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<p><em>Kenneth Vincent Wilson</em>, a decorated U.S. Air Force pilot who traveled the world with his wife and seven children, died at peace August 1, 2024 at the VA Hospital in New Orleans, LA. </p>
<p>Born in Elmira, NY in 1929, Ken, the youngest of four children, grew up in Queens, NY during the Depression. He enlisted in the U.S. Army after high school and was encouraged to take an exam that eventually landed him at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.</p>
<p>He was a cadet when he met his future wife, Helen Belli, a native of Nicaragua, on a blind date.</p>
<p>It was love at first sight, Ken always said: “I fell in love with her. I don’t know whether an alarm went off or anything, I just fell in love.” They married at West Point the day after he graduated in June 1955.</p>
<p>After a two-month honeymoon, the couple drove to Texas in Ken’s new 1955 Chevrolet. They moved repeatedly as he completed his pilot training and went on to become an instructor pilot in the C-147 cargo plane and the T-33, a single-engine jet trainer.</p>
<p>Eventually trained to fly 10 different aircraft, Ken was a man with an engineering mindset and intellectual curiosity, and he also had an observant eye for the quirks of human behavior, reflected often in his dry and mischievous sense of humor. </p>
<p>He was not a man to boast about his military exploits, and his children were surprised to discover after his death that, in 1968, Ken was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with five oak leaf clusters, the nation’s highest aviation honor, for “heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.”</p>
<p>Over the course of his 22-year Air Force career, Ken was posted to 15 U.S. military bases in six countries, including five separate postings in Texas (where three of the seven Wilson children were born).</p>
<p>Once, when stationed at Bergstrom Air Force Base (AFB), TX, Ken questioned the condition of the engine in his T-33 but was ordered to fly the single-engine aircraft anyway. In midair the engine failed; without any power, he managed to set the plane down at a base in Waco, TX, a maneuver known as a “dead-stick landing.” He did not mention the misadventure to Helen until years later.</p>
<p>In 1962, the Wilson family, now numbering five children, moved to Athens, Greece, where their sixth child was born. After that four-year tour, with everyone except Ken having learned Greek, the family moved back to the States, where Ken earned his MBA at George Washington University.</p>
<p>Ken was deployed to Vietnam in 1967, and a year later the family relocated to St. Louis, MO, where Ken taught ROTC. The couple’s seventh child was born there, and in 1972 the family of nine was transferred to Bangkok, Thailand.</p>
<p>During his first tour in Vietnam, Ken had been assigned to a Special Operations group, a highly classified multi-service unit that conducted unconventional covert operations in Southeast Asia. He continued those operations while stationed in Thailand, though he did not tell his wife and children about those missions until later in life.</p>
<p>In 1974, the family moved to Ken’s new post at Albrook Air Force Station in the Panama Canal Zone. Ken became base commander, was promoted to colonel, and was then named acting base commander at Hill AFB in Ogden, UT, where he ultimately retired in 1977.</p>
<p>By then, with their three oldest daughters in college, the couple moved to Managua, Nicaragua, where they hoped to retire. That adventure was cut short by a civil war, and the family (down to two kids at home) relocated to Fort Pierce, FL in 1979.</p>
<p>Ken continued his career managing large operations, including stints in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Diego Garcia, and the Philippines.</p>
<p>Military achievements aside, Ken was first and foremost a devoted husband, father, and friend. He was a man with a sharp wit, a keen mind, and an effortless charm. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of most academic subjects, which he tirelessly tried to convey to his children. The father of five daughters, he was at heart a feminist who instilled in them confidence, ambition and strength, along with empathy. To his two sons, he conveyed the importance of honor and steadfastness. While countless moves and travels may have defined his life, the moments in between—the days out on the boat, the fishing, the water skiing—with his wife and children, anchored him. The “keep your skis together” motto he coined held fast for both skiing and for life.</p>
<p>Ken is survived by his wife, Helen, of New Orleans, and six of his seven children: Mercedes Wilson of New Castle, CO; Mary Lightfoot (Claude) of New Orleans; Eleanor Ray (David) of Fort Worth, TX; Trish Wilson (Charles Fishman), of Washington, DC; Peter Wilson (Lara) of Charleston, SC; and Anamaria Wilson (Peter Liptrot) of New York, NY. He is also survived by 14 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.</p>
<p><em>— Trish Wilson, Maya Wilson and Anamaria Wilson</em></p>
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