Wilson F. Flagg

Rear Admiral, United States Naval Reserve, retired. He was aboard American Airlines flight 77 with his wife of more than forty years.

He finished at Corona High School in 1956 and the Naval Academy in 1961, and married his high school sweetheart immediately after graduation. He was designated a naval aviator in 1962 and qualified in the F-8 Crusader, and made three deployments aboard the Oriskany, two of them combat cruises.

He left active duty in 1967 and joined both American Airlines and the Naval Reserve, and made a career of each. In the reserve he commanded two air reserve F-8 squadrons and two force augment units, served at the Pentagon as special assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs and as assistant chief of naval operations for air warfare, and was deputy for reserve affairs to the Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet. He was selected for rear admiral in 1986 and retired in 1995 with two stars. He retired from American Airlines as a captain in 1998.

He and his wife kept Daybreak Farm at Millwood in Virginia, and the neighbours watched the fields and fences and barns grow more beautiful under their care. Their grandchildren spent summers there.

Killed at the Pentagon on the morning of 11 September 2001, when American Airlines flight 77 struck the western face of the building at 9:37. A hundred and twenty-five people inside and fifty-nine aboard the aircraft were killed.

His sons Marc and Michael, his sister Patricia, and four grandchildren.