In Memory of

THUDER

Passed Away on 12/29/2013

Raiders:
It is my sad duty to inform all of you that Thuder passed away on December 29, 2012. He will be greatly missed by all of us who knew him. We spent countless hours flying together and enjoyed every moment.

Bill shared with me that he had been diagnosed with cancer and given up to 3 years to live. The last I heard from him, he said that he was in too much pain to be able to fly with us as much he wanted to. I sent him several e-mails trying to make contact with him, but never got a response. Today, after searching for contact info about Bill, I sadly, found that he had passed away. He will be greatly missed by all of us who knew him.

I have known Bill McAdam for about four years, as we were squadmates in Warbirds. He thoroughly enjoyed flying with the Doolittle’s Raiders squad.

He was proud to be a member of the squad and always said we were the best. He could always be found in a bomber or troop transport, preferring to fly at high altitude, conducting any mission he was assigned. He liked flying in the Squad Select Series (S3), too. Bill even purchased a few pieces of squad memorabilia that showed him in action (see above picture).

He was a man full of experiences that he shared with us from time to time. Once, he shared that he had flown 100 missions in Vietnam in a F105 (a.k.a. Thud). He told us that 98 of them he was able to land safely. The two others, he had to ride the nylon elevator to the ground.

I was looking forward to meeting him face-to-face in Pensacola, FL next April for the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders reunion where all the Doolittle’s Raiders are encouraged to meet as a group for the first time. We’ll have to leave a seat open in his memory.

I hope you will take time to remember him and pray for his family to be consoled in their loss. It’s never easy to lose a family member or friend. And, we count Thuder a true friend.

He had registered on our www.doolittlesraiders.spruz.com site and posted the following autobiographical info:

General About Me
Born in W. Palm Beach, FL, back in October 1942. Father was on active duty as a Major in the Army assigned to the 29th division. He was a real hero. Operation Torch (he hated the Frogs until the day he died) and also Omaha beach at Normandy. I graduated high school and went on the Auburn University under an AFROTC scholarship. Spent 9 weeks at Lackland AFB as a butter bar doing basic under a marine DI. Flight training, jets, tactical fighter school and finally was assigned to the 335th at Seymour Johnson AFB then TDY to Hurlbert Field, Eglin AFB, FL. Since I joined the air force to get away from Pensacola and the Navy, I was a bit disappointed to be assigned to a field 30 miles east of Pensacola! From there, however, Ubon AFB in Thailand was very exciting! Most days we left Ubon at 0600 headed north of Danang and orbited at FL 300 waiting on fire support missions for the Corp and Army Green Berets. Shot down by ground fire once and later again took the nylon elevator when my J75 quit. Used to be 6’ 4” but now only 6’ 1.5”. Ejecting is not fun! Came to Warbirds from FA when they went South. Mostly fly bombers and troop transports. Don’t really like fighters but I still can usually get the job done. The picture above closely resembles the 105D model. Mine had a large yellow SJ on the vertical stabilizer. Used to have several pictures on the squadron and various things from the era; however, my ex decided I didn’t need them anymore.

Below, are some obituaries that I was able to locate after searching quite some time for his contact info.

Never Let Them See You Coming, Thuder!
Darryl sends a final <S>
CO of Doolittle’s Raiders