Keith Edward Gay

LTC Ret. Keith E. Gay of Dothan, Alabama, passed away Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at home after a battle with Cancer. He was 72.

Funeral service will be held Saturday, August 16 at 11 a.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Dothan. The family receive friends following the service in the parish hall. A graveside service and burial will be held Monday, August 18 at 10 a.m. at Greenlawn Gardens Cemetery in Vicksburg, MS. The family will first meet up at Glenwood Funeral Home. Sunset Memorial Park in Dothan is in charge of local arrangements.

Pallbearers at the Vicksburg service will be Adam Gay, Mike Gay, Tom Gay, Bill Mendrop, Robert Arnold, and Rick Linton.

Mr. Gay was born on March 16, 1953, in Vicksburg, MS, to the late Wallace Gay and Ruth Mendrop Gay. He was a 1971 graduate of Cooper High School, and a 1975 graduate of The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). He received a master’s degree in leadership and organizational management at University of Redlands in California in 1978.

Mr. Gay was preceded in death by his parents, and his son Adam Gay.

Survivors include his beloved wife of 51 years Peggy Lum Gay, of Dothan, and his son, Sam Gay (Katie), of Dothan, three grandchildren who affectionately called him PePaw - Millie Gay, Adam Gay and Margaret Gay, and two brothers, Randy Gay (Marsha), Vicksburg, MS, and Mark Gay (Sue), Springfield, VA.

A retired lieutenant colonel and a dual rated aviator, Mr. Gay had 22 years of combined joint military service in the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army, where he served in multiple air and ground assignments.

Mr. Gay was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force in 1975, and went through T-37/38 training at Craig, Air Force Base in Selma, Ala. The Air Force’s reduction-in-force placed new pilots on inactive reserve status for 36 months. Mr. Gay resigned and entered the Marine Corps’ Officer Candidate School.

During his time in Marine Corps he served as a second lieutenant in Artillery at 29 Palms, Calif., from 1976-1979; selected for Naval Flight Training, Naval Air Station (NAS) in Pensacola, Fla.; selected for Aviation Maintenance Management Officer (AMMO) School, NAS, Millington, Tenn., in 1980; assigned to VMFA-212 as an F-4 Naval Flight Officer in Kaneohe, Hawaii, from 1980-1983; attended Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) and served as the detachment commander; served overseas deployments to Japan, Korea, and the Philippines; and was assigned to McDonnell Douglas Hornet Introduction Team (HIT) for F-4 transition to F-18- MCAS, El Toro, Calif.

Wanting to get back into flying, Mr. Gay transitioned to the Army for flight school at Fort Rucker, Ala., in 1983. He attended the Maintenance Course and AH-1 Cobra Maintenance Test Pilot course in 1984; was assigned to the 228th AHB, 1st CAV DIV, Ft. Hood, Texas; commanded the F/227, AVIM, 1st CAV DIV; executive officer for 1-7 CAV, 1st CAV DIV; served as the Aviation General Staff Officer, 19th Theater Support Command, Taegu, Republic of Korea; attended Command and General Staff College in 1991; served as Chief, Concepts/Studies Branch, Directorate of Combat Development (DCD), Fort Rucker in 1992; Deputy Director, DCD in 1993; Director, Aviation Battle Lab in 1995; served in the Operational Test Evaluation Agency/Command until 1997.

Following his retirement from the military, he helped start up Navigator Development Group Inc. Through a partnership buyout in 2016, Keith became the full owner of Navigator, and its headquarters, which is the historic Rawls Hotel in downtown Enterprise. Navigator is a defense industry consulting firm that provides contract support to the Department of Defense agencies across the Aviation, Training and Technology domains. Navigator supports government and industry customers at multiple locations: Enterprise, Dothan, Fort Rucker, Huntsville, Redstone Arsenal, AL; Eglin AFB and Hurlburt Field, FL; Fort Leavenworth, KS; Kirtland AFB, NM; Fort Sill, OK, and Fairchild AFB, WA.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to either St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or the Wounded Warrior Project.