Kenny Wayne Fields, 'Streetcar 304',

was born in Lex, West Virginia in 1940

to Kennard (a coal miner) and Elizabeth Akers Fields.  Lex is a small coal mining community named after Kenny's great grandfather, and has a population of less than 100. It lies in the southern most portion of W.Va. between Bradshaw and Iaeger in McDowell County where Welch

is the county seat.  During grades 1-4, he attended school in Bartley, W.Va.  

 

 

In 1950 his family moved to Evanston, KY (near Salyersville, Kentucky) where

his dad was the General Mine Foreman with the Pond Creek (later Island Creek) Coal Company.  During grades 5-6 in Evanston, the school was one room, but expanded to two rooms when Kenny began the 7th grade.    

Pond Creek #1 coal mine

tipple in Evanston, KY

During the 9th grade,he "boarded" with an aunt in the Cincinnati surburban village of Lockland, Ohio and attended Lockland High School .  There, he was a member of the 'Panther's' varsity football

team, and a member of Lockland's 1955 Ohio Class B championship baseball team.  Grades 10-12 were spent at Big Creek High School in War, West Virginia (photo on right)---where he was a schoolmate of Homer Hickam who authored the best sellers, Torpedo Junction' and 'Rocket Boys' (the movie,'October Skies'). At Big Creek, Kenny was a starter on the varsity football team, and during his three years the 'Owls' football team won 28 games and lost only one with Kenny playing first at end and defensive halfback, then halfback and linebacker his senior year.  Each summer, he was a starter on the Big Creek American Legion baseball team.  He graduated in 1958.

Kenny received a BA degree with a major in English and a minor in Math in 1962 from Lincoln Memorial University at Harrogate,Tennessee (near Cumberland Gap).  While at LMU, Kenny married Shirley Jean Garrett, an LMU cheerleader and former Lynn View High School valedictorian from Kingsport, Tennessee. She is 2nd from the left in the above photo....

Kenny lettered three years in baseball as the  Lincoln Memorial University 'Railsplitter's' second baseman and he is 4th from the left in the photo below.

After graduation from LMU, Kenny reported for sixteen weeks of "pre-flight training" at the Navy Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida---the same one

depicted in the movie, 'Officer and a Gentleman'.  After completion, he received his commission as an Ensign, and eight months later he earned his 'wings' as a Bombardier/Navigator in the A-3B shown at right re-fueling two A-4's. He  made two deployments ('64, '65) with the "Checkertails" of VAH-11 (NAS Sanford, Florida), flying A-3B Skywarriors aboard the aircraft carriers USS FDR (Roosevelt), and USS Forrestal. An A-3 is shown here, re-fueling two A-4's.

A photo of a combat loaded A-7 like the one Kenny flew during the Vietnam War....In 1966, Kenny commenced pilot training in T-34s, T-28s, and F-9s. He earned his 'Wings of Gold' in 1967, and then reported to the first east coast operational A-7A Corsair squadron---the VA-82 'Marauders' at NAS Cecil Field near Jacksonville, Florida).  The squadron  deployed to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin in early 1968 aboard USS America and again in late 1969 aboard USS Coral Sea. During two combat cruises Kenny flew 139 combat missions over North and South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and was awarded the Bronze Star with combat "V", Purple Heart, two Air Medals, two Navy Commendation Medals with "V", and 12 Strike Flight Air Medals.

 A real work horse A-7 from VA-86.... one of whose pilots, Lcdr Ken Webb, was

 a hero in the "Streetcar" story.