RADM H. Denny Wisely USN Retired

He was raised in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Fairleigh Dickinson University prior to entering the Naval Aviation Cadet program in 1961. As a Fighter Pilot in VF-114 he flew 350 combat missions over Vietnam flying from the deck of the USS KITTY HAWK. During his second deployment in 1967 he was the first to shoot down two enemy aircraft and was later shot down over NVN by ground fire while on Hanoi strike. He and his back-seater were recovered in a dramatic rescue operation. He tested F-4 aircraft at the McDonnell Douglas factory in St Louis and reached an altitude of 85,000 feet. After completing his degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey he returned to VF-114. On his third combat deployment in 1972 he became the acting Commanding Officer by attrition. He performed operational testing on the F-14 aircraft, the sidewinder and sparrow missiles at VX-4 in Pt Mugu, CA. While at VX-4 he flew the MiG 21 in a then classified project.

He then Commanded Fighter Squadron 151 aboard USS MIDWAY home-ported in Yokosuka, Japan. He was Commander and Flight Leader of the Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron; Executive Officer of the USS AMERICA; Director of Navy Liaison for the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs; and Deputy Director of Program Appraisal in the office of the Secretary of the Navy. He commanded the auxiliary ship, U.S.S. SYLVANIA and was Captain of the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. JOHN F. KENNEDY. During deployment to the Mediterranean KENNEDY F-14s shot down two Libyan MiG-23s. He was then Chief of Staff, Commander Sixth Fleet during the evacuation of the U.S Embassy in Beirut and the last Bush-Gorbachev Summit in Malta. Returning to Washington as a flag officer, he was Director Warfare Systems Engineering and Architecture at Navy Space and Electronic Warfare Systems Command and Director of Operations at the Defense Nuclear Agency. He retired from the U.S Navy in October 1994 as a Rear Admiral.

As a civilian, Admiral Wisely developed and ran an international business for Motorola in Scottsdale, AZ.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Military: Silver Star, Legion of Merit (6), Distinguished Flying Cross (2), Air Medal (29), Purple Heart.
Civilian: Society of Experimental Test Pilots ’76, Pinnacle Award Charter Inductee Fairleigh Dickinson University ’90, New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame Inductee ’95.


EDUCATION/TRAINING
He attended the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School ’69 -’70 and received a degree in Government/International Relations. In 1993 he attended JFK School of Government Senior Executive Course at Harvard.

Denny is retired in Scottsdale, Arizona and Fraser, Colorado.