Arnold Leon Mabile

Col. Arnold Leon Mabile, USAF (Ret.), 83, passed away on Jan. 18, 2021, in Tucson, AZ. A resident of Rock Springs, WY, Arnold spent as much time as he could each year at the family’s “heart home” on Bottle Bay, Lake Pend Oreille. Arnold is survived by his devoted wife, Eunice Fay Kiernan, his son Arnold Glenn, daughter Amy Elizabeth (Coughlin) and her husband, Edward, and grandchildren Christine, Rebecca, and Andrew Coughlin and his wife, Sarah. Other surviving blood relatives include his sister, Catherine, of Colorado Springs, CO, nephew Randy Hadley, niece Toni Bircher, and nephew Tom Gustin. Also mourning Arnold’s passing are his former daughter-in-law, Nancy, Eunice’s children and grandchildren: Leigh Ann, Cherie, Dale, Tyra, Erin, Nick, and Ross, and a host of nieces, nephews and cousins. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Fortunate to have found love twice in a lifetime, Arnold is predeceased by his first wife, Alma Jane, mother to Glenn and Amy. He is also predeceased by his parents, Harold and Edna, sister and brother-in-law, Martha and Robert Hadley, and their daughter, Carol. Arnold was born in Shawnee, OK, raised in Green River, WY, and at the time of his death, was a resident of Rock Springs, WY. In recent years, Arnold and Eunice spent the harsher months in Tucson, AZ, as well as enjoying the family property on Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, which Arnold wisely purchased as a young airman stationed at Fairchild AFB in Spokane in the mid-1960s. On April 30, 1959, Arnold and Alma married after a brief engagement. A year later, in April of 1960, Arnold finished his bachelor’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado and was commissioned in the United States Air Force. Primary specialties included spending nearly 8 years as a navigator and electronic warfare officer aboard B-52 aircraft and more than 17 years as an Air Force intelligence officer, with tours of duty in Vietnam, SAC Headquarters in Nebraska, the Pentagon, and Hawaii. Rising to Intelligence Director roles in the final third of his career, Arnold capped it off as the commander of the Air Force Intelligence Service. In addition to completing his MBA at Auburn University while on active duty, Col. Mabile was awarded many decorations, medals and citations, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit Medal, The Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, and many others. Arnold loved to read, golf and travel – and the reading and travel fed his love of history. But given the satisfaction he got from a job well done, it was no surprise that after his retirement from the Air Force in 1989, Arnold joined Alma in a second career as a tax accountant. Arnold lost his beloved Alma to lung cancer in 2005. A few years later, he re-connected with his childhood friend, Eunice, who had also lost her spouse, Allan, after a long illness. Friendship soon blossomed into romance, and the two were married in Rock Springs, WY, on May 15, 2010. Eunice and Arnold enjoyed a decade traveling extensively together and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Arnold also immersed himself in the art and science of genealogy. He was particularly honored to see his father’s retirement business, “Lefty Mabile’s Grind Shop,” memorialized at Centennial Park in Green River, WY -- located on the grounds of Arnold’s boyhood home. Arnold served in leadership roles for the Sunflower Genealogy Society and was an active member of the Sunflower Veteran’s Club, as well. Internment, with military honors, and a celebration of life will take place at Pinecrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Sandpoint, Idaho, during the summer of 2021. A generous person with both his heart and his treasure, Arnold regularly and quietly donated to more than a dozen national charities each year. If you would like to honor Arnold’s memory, consider a gift to the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, or a military veterans’ organization of your choice.