James Anthony “Buzz” Buzzelli, a retired Air Force colonel who spent part of his military career as head navigator aboard Air Force One, died of cardiac arrest June 2 at a hospital in Charleston, S.C. He was 66.
Mr. Buzzelli, a Vietnam War veteran, served as a navigator with the 89th Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base in the 1970s and 1980s.
He was a member of the Air Force One flight crew for President Jimmy Carter and during President Ronald Reagan’s first term.
When Mr. Buzzelli left the 89th Squadron in 1984, he became deputy director of the White House Military Office and oversaw the acquisition of the two specially modified Boeing 747 jetliners that have been used for presidential transport since 1990.
He also was active in the design of the aircraft communications system.
A native of Blairsville, Pa., he graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, where he attended on a football scholarship, and received a master’s in business administration from Central Michigan University.
He joined the Air Force in the early 1960s and trained in Texas. During the Vietnam War, he served mostly as a navigator on C-141 cargo planes.
Mr. Buzzelli retired from active military duty in 1991 and moved to Kiawah Island, S.C., where he was known as the community’s unofficial goodwill ambassador.
