Maurertown resident honored with national Civil Air Patrol award

WINCHESTER, Va. (Sep 4, 2024) – Virginia Civil Air Patrol’s Lieutenant Colonel Mark “Curly” Myers, a resident of Maurertown, received the Civil Air Patrol Malcom C. Kyser, Jr. Communicator of the Year award in San Antonio last month at Civil Air Patrol’s 2024 national conference.
 
          The Communicator of the Year award recognizes a current Civil Air Patrol member who has made a significant contribution to Civil Air Patrol’s communications program based on a member’s lifetime contributions.
 
Lt. Col. Myers dedicates himself as a fully functional message station, passing traffic on both VHF and HF frequency bands every week. His location proves critical as he connects with stations as far away as Washington state, delivering and receiving messages. There is frequent radio directed traffic net activity for CAP communications; Lt. Col. Myers’ near perfect attendance of the nets proves his dedication and ensuring that he is always mission ready. Lt. Col. Myers ran the group 3 VHF net, acting as net control, almost every week the past two years. Lt. Col. Myers also mentors those he serves. He introduces both Civil Air Patrol cadets and adult members alike to communications and assists and evaluates their performance to complete the Introductory Communications User Training (ICUT) required of members to operate radios on Civil Air Patrol radio frequencies.
 
Colonel Pat Fulgham, the Virginia Wing commander, commented, “Lt. Col. Myers is a talented and dedicated communications officer and sets the example for mission readiness with Civil Air Patrol’s communications program. This award is well deserved and brings great credit to himself, his community, state, and nation.”
 
          In addition to his communicator role, Lt. Col. Myers is a mission pilot, mission pilot trainer, and a mountain-qualified pilot.  He acted as mission pilot trainer during several search and rescue exercises in which he still conducted radio checks over whatever repeater he was flying, ensuring communications readiness.
 
About Virginia Wing
Civil Air Patrol's Virginia Wing is home to 21 squadrons spread throughout the Commonwealth and has approximately 2,250 members, 12 light aircraft, 6 small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), and 28 multi-mission vehicles. These assets are available to federal, state, and local governments, as well as to emergency responders and law enforcement agencies to perform search and rescue, homeland security, disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, and counter-drug missions. For more information on Virginia Wing, visit the wing’s website at https://vawg.cap.gov.
 
About Civil Air Patrol
Founded in 1941 and established as the official civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force seven years later, Civil Air Patrol is chartered by Congress as a nonprofit organization for the purposes of youth development, aerospace education, and to promote general aviation. In an auxiliary role as a Total Force partner of the Air Force, CAP operates the world’s largest fleet of single-engine aircraft for search and rescue, disaster relief, training, and education. Civil Air Patrol is dedicated to serving America’s communities, saving lives, and shaping futures.
 
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