Bill was educated in Logan County, West Virginia, public schools, graduating in 1947 from Man High School, where he lettered in football.  Following high school, he enrolled as a cadet at Greenbrier Military School in Lewisburg, West Virginia.  He subsequently attended Marshall College, now Marshall University, in Huntington, West Virginia.  While Bill was a student at Marshall, his father Allen died in 1949.

     When the United States entered the Korean War in June of 1950, Bill left Marshall to join the United States Air Force.  On October 10, 1950, he signed for a term of four years.

     After extensive training at various Air Force facilities in the United States, Bill, along with the rest of his flight crew, shipped in June of 1952 to Yokota Air Base in Japan, where the group was assigned to the 345th Bomb Squadron, 98th Bomb Wing.  The men were advised that they would fly a total of thirty combat missions, and then they would be re-assigned to non-combat duty.

     In the latter part of July of 1952, the crew flew it's first combat mission.  For the next several months, the men were in the air regularly carrying out dangerous bombing missions at targets located in enemy territory.  By the middle of November, Bill and his comrades had completed some twenty-five missions and were looking forward to returning to the United States for Christmas.  Bill did his Christmas shopping in Tokyo, Japan, wrapped the gifts himself, and mailed them to his mother.  There was something for everyone in the family, down to the youngest cousin.

     The Christmas presents made it home for the holidays, but, sadly, Bill and eleven other members of the crew did not.  On the night of November 19, 1952, while flying their twenty-seventh bombing mission*, Bill and the others on board were forced to bail out of the aircraft, when enemy fire struck the B-29 just after it had successfully dropped its bombs on the assigned target.  Of the fourteen airmen on board, two men survived and two men's bodies were recovered, but Bill and the remaining nine crewmembers vanished and have never been accounted for.  One year and one day later, on November 20, 1953, Bill and the other missing men were declared dead by the United States Air Force.

     In December 1952, while Bill was in missing status, his rank was upgraded from Airman First Class to Staff Sergeant, a promotion he had expected to receive.  Among his awards were the National Defense Service Medal, a Good Conduct Medal, the United Nations Service Medal and the Korean Service Medal with three bronze stars for participation in the Korea Summer/Fall (1952), Third Korean Winter, the Korean Summer/Fall (1953) campaigns, and an Air Medal.  Later, he was awarded the Purple Heart.  These medals were sent to his grief-stricken mother, along with a Certificate of Remembrance personally signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

     Bill's mother Nawassa, known as "Aunt Wassa" to her several nieces and nephews, survived until 1982, when she died, heartbroken, never knowing the fate of her only child.

*  Writer's calculation based on Bill's letters to his mother, Mrs. Nawassa Whitman, and the letters of other crewmember's parents to Mrs. Whitman.