Paul Helmut Wagner

Paul Helmut Wagner passed away on 28 May 2020 after a brief illness. Paul was born on 21 May 1945 in Sulzbach, Germany. He lost his father, Peter Wagner, two years after his birth due to wounds received on the Russia front during World War II. Along with his mother and two siblings, he emigrated to the United States in 1949, arriving in Mobile Al in July and settling in Tallahassee. He is a 1963 graduate of Leon High School. After studying at Florida State University for one year, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Graduating in 1968, he was commissioned an Ensign and chose aviation as his specialty. After extensive flight training in the A-6 Intruder and receiving his Gold Wings, he was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea on the USS Roosevelt. In 1972, he deployed on the USS Saratoga to Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam where he flew 185 combat missions over the dangerous and target rich Hanoi-Haiphong Triangle. While in Vietnam, he was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses for gallantry, 12 Air Medals, and numerous campaign and meritorious unit commendations. During that time he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His last assignment before leaving the Navy was with the staff of the Commander, Strike Force South, in Naples, Italy. He returned to Tallahassee and lived a quiet life on his farm on the city's outskirts surrounded by friends and neighbors, where among other things, he enjoyed studying military history. He was preceded in death by his father; mother, Elizabeth Wagner; and his sister, Hildegard Wagner Schow. He is survived by his brother Hans Wagner of Huntsville, Alabama.