"Holy cow...here the gomers come again!"  Kenny, (Streetcar 304), at work on the book
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 'Panthers' varsity football team, and a member of the 1955 Ohio Class B championship baseball team. Grades 10-12 were spent at Big Creek High School in War, West Virginia---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 starred on the Big Creek American Legion baseball team. He graduated in 1958. In 1966, Kenny commenced pilot training in T-34s, T-28s, and F-9s...earned his 'Wings of Gold' in 1967, and then reported to the first east coast operational A-7A Corsair squadron---the VA-82 'Marauders' (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 Navy Commendation Medals with "V", and 12 Strike Flight Air Medals.
Commander Fields retired from the Navy in 1984 after 22 years service, 3,350 flight hours, and 475 carrier landings. Since then, he has successfully "piloted" two small business companies through start-up and maturation. Kenny and Shirley have three adult children, and live in Moorresville,NC. "The Rescue of Streetcar 304" is Kenny's first published book, but he is currently at work on his second one, titled "Petey". In it, three friends grow up roaming the mountains of Appalachia and become high school sports stars, and share at different times the same sweethearts. All three initially take advantage of the offer to play at the collegiate level, but at that point their lives take sharply divirgent paths. | Kenny 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 Bartley Elementary School in Bartley, W.Va., but then his family moved to Evanston (near Salyersville, Kentucky) where his dad was the Mine Foreman with the 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. 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 from Kingsport, Tennessee, and also lettered three years in baseball as the 'Railsplitter's' second baseman. 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 earned his 'wings' as a Bombardier/Navigator. He made two cruises ('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.
Following his two combat cruises, Kenny received training that certified him to be an aviation accident investigator and aviation safety officer. Afterward, he served one tour ('70-'72) in VT-7 (Nas Meridian) as a jet flight instructor in T-2s and TA-4s. Next ('72-'76), he was the Ops Officer, and later Officer-in-Charge of VA-205 (NAS Atlanta) flying A-4Ls, then A-7Bs. Following that, he was the Aviation Safety Officer on the Chief, Naval Air Reserve staff ('76-'79) in New Orleans, and the Commander, Naval Air Systems Command staff in Washington, DC (''80-'82) before his final assignment as the Navy Liason Officer to the FAA administrator in Washington, DC. Kenny was awarded two Navy Commendation Medals for various staff duty.
Sports, romance, sorrow, life or death situations, and happiness combine for another enjoyable easy read second book by Kenny. Coming soon.... "PETEY and Friends" |