Captain William McBrayer Calhoun, USN, Ret. (1948-2015) was a long-time RI resident who graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1967. Capt. Calhoun was a LTJG with the highly decorated Helicopter Attack Squadron (Light) 3), nicknamed the “Seawolves”, an all-volunteer squadron formed in support of Naval Special Warfare operations and Mobile Riverine Forces.
General Philip Conley is a LaSalle Academy alumnus and a 1950 Naval Academy graduate who grew up in West Warwick and flew combat missions in Korea and Vietnam. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross in Korea, flying with the famous forward air controller unit known as the “Mosquitoes”. Conley eventually rose to head the Flight Test […]
Senior Chief Malcolm L. Craig, US Navy (1927-2006) was a Combat Air Crewman, World War II, Korea and Vietnam Veteran. Malcolm Craig was born in Charlotte, Maine and enlisted in the Navy in 1943 at age 16. After receiving navigation training he became a LORAN (Long Range Navigation) specialist. By the time he retired as […]
Edward “Ted” Cunningham is a Rumford native and a 1949 graduate of St. Raphael High School in Pawtucket. Ted enlisted in the Navy to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a carrier pilot. During the early days of the Vietnam War, he flew numerous highly classified ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) missions shadowing and photographing Soviet missiles. After […]
Major General William A. Gorton US Air Force (Ret) (1933- ) was born in Providence in 1933. He entered the Air Force as an aviation cadet in February 1954, and earned his wings and commission in June 1955. He flew F-100 Super Sabre fighters in France and Germany in the late 1950s. He returned to […]
Air Force Lieutenant General Jim Keck, former Vice Commander of the Strategic Air Command, and his son Tom Keck, also a retired Air Force Lieutenant General and former commander of the famous 8th Air Force. Both were born in Providence; the senior Keck graduated from Cranston High School and attended Brown University for a year […]
Thomas J. Magnan, retired from the Rhode Island Army National Guard as a Chief Warrant Office Five (CW5) on July 1, 2009, completing nearly 41 years of honorable military service, which included active duty deployments to Viet Nam, Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. He accrued more than 20,000 flight hours in his career, qualifying in aircraft […]
Harrisville resident Joel Rawson, best known locally for his lengthy and distinguished career at the Providence Journal, has had a life-long love affair with flying. His Vietnam combat flying experience was so secret that most people have never heard of his airplane or its mission. He was an original member of the Richmond Flying Club […]
Colonel Sherwood “Woody” Spring, USA (Ret.) graduated from Ponaganset High School, Chepachet, RI in 1963. Woody was selected as a NASA Astronaut in May 1980. He has experience in 25 types of airplanes and helicopters logging over 4,000 hours flying time.
VADM James B. Stockdale, USN (1923-2005) A graduate of the Naval Academy Class of 1947, he is best remembered for his extraordinary leadership as the senior naval officer held in captivity during the Vietnam War, and his 1992 stint as running mate to independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. Admiral Stockdale was one of the most […]
Born in 1942, Wakefield native Rick Wilson earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, two Single Mission Air Medals, a Navy Commendation Medal and 46 mission Air Medals in Vietnam. He flew more than 900 missions in his 13 months of flying in-country, consisting primarily of recon insertions/extractions as well as medevac. He was 2nd […]
Retired Air Force Colonel Joseph Zinno designed, built and flew America’s first human-powered aircraft, and is a flying veteran of three wars (WWII, Korea and Vietnam).
