Clarence Winfield Lewis, Jr., 96, of Panama City, Florida, passed away on March 25, 2022.  He was born on May 9, 1925, in Greensboro, North Carolina.  He was predeceased in death by his wife, Eleanor Tobin Lewis (nee McAulay) of Nova Scotia, Canada.  He was predeceased by his sons Wayne (1958), John (1967-2019), and his daughter Lisa, Captain, USAF (1961-2003).  He is survived by his daughter, LTC (Ret) Natalie Lewis Bley, USA, (Paul), and his son CW4 (Ret) James Winfield Lewis, USA (Christine) and three granddaughters, Eleanor Griffin, Chelsea Hilsinger, and Carley Lewis.  He was predeceased by his parents, a brother and sister and is survived by one sister, all of North Carolina.

Clarence (who went by Lew or C.W.) lived his early life in North Carolina.  Upon turning 18 years old, he was selected for service in the US Army Air Corps in 1943.  He was selected for pilot training and eventually deployed to the Philippines and became part of the US Occupying Forces in Japan until 1947.  He transitioned to the Army Reserves and went back to North Carolina to go to college on the G.I. Bill.  He went to Guilford College, University of North Carolina, and Duke. It's family lore that he was thrown out of one of these schools for having a still in his room, although he swore it was his brother's.  He was recalled to duty in 1950 and assigned to Tyndall AFB.  His next assignment was Moody AFB, Georgia.  While stationed there he was sent to the Air Force Competition that is now known as the William Tell Competition and most recently held at Tyndall AFB. In 1954, he won the USAF 1st Top Gun Award.

His next assignment would change his life.  He was assigned to Goose Bay, Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada.  It was there that he met his wife, Eleanor.  She worked in the finance office and he owed some bills.  So, he had to go settle up with the beautiful redhead, and the rest, as they say, is history.  On to Dover AFB, Delaware, then Yuma AFB, Arizona, and he next returned to Tyndall.  He was then sent to Thailand for his first tour as a military advisor to Vietnam.  Next was Clark AFB in the Philippines, 1964-1966, where he was the squadron commander of the largest fighter squadron in the USAF.  On to Texas, next Massachusetts.  While at Otis AFB, at Cape Cod, Squadron Commander, F-101s, he had to eject from an aircraft that had a hydraulic leak which eventually froze the controls.  He flew the plane until it was not over residential areas.  The plane manufacturer awarded him a plaque with an ejector pull on it for proving that their system worked far below where they had tested it. Next assignment was the Pentagon with duty to NORAD, spending one week a month in Colorado.  He then returned one last time to Vietnam in 1972-73.  He then became the Senior Advisor to the Maine Air National Guard in Bangor, Maine.  His last assignment was with the NORAD Space Command Facility, at Ft Lee, Virginia.  He retired from the USAF in 1977 as a Colonel with thirty four years of active duty service.  Over his career he flew over thirty aircraft, including the P-61, F-80, F-100, F-101, F-102, F-104, F-106, as well as UH-1 and OH-58, and his two favorite aircraft, the F-89 and F-94.

After the Air Force he moved to Panama City, Florida and became a corporate pilot for the next fourteen years for a number of companies; West Florida Gas, Whitaker Oil, Tannehill Stock and Equipment, and Vulcan Materials.  In his retirement years, he and his wife, Eleanor, loved to travel. Their favorite escape was their summer home in Boylston, Nova Scotia, Canada, the home of his wife's grandmother.  They spent months at a time over their lives in Boylston each year and, as a consequence, it is a well-loved place for all their children and granddaughters.  His wife, Eleanor, is already interred in the Columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery.  His internment will take place there also at a later date.  His family agrees that Dad's heaven is a 1940's jazz band and a golf course.