CAP Member Honors Late Husband with Scholarship Fund

Lt. Col. Edward John Myzie died in September 2018, but his memory will be preserved forever, thanks to the generosity of his wife and her desire to share the New Jersey Wing couple's love of flying.

Lt. Col. Amy Myzie made an initial $20,000 donation in August 2019 to establish a scholarship in her late husband's name for cadets to attend a National Flight Academy sponsored by Civil Air Patrol. Her contributions have grown to $50,000 since then.

Proceeds from the scholarship fund will go toward the total cost for one cadet to attend an academy for one week. The amount covers room and board, plus 10 hours of flight instruction, Myzie said. She hopes the scholarship fund can send four people to an academy each year. Nothing would make her late husband happier.

"Ed was a member of the very first flight academy in New Jersey," Myzie said. "He was very, very proud of that fact."

The scholarship fund will honor his memory well into the future. Myzie contacted Kristina Jones, CAP's chief of philanthropy, in May 2019 to inquire about starting the scholarship fund. Jones was thrilled, since fewer than a dozen scholarships currently are available.

"There's an opportunity to meet the growing need," Jones said. "These types of gifts can be transformational."

Amy Myzie knows that learning to fly served that function for her and her late husband. Her dad served in the U.S. Air Force in Korea, and his influence led her to want to learn to fly, too. She joined the Connecticut Wing as a cadet in the early 1970s. ln 1978 she was hired as a dispatcher for a New Jersey police department and a year later became an officer. She stopped attending CAP gatherings until rejoining as a senior member in 1982, after earning her pilot's certificate in 1981 at age 24.

It was at a CAP function that Amy and Ed first met. She wasn't impressed.

"Frankly, I thought he was boring," she said, "and he knew that."

But later, on a canoeing trip with friends, she saw a different side. He had a great sense of humor, she found. Their shared love of flying soon evolved into love for one another, and they were married in 1984.

Their love of aviation never left them. After their children were born, they would get a babysitter every Wednesday night so they could attend CAP squadron meetings.

"It was the primary thing for us our entire lives," she said.

Myzie still owns the Piper Arrow four-seater the couple enjoyed together for five years. In the 1980s and '90s, it wasn't unusual for them to fly CAP missions together, whether search and rescue missions or searches for emergency locator transmitters. As late as 2017, they were still at it.

They were attending that year's CAP National Conference in San Antonio from Aug. 31-Sept. 2 when their meeting suddenly was interrupted by news that pilots were needed in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which had made landfall Aug. 25 on the Texas Gulf Coast. An emergency announcement was made: "We need pilots and co-pilots co assist with the photography missions." The Myzies immediately volunteered, serving an important role aiding the recovery efforts.

After Ed's death, Amy still is flying the Piper Arrow all over the country, visiting relatives and attending functions. She flew in the annual Air Race Class in 2016, 2017 and 2018. She missed the 2019 event but plans to start again next summer.

It's the memory of her husband and their love of flying that prompted Amy to create the Civil Air Patrol scholarship fund in his name. Ed joined CAP as a cadet in 1969 and transitioned to a senior member in 1975, ultimately attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. Over the years, he served in the New Jersey Wing as Raritan Valley Composite Squadron commander, finance officer and communications officer.

In 1986, he was part of the winning team at the National Search and Rescue Competition at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. In 2016, he was named the New Jersey Wing, the Northeast Region and the national Communication Officer of the Year.

Professionally, he was employed as an engineer by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, building roads and bridges.

Thanks to his loving wife of 34 years, Ed's memory will live on. It is Amy Myzie's dream that young people will use the scholarship to pursue a dream of flying for a lifetime, just as she and Ed did. Her generous donation in establishing the Edward Myzie Scholarship Fund will go a long way toward making dreams come true.