Born in 1929, and at 95 years of age, he is believed to be the youngest living World War II Veteran.
Bill Was a Boy Scout on the USS Arizona while homeported in Long Beach and is believed to be the last living survivor of the USS Arizona while in service. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bill, as a 12-year-old Boy Scout, served in the Army Air Forces Ground Observer Corps from 1941 to 1943.
In 1946 at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was deployed to Japan where he graduated in Radar Maintenance at the Eight Army Signal Corps in Yokohama, Japan. Upon finishing Radar School, he was stationed in Guam and was tasked with repairing aircraft radars. His unit was then recalled during the Korean War and were sent to Casablanca where he was assigned Radar Unit Chief and led a unit of over 32 radar repair men.
In 1962, he supervised the rescue of the USS Potomac, FDR’s Presidential Yacht, which sank in Barbados. He made the yacht seaworthy and sailed it back to the US with a crew of 10.
