Hank Wilson was born on February 11, 1927, in South Windsor, Connecticut. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on February 19, 1944, and was trained as a ship fireman. F1C Wilson served in New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia, before serving aboard the light cruiser USS Philadelphia (CL-41) in the Atlantic and European Theater of Operations. After the war ended, he received an honorable discharge from the Navy at the U.S. Navy Personnel Separation Center at Long Island, New York, on May 19, 1946. Hank married the former Mary Miller on November 10, 1951, and they had two children together-Heidi Elizabeth and Henry, Jr. They moved to Mesquite, Texas, in 1959 to help start up Machinists Tools, Inc., in Dallas, Texas, where he later retired as Vice President of the company. Hank's brother, George Wilson, served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific in World War II and was wounded there, and his other brother, Wesley Wilson, served in the Army in North Africa and Italy and was killed in action on July 15, 1944, and was buried at the Florence American Cemetery in Florence, Italy. Henry Wilson died on November 1, 2011, and was buried at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery in Dallas, Texas.