ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997                TAG: 9701030099
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: B-4  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: NEWS OBIT 
SOURCE: The New York Times

READY RESERVE BUILDER DIES

Maj. Gen. Winston Peabody Wilson, the architect of the United States' modern Ready Reserve - ready to join the regular forces swiftly on overseas missions - died Tuesday in Memphis, Tenn., where he was taken after a stroke. He was 85 and lived in Forrest City, Ark.

Wilson, a combat pilot, came to the Pentagon's attention in the 1950s when he took charge of the Air National Guard as a deputy chief of the National Guard Bureau. Within years he whipped what some debunked as a glorified collection of tax-supported clubs into disciplined tactical and transport squadrons.

Under his leadership, the National Guard wings proved themselves in the 1961 Berlin crisis, when their units bolstered U.S. airborne might.

After that mobilization, Wilson steadily built the muscle of the force and became known as Mr. Air National Guard around the Pentagon. He was appointed in 1963 as chief of the National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon liaison office to army and air guard units nationwide. He was the first air officer in that job, was reappointed four years later and retired in 1971.

He was born in Arkadelphia, Ark., but grew up in Little Rock, where his high-school mates shortened his name to Win. A coach's yell for ``Win P. Wilson'' prompted them to corrupt that into Wimpy, which stuck for life.

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