Bill was a hard worker and had to be academically for his prior schooling had not prepared him well for plebe math. But he persevered and steadily rose in academic rank, graduating in the middle. His track career started well on “C” Squad, but severe shin splints made him assistant manager the next year. By his third year, he ran the quarter mile on “B” Squad. Then total dedication to his future flying career left no time that final fall for sports.

In tactical matters, Bill’s prior ROTC at Louisiana State showed. Starting as company clerk, he rose to 2nd class corporal and then Air Cadet status that kept him from further rank. In extracurricular matters he showed leadership and dedication. He was on the Howitzer staff for three years and then editor our last year. He served three years on the lecture committee and became its chairman the last year; in things spiritual, he was a Sunday school teacher for three years. Those of us in the 100th Night Show remember his skill backstage for three years.

Graduation brought wings and training as a B-17 pilot. Again, his skill resulted in his being held as an instructor pilot before he could break out and join the 501st Bomb Group in Nebraska before their move to Guam. By September 1945, he was a major with an Air Medal and a Bronze Star. After another year in the Training Command, Bill’s career took a completely different twist, and he reported to Yale University for a half year of Chinese training. Two years of duty as language attaché in Peiping, China, led to great adventures as the communists took over and finally released him for return to the States.

Immediately he started a career in the Air Force Security Service as a linguist. In 1951, with the Korean War and the need for Chinese linguists peaking, he activated the 15th Radio Squadron Mobile and took it in to Ashiya, Kyushu, Japan. For his essential and important work in that war he was decorated with the Legion of Merit and promoted to lieutenant colonel. In the summer of 1954, he was preparing to return home. A classmate whose artillery battalion often staged from Ashiya Air Force Base for parachute jumps contributed this, written at the time:

“Bill had one of the most — if not the most — outstanding squadrons on the base, and that came from his former wing commander. He injected into his command spirit and discipline. His officers and men loved and respected him. I saw him as he was preparing to go home. He was in good spirits and had just ordered a Cadillac Coupe de Ville to be delivered in the States. As a ‘going away’ present his officers and men had given him a matched shotgun and rifle of which he was justly proud. Then, on 14 October he became ill, entered the hospital, and died the next morning of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Air Force lost a helluva fine officer.”

Shortly after graduation, Bill married Patricia, a California girl he met while flying; but the marriage did not last long and divorce followed. However, from that union Sandra Jayne Hardy was born in December 1943 in Beverly Hills, California. While we have lost track of his former wife, Sandra still lives in California, near Santa Barbara, with her two sons and a daughter. It is she who has custody of his personal papers and copies of the Howitzer to which he contributed so much. Bill also was survived by his parents (now dead), seven brothers, and four sisters, mostly in the area of Mississippi.

So we mourn a lone figure who made a great contribution in two wars. Our yearbook said that Bill’s rigid adherence to fair play, duty, and the Academy’s system made in him the best that West Point has to offer. The book was right!

— A classmate