Wilson Flagg

Wilson Falor Flagg was born October 25, 1938.^[1] While in high school, Flagg, known by the nickname "Bud", met his future wife, Darlene Ellen "Dee" Embree. They became sweethearts,^[6] and married after Flagg graduated from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in June 1961.^[6][7]

Flagg attended flight school in Pensacola, Florida, and became a Navy pilot in 1962. He served on active duty from 1961 to 1967, including three tours as a fighter pilot in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. After leaving active duty, he continued flying the F-8 Crusader, logging more than 3,200 flight hours. He subsequently embarked upon dual careers as an American Airlines captain and an officer in the Naval Reserve.^[8]

In 1987 he became a rear admiral, and was posted at The Pentagon, where he was one of the top officers for the Naval Reserve.^[6] In 1993, two years after the 1991 Tailhook Association scandal, he was one of three top officials who received letters of censure for failing to stop extensive incidents of sexual harassment at the association's Las Vegas convention.^[2][3][4][6]

Flagg retired from the Navy in 1995 as a rear admiral and from American Airlines in 1998,^[8] although at the time of his death, he still had an office at the Pentagon, for instances in which the Pentagon contacted him for technical advice.^[5]

The Flaggs lived in Mississippi, California, and Connecticut before settling in the early 1990s to Daybreak Farm, a Black Angus beef cattle farm in Millwood, Virginia. They also owned a home in Las Vegas, and Dee Flagg was active in Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Winchester, Virginia, and the Greenway Garden Club in Clarke County. Both were members of the Blue Ridge Hunt.^[8] They had two sons, Marc^[9] and Michael.^[5][8]

During the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Flaggs and their friend, Barbara G. Edwards, were on board American Airlines Flight 77, heading to a family gathering in California. They were murdered when it crashed into the Pentagon.^[5][8]

At the National 9/11 Memorial, Flagg, his wife and Edwards are memorialized at the South Pool, on Panel S-70.^[10]

His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, two Legion of Merits, the Meritorious Service Medal, five Air Medals and the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V.^[8]