Former Wisconsin Wing Commander, Colonel Lawrence W. Stys, was awarded the Distinguished Service Award at the National Conference in San Antonio, last week during televised ceremonies before the audience and thru live streaming video available to the entire membership of Civil Air Patrol.

Col Stys joined CAP as a cadet in Milwaukee Composite Squadron #5 in February 1966, and has had 43 years of continuous volunteer service to CAP. He was the Wisconsin Wing Commander from 1994-1998.

Still active with the 10th Senior Support Squadron, Col Stys finds time to act as a Mission Pilot and Check Pilot, supports both the National Flight Academy (Oshkosh) and the Minnesota Wing Flight Academy. He soled two cadets this past summer at Mankato, MN. During this year’s Minnesota Wing Flight Academy he celebrated his 40th anniversary as a pilot, having received his pilot wings from Civil Air Patrol’s Powered Flight School in Norman, OK, on July 20th, 1969, the same day Colonel Armstrong first set foot on the moon.

Col Stys came into the Inspector General Program as the Wisconsin Wing IG in April 2002. Shortly after becoming the CAP-IG, Col William Charles invited Col Stys on to the staff of the Civil Air Patrol IG program as the Inspector General for Training (CAP-IGT). This position continued through Col Charles’s term, the subsequent term of Col Linker, and into the present.

During the period April 2002 to August 2009 Col Stys as CAP-IGT:

• Served as the Director of the IG College in 2004, 2006, and 2008.

• At the direction of Col Linker, Col Stys performed a top-down remodeling of the IG College to bring innovative scenario-based instruction to the preparation of new Inspectors General for the CAP.

• Re-designed the IG Senior Level Course, creating a foundation program for the formation of new IGs at all levels of the CAP again using scenario-based instruction. He has taught four new instructors for the program and has himself taught the course himself fourteen times in twelve different wings.

• Created the technician level IG Basic Course for the CAP IG program

• Revised the Inspector General Specialty Track to reflect all the new requirements for IGs in the CAP

• Working with Col Aye, Kansas Wing CC, and Mr. Ron Olienyk, NHQ, has brought to the IG Basic Course the first opportunity for CAP members to use the new “Enterprise Suite” on Blackboard Learn 

• Also serves as a Compliance Inspection team member in all three areas (Team Chief, Operations, and Mission Support) having participated in one capacity or another on seventeen CIs.

• At the request of the CAP-IG, Col Stys has reviewed a number of cases, including cases at the National level

• Served on the “Tiger Team” that designed the “Organizational Excellence Specialty Track” for the CAP. Col Stys was primarily tasked with writing the Technician level for the new specialty track in collaboration with the other members of the team.

It should be noted that during the period April 2002 to April 2009 over 150 students attended the IG Colleges.

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