NORTH WATERBORO – Kevin Monmaney of North Waterboro, Maine, a former Air Force Staff Sergeant who served with distinction in the Vietnam War and went on to become a southern Maine radio personality and a jet pilot to celebrities, died on November 30 of heart failure after a battle with cancer. He was 71.Kevin Richard Monmaney was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, the eldest son of Richard and Patricia (Clifford) Monmaney’s six children. Richard was a sales manager in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, with postings in Massachusetts, New York City and Providence as well as the Maine towns Houlton, Saco and Orono. Kevin Monmaney graduated from Thornton Academy in Saco in 1966 and briefly attended Maine Maritime Academy before enlisting in the Air Force. As a KC-135 Boom Operator with the 42nd Air Refueling Squadron, headquartered at Loring Air Force Base, Bangor, Mr. Monmaney served multiple tours refueling aircraft engaged in combat missions over Southeast Asia. “Kevin is one of the best boom operators in the Air Force today,” Colonel Grady L. Friday, Commander of the 42nd Bombardment Wing, wrote in a commendation letter to Mr. Monmaney’s parents in August 1974. KC-135 support operations played such a historic role in the Vietnam War that military experts refer to it as “the first tanker war.”Following his honorable discharge, Mr. Monmaney trained as a pilot and operated a charter and flight-instruction business in the Portland area, the All Weather Flight School. Mr. Monmaney’s brief radio career began one summer in the late 1970s when he teamed up with WJBQ to broadcast beach reports while flying over the southern Maine coast in a small airplane. “Captain Kevin’s” informative but light-hearted live dispatches on everything from parking availability to surf conditions were a hit with beachgoers, who wrote him giant messages in the sand such as “We Love You, Captain Kevin!”He then moved into jet aviation and, based in California and South Carolina, flew Learjets and other aircraft for Executive Jet and other firms. A highly experienced airman, he conducted flight checks of pilots for the Federal Aviation Administration.It was as a Gulfstream pilot for a leading charter service that Mr. Monmaney carried celebrities around the world, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, tennis great Pete Sampras, golf champion Tiger Woods and movie stars such as Bruce Willis, John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and Sylvester Stallone.After nearly three decades in commercial aviation Mr. Monmaney returned to Maine and successfully managed AutoZone stores, including one in Biddeford. He and his wife, Ann (Pettengill) Monmaney, settled in North Waterboro, where he retired.He is survived by his wife, his mother, his sisters Linda and Kristin Monmaney and Michelle Monmaney Letourneau, and his brothers Scott and Terence.No public memorial service is planned at this time.

Comments are not available on this story.