More detail on this person: John Top was born in Olympia, WA.; Oct. 15th, 1932. Sadly, his mother died in her prime, when he was still very young, so John was raised with his grandparents until the age of eight. His father eventually remarried, and the small family (along with sister Nancy) spent the rest of their formative years together in New Mexico and Texas. After graduating Texas A&M's class of 54', John began a distinguished career with the United States Army. He was one of the pioneers of armed helicopters, and was the first pilot to qualify with the SS-11 wire guided anti-tank missile. Subsequently, the young officer traveled the country demonstrating the new weaponized capability of a YH-40 Huey prototype. John was also 1-of-4 officers selected to develop the original armed helicopter-training program at Fort Rucker, and helped write much of its' doctrine. He went on to serve two tours in Vietnam, for a total of 26-months in combat. With his background in armed helicopters, John would serve his first tour as the assistant S-3, Operations Officer of the newly formed 12th Aviation Group. He then returned for a 2nd tour as the Executive Officer of the 214th Combat Aviation Battalion. He was later reassigned to the 12th Group as the S-3, and then finished off his tour as the Commanding Officer (Lt. Colonel) of the 145th Combat Aviation Battalion; aviator call sign, "Old Warrior Six". *During his stint as OW6, the 145th was selected to support President Nixon & staff on his historic visit to Vietnam during the summer of 1969; ... quite the honor! Returning to the states, John Top was assigned to the Army Staff, in charge of aircraft missile and rockets programs in the Office of the Chief of Research & Development. It was here that John was originally responsible for the development of the Cobra TOW program and made the initial briefing to the General Staff that led to the development of the Hellfire Missile. He also served briefly at the Pentagon as the Executive for Army Aviation in the office of the Secretary of the Army for Research and Development; overseeing all Army Aviation R & D programs. While there, John chaired the initial tri-service meeting that led to the development of the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey; still widely used in service today. John finished at, or near, the top of his class through every level of the Army's education system; and so upon completion of the Army's Project Managers' Course, he was assigned to The Army Aviation Systems Command in St Louis. It was here that he reached full-bird Colonel and finished his career as Program Manager for the Army's electronic warfare aircraft overseeing the development and life cycle management of several airborne EW systems with a 5-year budget over $2.5 billion US. OW6 was a Master Army Aviator, recognized in service with: - Legion of Merit w/ one additional Oak Leaf Cluster (OLC), - Distinguished Flying Cross w/ one additional OLC, - Bronzes Star with Valor device and two additional OLCs, - Meritorious Service Medal, - Air Medal with Valor device and 19 awards, - Army Commendation Medal w/ two additional OLCs, - Vietnam Service Medal with 1 silver and 3 bronze campaign stars. Col. Top retired from his duties in the fall of 1978. Taking from his experience as an Army program manager, combined with a recent Masters-of-Science from USC, John started his own consulting business in Southern California where he served such clients as the Cubic Corp, the US Army Missile Command (AMCOM), Parks Jaggers, Litton Industries, and Lockheed Martin. While at Lockheed, John successfully reversed an internal no-bid decision, which led to their winning the contract to develop and produce the THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense system. The THAAD program brought billions of dollars in new business to Lockheed. They gratefully reciprocated this with an open invite to a "well paid full time job, anytime (he) wanted one" ... John declined, and closed his consulting business to retire to the good life in 1998. His impact on LMT will persist however, as THAAD is still to this day as a legitimate regional defense strategy around the globe. With a newly found passion for bird watching, John took to touring the globe in search of our feathered friends. With much nature to be enjoyed, he saw the entire Pan Americas (including Cape Horn & the Falklands) ... as well as: South Africa, Uganda, Indonesia, Malaysia, Borneo, French Polynesia, Australia and even Tasmania. Passing all conceivable expectations in good measure, the Colonel had logged the identities and locations of well over 30,000 species of birds during his travels. Other pre/post retirement hobbies included small aircraft pilot, fly-fishing, camping, sailing, furniture making, and connoisseur of all the great composers over a glass of red wine. Not surprisingly, John even returned to his home state of Washington to successfully summit Mount Rainier in his mid 60's (while he still had the legs to do so). It was an unfortunate day in May of 2016, when John was diagnosed with multiple cancers in his GI track. Although given an inoperable life expectancy of 21-24mos, he survived nearly 48 by using both conventional and alternative medicines ... and the good grace of God. He is survived by his two sons: Jonathan in Grapevine, Texas - and Patrick in San Diego; his sister Nancy Kimbrell in Yakima, Washington - niece Kim Killion, also in Yakicma, - and nephew Jeff Kimbrell in Chantilly Virginia.
This information was last updated 02/04/2020
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Date posted on this site: 04/13/2025
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