By Randy Capps
After almost 40 years of service in the Navy as an officer and an analyst, Kevin Wilson had a choice to make.
“It’s easy to fade away into the background,” he said. “It really is. … I used to believe that when you hung up your uniform, your contract was over. You’re no longer being paid for what you did, — to lead because that’s what I was. I was a leader.
“Then you see things going on and you’re retired and you think, ‘I’m retired now. I could be a bystander. I don’t have to do this.’ It’s easy just to fade away into the noise and not participate. But when you start seeing things, you can’t unsee them.”
Because of that choice, and a few others, Wilson is the 2026 Johnston Now Honors Veteran Service Award winner.
Wilson’s journey began in the northwest corner of Kansas in a small town called St. Francis. It’s about 1,400 miles from there to the Pacific, and roughly the same distance to the Atlantic, but he still wound up earning entry into the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., which is about 1,375 miles from Wilson’s hometown.
“It wasn’t about service as much, even though growing up, my father was in the Navy for four years,” he said. “So he was in the Navy. I had an uncle that was in the Navy and a few that were in the Army as well. But my dad used to talk about the Navy and my uncle talked about the Navy and, and then fortunately for me, I had a high school librarian that took an interest.
“I told her I was going to enlist in the Navy, and she saw something else and convinced me to sit down and fill out a Naval Academy application and ROTC application. And I actually received both. … That’s how I got my start in the Navy. I went right from graduating from high school into putting a uniform on.”
Wilson graduated in 1983 with a degree in applied science, and begun a naval career that would take him all over the world.
As part of the HS-11 “Dragonslayers,” he flew helicopters in combat search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean. He was aboard the USS Hayler, working in the Baltic and Caribbean, as well as serving in numerous other posts around the globe.
It was a more service-oriented assignment that Wilson remembers most fondly, however.
“One of the biggest highlights was when I worked for the POW/MIA office in Washington, D.C. I was a policy action officer, so that was my first joint tour and one of my short tours as a commander — I actually pinned on while I was there.
“So I went several times a year to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. I was a Southeast Asia regional area specialist. And then I also traveled to the Middle East. So that was a highlight for me because we were trying to repatriate remains of our missing in action.”
After 28 years of active duty, Wilson closed a naval career that included a couple of Defense Superior Service Medals, Legion of Merit, Defense Meritorious Service Medal and a Meritorious Service Medal, to name a few.
He stayed Navy-adjacent, working in Norfolk as an analyst for the next 11 years when another decision changed the course of his life.
“So I did 28 and a half years commissioned service with the Navy, four years at the Naval Academy and another 11 years with the Navy as a defense contractor,” he said. “It’s basically my whole life. When I retired, my son had actually ended up in Clayton. (He and his wife) were having our first grandchild. … (My wife), Sonya, retired. I came down here, finished out my last contract, and then I retired. So that’s how we ended up in Clayton. As good a place as any because we needed to have a home somewhere.”
Since arriving in 2021, the Wilsons have made one. The choice to continue leading drew Wilson to become the Commander of VFW Post 5886, First Vice-Commander of American Legion Post 71, Director of Chapter 71 Riders and Chairman of the Johnston County Veterans Advisory Board.
“What I chose at that point was to step forward, to take on that burden again of leadership and help these people. Help my brothers and sisters, because that’s what they are,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky. It’s worked out well for me and I want it to work out well for other people.
“Talking to those people on a daily basis, doing veteran service type stuff. It’s a job. It’s a full-time job. But I convinced myself that what I did as a leader, that honor part of it, that sacrifice, that commitment doesn’t end the minute you take off your uniform. You have to step up. So that’s what I did.”
One of the biggest challenges for Wilson is convincing his fellow veterans that they need or deserve assistance in civilian life.
“When you raise your hand and you wrote that check that said that, ‘I am willing to give my life,’ they owe you at that point,” he said. “So you may not need it now, but in the future, who knows? “You may not need it now because you think you’re OK, but what happens when something happens, and you can’t afford that medical care.? You need to take care of that now. You need to go in.
“Get an appointment with Robert Boyette’s office and Veterans Services and sit down with them. And even if you come out with a zero rating, at least you’re in the system now. … I always tell them I’m still here for you. Anything that something comes up, here’s my number. Call me up. We’ll figure it out.”
