William Austin Bush, a retired U. S. Army LTC, took his final flight toward the heavens on 7 September 2019. He was born 16 October 1938 on the family farm near Ellisville, MS. He was graduated from Jones County Junior College in 1958 and attended William Carey College in Hattiesburg, MS. He was a member of the Mississippi National Guard, which was activated during the Cuban Crisis. He spent over eleven years as a medical evacuation helicopter pilot serving among other places one year in Korea and two years in Vietnam.
Between Vietnam assignments Bill finished his education at St. Benedict’s College in Atchison, KS. After the Vietnam War he moved to Kansas and became a part of the Army Reserve in Wichita. Bill retired from Boeing in 1995 and spent much of his time doing woodwork. He was a volunteer at the woodshop at McConnell AFB for several years and for the past few years was a volunteer with Kansas Honor Flight.