Ed “Moose” Skowron left the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts in 1953 to go from high school to flight school and on to 52 years of active aviation. He trained as an Air Force fighter pilot spending 24 years in the trade. He flew various types from the subsonic F-84s to the supersonic F-100, F-105, the A-7 and F-4.

He completed two combat tours in Southeast Asia flying in the first organized mission in the F-105 on Jan 13 1965 and then in the A-7 on the last day of aerial combat in Cambodia on Aug 15 1973 as the “Sandy” Squadron Commander responsible for the location and rescue of downed airmen. Following military retirement, he joined the staff of Learjet factory test pilots and for 26 years flew domestic and worldwide production and experimental testing as well as representing the FAA as a Designated Engineering Representative test pilot.

He also flew customer demonstration and delivery flights. He was type rated in all variants of the Learjet and accumulated more than 15,000 hours of military and civilian flying.