{"id":8257,"date":"2017-02-23T19:39:27","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T19:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=8257"},"modified":"2017-03-03T01:45:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T01:45:25","slug":"former-nebraska-aeronautics-director-stuart-e-mactaggart-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/news\/former-nebraska-aeronautics-director-stuart-e-mactaggart-passes-away\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Former Nebraska Aeronautics Director Stuart E. MacTaggart Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_8258\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 165px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8258\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stu-at-deskedit-215x300.jpg\" alt=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" width=\"155\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stu-at-deskedit-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Stu-at-deskedit.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 155px) 100vw, 155px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\"><em>&#8220;Stu&#8221; MacTaggart<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Col Stuart E. MacTaggart \u201cStu\u201d Col. USAF (Ret.) passed away on February 20, 2017 at the age of 74, having spent nearly 50 years as a professional aviator; 27 of those years as a US Air Force Pilot, serving numerous tours in Southeast Asia during Vietnam, and flying over 150 combat missions.<\/p>\n<p>After retirement from the Air Force in 1992, Stu flew for the Methodist Hospital Outreach Program. Later, he served as a pilot and was appointed as the Director of Aeronautics (NDA) for the State of Nebraska by Governor Mike Johanns. He continued to serve under Gov. Heineman until his retirement in August of 2009.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStu was appointed as the Director of the department on August 12, 2004,\u201d said Ronnie Mitchell, current NDA director. \u201cI had the privilege to work with Stu as a fellow pilot and remember him as a great leader and a real gentleman. He was well regarded by the aviation community and he will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stu was an Eagle Scout, an Admiral in the State\u2019s Honorary Navy, and a member of several brotherhoods and fraternal organizations in the Air Force. He directed and led several youth-oriented aviation outreach programs through the State, and had a particular knack for storytelling. Stu enjoyed the mountains, hiking, and fishing with friends and family. He especially loved spending time with his grandchildren, and was lovingly devoted to his wife Kay, to whom he was married for 47 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI enjoyed immensely the opportunities I had to spend with Stu and his wife Kay,\u201d said Kim Stevens, Publisher of the State Aviation Journal. His kindness and love for aviation was both an inspiration and encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Col Stuart E. MacTaggart \u201cStu\u201d Col. USAF (Ret.) passed away on February 20, 2017 at the age of 74, having spent nearly 50 years as a professional aviator; 27 of those years as a US Air Force Pilot, serving numerous tours in Southeast Asia during Vietnam, and flying over 150 combat missions. After retirement from [&hellip;]<\/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":[49,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nebraska","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8257","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=8257"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8288,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8257\/revisions\/8288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}