“Forging Leaders by Honoring Heroes”
An all-volunteer 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to the children of America’s Special Operations heroes.
“In the thunder of chaos, your roar became my heartbeat.”
— Kurt Muse
To stand as the tip of the spear for a grateful nation by providing the children of America’s Special Operations heroes with the education their parents’ courage and sacrifice have earned.
Through grants, the Muse Foundation funds merit-based academic scholarships for the children of U.S. Army Special Operations soldiers. These warriors live in total anonymity. Their families carry silent pride. The Foundation quietly helps send their next generation to college.
All scholarship candidates come from these three partner organizations — the units that embody the quiet professional.
The Unit Scholarship Fund
Night Stalker Foundation
Rangers Scholarship Fund
100% of all contributions to the Muse Foundation flow directly to these three funds on behalf of the selected candidates.
Kurt is alive today because Delta Force operators and Night Stalker pilots risked everything during Operation Acid Gambit. That debt can never be fully repaid — but it can be honored.
Anne and Kurt are personally committed to this mission. Through the Muse Foundation they turn gratitude into action, ensuring the next generation of these heroic families receives the education and opportunity their parents have earned.
Donors are invited to join them.
Resources
These documents are free to download and share with anyone considering a gift to the Muse Foundation.
Who the Foundation Serves
A look at how selective the candidate pool really is, drawn from the sons and daughters of the nation’s elite Special Operations Forces.
How It Works
The full seven-step process, from application through partner organization to funds reaching the school directly.
Giving Model
How annual gifts fund students immediately, and how endowment gifts build permanent, self-sustaining scholarships over time.
An all-volunteer 501(c)(3) public charity, the Muse Foundation is dedicated to developing and recognizing leadership in the next generation. It provides grants to fund merit-based academic and vocational/technical scholarships for the children of the Special Operations communities connected to Kurt Muse’s rescue.
Special Operations families serve under circumstances that are often demanding and not widely understood. The parent who serves frequently does so with limited public recognition, while the family at home manages repeated deployments, uncertainty, and the practical challenges that come with sustained service.
Many applicants from these families have developed resilience, adaptability, responsibility, and a strong sense of service through their lived experience. The Foundation recognizes those qualities as important indicators of leadership potential. These students are not defined by hardship; they are young people with demonstrated promise who can make meaningful contributions when given access to educational opportunity. By reducing the financial burden of higher education, the Muse Foundation helps capable students continue preparing for lives of service, leadership, and contribution.
Support from the Muse Foundation goes to the children of the Special Operations communities connected to Kurt Muse’s rescue. Students are identified through three partner organizations that already know these families: The Unit Scholarship Fund, the Night Stalker Foundation, and the Rangers Scholarship Fund.
Every candidate starts the same way: as the vetted family member of a U.S. Army Special Operations soldier — from The Unit, the Night Stalkers, or the Rangers.
Kurt Muse is a U.S. Army veteran with extensive experience in management and international business. Raised and educated in Panama City, Panama, Muse began his career in his family’s printing-supply company, becoming General Manager and Managing Director. During Manuel Noriega’s regime, he operated the clandestine “Voice of Liberty” radio station. He was eventually captured and spent nine months of solitary confinement in Panama’s infamous Modelo Prison. He was rescued by Special Operations Units during Operation Acid Gambit in the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama.
After relocating to the United States, Muse founded and sold a printing and graphics firm in Northern Virginia. He then accepted a position as a strategic planner for a special project at Bechtel-Nevada’s Nevada Test Site. He later co-founded Immersive Media Tactical Solutions with a former Unit Member; under contract with the U.S. Army, the company drove more than 10,000 miles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan collecting advanced 360-degree “street view” imagery. Under a second contract, the company supported U.S. Army combat engineers on IED route-clearance missions in both countries, with its personnel embedded on those missions and providing specialized equipment and support. Following the war, they established security companies serving specialized markets in Panama and Mexico.
Now retired in Lancaster County, Virginia, Muse continues to consult on Latin American ventures. He is co-author of the bestselling memoir Six Minutes to Freedom, which details his resistance, imprisonment, and rescue, which has been optioned for film development by Netflix.
Anne Muse has a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Master’s in Educational Administration from George Mason University. Anne began working with Federal Government schools in 1974 as a teacher for the Panama Canal Zone, later assumed by the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, now DoDEA. During the 1989 political uprising in Panama, she relocated with her children to Virginia, to work for the release of her husband Kurt. Upon his rescue, she completed her Master’s and served as a specialist in Professional Development at the DoD Schools Headquarters Office. Over the next 30 years, Anne led the implementation of numerous worldwide programs for teachers and instructional leaders, receiving the Spirit of Excellence Award-Level, the highest Award given by the Director of DoDEA. In her final role before retirement in 2009, Anne coordinated efforts with local education agencies serving military communities to ensure quality-learning opportunities were available for all military/DoD students. Mrs. Muse was rehired by DoDEA as an annuitant from 2011 to 2018 and served as the Special Assistant to the Director, DoDEA, developing Centers for Instructional Leadership in Europe, the Pacific, and the United States.
Anne continues to serve on the Unit Scholarship Fund Board of Directors. She has rated scholarship applications for 15+ years. One of her greatest joys is reading the applicants’ essays and then speaking with them later. Anne has served on the Lancaster County VA Community Library Board of Directors for the last seven years and is currently finishing her third year as President. She has served as the President of several HOA Boards.
Anne and Kurt celebrated their fifty-sixth wedding anniversary January 2026. They enjoy boating, the highlight being a coastal cruise from NNK to Falmouth, MA. Anne is passionate about education, cooking for friends and family, plants and flowers, reading biographies and historical fiction, and travelling overseas. Their daughter Kimberly, and husband Brian, have three children, Connor, Sydney, and Sean, who sadly died in childhood from a rare disease. Their son, Erik, and his wife, Ingrid, have two children, Maren and Myles.
Partner application cycles generally run in winter, roughly December through February. Awards are usually announced in spring, between April and June, for the academic year that begins the following summer or fall. Gifts received by the end of February can be applied to students selected that spring. Gifts received after partner deadlines are held for the next cycle.
Gifts can be made online at musefoundation.com, or by writing to info@musefoundation.com with any questions about giving.
Yes. Gifts to the Muse Foundation, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 39-3465422, are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Questions are welcome anytime at info@musefoundation.com.
Every gift is tax-deductible. Every dollar reaches the families of the quiet professionals who stand ready so that others can live free.
Donations to the Muse Foundation, an IRS-registered 501(c)(3) public charity, are tax-exempt and tax-deductible.
At its center, the Muse Foundation logo carries a crowned cross symbolizing heroic sacrifice, three stars representing the Christian Holy Trinity, and an open book as a reminder that leadership requires knowledge that must be taught. White symbolizes purity of intent; blue and green allude to proud military legacies. Gold and black lines honor the U.S. Army for saving Kurt Muse in Operation Acid Gambit on 20 December 1989.
