LCDR Joe "SJ" Wilson was the Salutatorian of his graduating class of 1997 at Malta High school. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in History from Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Immediately after graduating from MSU, he attended the United States Navy Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, FL. He was commissioned there in the fall of 2002. He completed primary and intermediate flight training in Pensacola at training squadron
VT-4 in the fall of 2003, and received orders to complete flight training in the E-2C Hawkeye in Norfolk, VA. He received his aviation Wings of Gold in December of 2004 and his assignment to his first squadron, VAW-124, the Bear Aces. Joe embarked on his first deployment aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) in the fall of 2005 and returned the spring of 2006. He was board selected by his peers and supervisors to become a Weapons and Tactics Instructor for the Hawkeye community and embarked on his second fleet tour in Norfolk from 2008-2010. He was hand selected to become the training officer for his former squadron, the Bear Aces, and returned as the senior junior officer and Weapons and Tactics instructor from 2010-2012. Joe departed the Bears in 2012 for the most prestigious junior officer job in the Hawkeye community as the community detailer in Millington, TN. There, he was responsible for the orders of every Hawkeye junior officer and department head. In 2013 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and received department head orders to VAW-125, the Tiger Tails, in the most advanced Hawkeye squadron with the new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye. LCDR Wilson passed away on 22 October 2014.