Bill Badgley, Dayton Washington, enlisted in October of 1942. He was assigned to Anti- Aircraft Artillery. He was later selected for Officer Candidate School and graduated a 2nd Lieutenant in August 1943. He graduated from Pre-Flight School in Apr. 1944, and from Bombardier School in Sept 1944.

In Oct, he was assigned to the 39th BG, 60th Bomb Squadron. Initially he served with crew 8 then was reassigned to crew 5, but finished combat crew training and went to combat with Crew 7. He was relieved from active duty in Dec 1945.

He reenlisted in April 1946 and served as Financial Technical Clerk ...He was recalled to active commissioned duty April 1948 as Radar Observer, 72nd Strategic Recon Squadron (B-50's) at Ladd AFB Alaska. He served in several positions, eventually becoming Resident Auditor, and Supervisory Auditor at 8 different stateside and overseas bases until retirement as Major in July 1964.

After leaving active duty, He worked as a Civil Service Supervisory Auditor at Offutt AFB in Nebraska and Headquarters Air Force Audit Agency directly responsible to the Comptroller of the Air Force. He retired from Civil Service in 1979.

Bill and Elsie were married in Alaska in 1949. They have 3 children; born in Massachusetts, New York and Texas. Bill says Elsie persevered through a "nearly permanent transient status" for the first 17 years of their marriage, 10 relocations during that period. As Bill says, "She truly put in her 30 years with the USAF."