John P. Renzetti, Chief Warrant Officer 5 (Ret) served in the Delaware National Guard for 40 over years during which time he guided and helped develop the Army Aviation program through several evolutions and reorganizations.
He began his military career in 1969, trained in the new AH-1G “Cobra” gunship and was deployed to the Republic of Vietnam where he flew more than 700 combat hours and received the Air medal with device for valor. He returned to the U.S. and joined the Delaware Army Guard where he flew the UH-1 Huey helicopter while pursuing a career in civil aviation. In 1976, he became Chief Pilot for an international mining consortium based in Guinea, West Africa. In 1984, he rejoined the Delaware Army Guard as pilot recruiter and mission pilot. Two years later he entered full time active service in the Guard as Instructor Pilot.
In 2007, at age 60, CW5 Renzetti extended his service to deploy with his fellow Detachment 7 aviators in Iraq and Afghanistan, amassing 350 hours of flight time of which 250 were combat missions and was awarded the Bronze Star.
All-in-all, John, a dual-rated Master Army Aviator, has flown over 19,000 hours in 30 different kinds of fixed wing and Rotary aircraft. He retired from the Delaware Army Guard in 2009.
