[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Gus Kinnear was born January 28, 1928, in Mounds, a small town in Creek County, Oklahoma, and grew up in Brooksville, Florida.

A good student, he belatedly received his high school diploma from Hernando HS, Brooksville, FL, after voluntarily leaving early to join the war effort at age 17.

Kinnear was then assigned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations as Special Assistant to the Director of Navy Program Planning.

During this same period, he was a member of the George Washington University faculty, where he taught Political Economics in the School of Management Sciences.

Returning to sea duty, he commanded the USS Spiegel Grove, the South Atlantic recovery vessel for the Apollo 13 lunar mission.

In April, 1978, he was promoted to vice admiral, and put in command of the Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet until July, 1981.

[10][15] According to Project Brown Shoes,[10] Kinnear flew more different types of jet aircraft in combat than any other naval aviator, logged more than 5,000 hours of pilot flight time and performed more than 950 arrested carrier landings.

In addition, he served on the boards of The Aerospace Corporation, New England Digital, Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU), Center for the Study of the Presidency (CSP), Association of Naval Aviation (ANA), the U.S. Navy Memorial (USNM), and the University of Southern California Business School.

In April 1992, he was invited to join the New England Digital Corporation in Lebanon, NH, where he served as Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer through 1994.