who have died for this country and for my freedom. They are the reason that I can sit here talking to you and say what I want. Freedom of speech, you know? And it’s because of them.”
Kidd has been honored by the Cleveland City Council and by Bradley County for her flag work. She estimates that she has lowered the colors to half-staff more than 100 times in her seven years of duty.
Kidd is honored by Cleveland Mayor Kevin Brooks in appreciation for her service to the city by volunteering to lower and raise flags on all half-staff days at municipal buildings, the Bradley County Courthouse, and all other public buildings during the past eight years. Photo by Tim Siniard, Cleveland Daily Banner
She credits a U.S. Navy veteran, Daniel Koob of Cleveland, for teaching her all she knows about the role.
Her work honoring veterans doesn’t begin and end with her CAP and flag sentry work. During the holiday season and the annual Wreaths Across America initiative, she hustles to sell Christmas wreaths to adorn the final resting places of military veterans. It’s work she started even before becoming a CAP cadet. She raises $1,000 a year for her squadron.
“She’ll be in a drive-through and say, ‘No, thank you. I don’t want fries with that. But would you like to buy a wreath?’” said her mom, Connie Kidd.
“When I found out it was something we could do to raise money for the squadron, I thought it was awesome,” the cadet said. “Back when I was 12,13,14, I could run with it.”
And then there is Kidd’s commitment to CAP. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many cadets took a hiatus, she attended CAP meetings from California to New York via Zoom and social media platforms.
She also assisted in starting the Sequoyah Cadet Squadron in Madisonville, Tennessee. She serves on the Tennessee Wing’s Cadet Advisory Council and drives 45 minutes each way to meet with the Rhea County Composite Squadron in Dayton. She’s the former Cleveland Composite Squadron cadet commander in Cleveland and now fills that role in Dayton.
Her Civil Air Patrol story actually began before she was old enough to join the organization. Her mother picked up a CAP flyer at a homeschooling gathering.
“She kept that CAP flyer on our fridge for two years,” Kidd said. “I wasn’t sure about the program when I first joined. I said I would stay in for a year and if I didn’t like it, I’d be done. And now, here I am eight years later talking to you.”’
The people hooked her on participating.
“It was learning leadership from people I really trust and respect,” she said. “The people that I started with in my home squadron, they are absolutely amazing people.”
Kidd, who is working toward a medical management degree from Cleveland State Community College, also works in her dad Keith’s rural medicine practice in Charleston, doing reception and triage work. She plans to transition to adult CAP membership and wants to continue working with cadets.
She said CAP strengthened her leadership skills and helped forge a strong belief in its core values.
“This program did so much for my life and genuinely built me into the person I am today,” Kidd said. “I just want to give back.”
As a cadet, it seems she’s already given back, and not just in sentry duty. Her parents tell the story of when a fellow cadet, suffering through a turbulent home life and feeling she had nowhere else to turn, called Kidd. Kidd drove through the night, and her family welcomed the teen, providing a new temporary home.
More recently, before illness forced her to leave an encampment early, she and two other medically trained cadets came to the aid of a cadet suffering a seizure. As a result, she earned a CAP lifesaving award.
She added, “I would not have been able to meet half the people I have, or the veterans and genuinely have the respect for America that I have now.”
And then there’s the matter of self-confidence.
“When I first joined Civil Air Patrol, you could not get me to say a word,” Kidd said.
But after she became a cadet airman first class, she became elements leader and everything changed.
“That really built my self-confidence.”
After college, she hopes to earn her private pilot’s certificate and eventually become a certified flight instructor.
Her mother believes big things lie ahead for Kidd.
“We don’t know what they are right now,” Connie Kidd said. “But she is a true patriot.”
She recounted an encounter with two Tennessee lawmakers at a recent Flag Day event.
”How’s Ella?” they asked.
“It’s not about me anymore or my name, it’s Ella. I’m ‘Ella’s Mom.’”
Keith Kidd, who has provided care for generations, has had similar experiences. These days, the nurse practitioner is best known as Ella’s Dad. Asked how he would describe his daughter, he paused.
“That’s a hard thing to say, because I know how she keeps her room,” he said with a laugh. “But she’s made impressions on everyone she meets. The big thing I can say about Ella is that when you meet her, you remember her. She’s not bashful.”
Kidd, who as a youngster long before joining CAP attended every ceremony honoring vets, loves America — and Civil Air Patrol. She has a message for any youngster considering the organization.
“Civil Air Patrol is an absolutely amazing program,” she said. “It really can impact your life. If you put in the effort and you put in the time, you’re going to see results.”