20 Really Good People
The military journey that led to Scott Mythen and his family settling in Jacksonville is a familiar one.
He and his family lived in the region during time spent at two different duty stations – Naval Air Station Jacksonville and Training Command Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay. They enjoyed the area so much they decided to make Jacksonville their home when he retired from the U.S. Navy in December 2023.
“Jacksonville is such a great veterans’ town. I’ve done Vets Day parades in Boston, New York, Chicago and a half dozen other cities. This is the best one,” said Mythen. “It’s so invigorating to be in a city that recognizes veterans and is a city that so many veterans want to retire to.”
Upon his retirement, Mythen said a friend contacted him about an opportunity with a new nonprofit organization that wanted to tell veterans’ stories: Bob Buehn, former chief of military affairs for the City of Jacksonville, contacted Mythen about a veterans’ museum that was being created in Jacksonville and said there was a position available for him there.
Officially launched on the 2024 anniversary of D-Day, the Veterans Museum was an idea born from a chance discovery after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Family members were cleaning the flooded home of World War II U.S. Air Force Veteran Maj. William J. Hicklin, Jr. and his wife, Mignonette “Mig” Hicklin, and they discovered a military journal that they had never seen before. It included personal passages and four photographs taken on D-Day of the 101st Airborne gliders preparing for the second wave to take off from Aldermaston Airfield in England. Discovered alongside the journal was a Bronze Star, which is the fourth highest military honor that can be earned through performing heroically and/or meritoriously.
The discovery led the family to create a 30-minute documentary titled “One Man’s War” and sparked an interest in seeking out more stories of military service. After Mig Hicklin’s passing in 2021, with the support of her estate, the creation of the Veterans Museum began with the leadership of her son-in-law, William Harrell.
Mythen was hired as CEO of the Veterans Museum in June 2024 and oversees all aspects of the museum, which includes interviewing veterans for the site.
“We give veterans a copy of their interview, a transcript and overview notes that give them chapters of their story. Then we send that on to the Library of Congress and that’s where everybody else stops,” said Mythen. “Where we keep going is that we want to take these three minutes from an hour and half interview and share that with you because it’s an impactful, amazing story of service that we want to honor and recognize.”
To share your story or make a donation, visit: vetsmuseum.org
