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Charles Erwin Wilson, 66, Secretary of Defense, is the Cabinet officer whose quips and forthright answers have earned the most smiles, howls and congressional yowls. Wilson probably will be the first in the Cabinet to retire, possibly this summer or fall. But he will go not because of carps or criticism against him, but because of age and a desire to rest. As a military man, Ike understands Wilson's problem of holding a lid on the highly competitive services, and can see that he is doing it with better than average success. Wilson has buttressed civilian supervision of the armed forces, headed off Pentagon feuds, supervised a military arsenal that has changed more drastically in four years than at any other time in U.S. history. He has kept a rein on unnecessary crash programs of weapon development, insisted that if proven new weapons were phased into the defense program, old weapons should be phased out. All the while, Wilson has exercised an asset that was a prime reason for recruiting him. Handling the largest chunk of U.S. budget expenditures, he has gone a long way toward helping the nation get the maximum military strength for its money.