Born in Trinity on June 1, 1933, Charles Nesbitt "Charlie" Wilson served as a United States Naval officer, a state legislator, and a United States Representative from Texas' Second Congressional District. He attended Trinity public schools, graduated from Trinity High School in 1951, spent one semester at Sam Houston State University, and was then appointed to the United States Naval Academy, where he earned a B.S. degree in engineering. From 1956 to 1960, he served in the Navy as a lieutenant and gunnery officer on the destroyer USS John W. Weeks and was later assigned to the Pentagon in an intelligence unit evaluating the Soviet Union's nuclear forces. After volunteering for John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, he entered politics, winning his home district in 1961 and serving first as a state representative and later as a state senator. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1973, he won reelection 11 times. He became especially known for leading Congress in support of Operation Cyclone, the Central Intelligence Agency's largest covert operation, which under the Carter and Reagan administrations supplied military equipment, including anti-aircraft weapons, and paramilitary officers from its special activities division to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War. On domestic issues, he championed individuals' rights, especially for minorities and women, worked to increase Medicare and Medicaid funding for the elderly and underprivileged, and in 1974 joined Bob Eckhardt in proposing a bill to make the Big Thicket a national preserve. He retired from Congress in October 1996, later became a lobbyist for Pakistan, died on February 10, 2010, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.