![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Richard-Lizzari-Col-CAP-edit.jpg\")
\u201cCivil Air Patrol has been a large part of my life,\u201d said\nCol Lizzari,\u201d and it will be how I will continue to serve my community and\ncountry after my service in the military comes to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Col Lizzari began his Vermont Wing career as a cadet from\n1979 to 1983, when he joined the United States Air Force and Vermont Air\nNational Guard. He has served as a senior member of the Vermont Wing since\n1996, and his tenure demonstrated increased responsibilities as senior officer\nin the logistics, communications, emergency services and operations\ndirectorates. Col Lizzari served as Wing Vice Commander from 2011 to 2015, when\nhe was promoted to Wing Commander. He served a full appointment in that role\nthrough 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCol Lizzari brought a strong sense of service, excellence and vitality to the Wing, and encouraged this organization to flourish and grow, \u201c said Lt Col Peter Slocombe, Acting Commander of Vermont Wing. \u201cHe was always responsive to the needs of our cadets and membership. He drove high standards of performance and behavior, which allowed all of us to succeed in every mission and exercise around the state. All of us, cadets and senior members, who served with Col\nLizzari and were mentored by him, are grateful. I cannot overstate the\naccomplishments, and pride of substantial community service, that Col Lizzari\nenabled in our ranks. We wish him and his family well in this new chapter of\ntheir life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to his command leadership roles, Colonel Lizzari\nhas been an active participant in CAP\u2019s emergency services operations as an and\nAir Operations Branch Director Incident Commander, and Mission Pilot. He has\nparticipated in numerous, intensive USAF disaster response evaluations,\nhomeland security sorties, including photo imagery support over the Northeast\nfollowing Hurricane Sandy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lizzari has earned numerous decorations for his\nextraordinary service, including a Crisis Service Award, Distinguished Service\nAward, and Air Force Organizational Excellence Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Col Lizzari served our nation through a long and demanding\ncareer in the Vermont Air National Guard, in many capacities\u2014Operations\nOfficer, Logistics Readiness Squadron Commander, Deputy Commander, Commander of\nthe Mission Support Group, Director of Staff, and other roles. Colonel Lizzari\nhas deployed three times in support of the Global War on Terrorism. In 2002 he\ndeployed to Guantanamo Bay NAS, Cuba and served as the Joint Task Force 160, J4\nLogistics Deputy Operations Officer. In 2006 he deployed to Balad Air Base,\nIraq and served as the 732nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group\u2019s Director of\nStaff. In 2011 he deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait and served as the Central\nCommand Deployments and Distribution Operations Center Programs Branch Chief.\nHis was awarded numerous decorations and honors during his Vermont Air National\nGuard career and was promoted to the rank of Colonel in May 2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause of Col Lizzari, who, along with his family,\nsacrificed greatly in his service to Vermont and our nation, the Vermont Wing\nis better prepared to meet our core CAP missions emergency service, community\nsupport, education and youth programming,\u201d said Lt Col Andy Sumner, Chief of\nStaff, Vermont Wing. \u201cTo Col Lizzari, I say: Our membership is in awe of your\nsteady leadership, the example you set, and of your lifelong career in selfless\nservice to the people of Vermont.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Colonel Richard \u201cRick\u201d Lizzari, former Commander and long-serving officer in Vermont Wing, Civil Air Patrol, has announced his retirement, effective October 4th as Colonel in the Vermont Air National Guard and United States Air Force. Colonel Lizzari and his wife, Rosemary, will retire to Tennessee where he will continue his CAP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vermont"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23593"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23597,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23593\/revisions\/23597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}