WILLIAM C. (BILL) WEIMER Major, USAF (Retired)

USAF OCS Class 57C, OC Captain, 2nd Group Adjutant

I was born on August 27, 1930 and grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. After graduating from high school, I joined the Air Force on September 14, 1948 and was shipped to Lackland AFB, Texas for my basic training. This was followed by clerical school at Fort Francis E. Warren, Wyoming, from which I graduated in April 1949. My first duty station was Headquarters, 15th Air Force in Colorado Springs. Later that year, Hq 15th AF moved to March Air Force Base, California and we were given a chance to choose our new assignment within the command. I selected MacDill AFB, Florida and, in December 1949, was assigned to the 307th Bomb Wing. In June of 1950, the 307th was shipped to Okinawa to support the Korean Conflict. I was sent to Intelligence School at Lowry AFB, Colorado. After graduation, I was reassigned to the 307th Bomb Wing in Okinawa and was promoted to Staff Sergeant and the position of NCOIC of the Targeting Section. I also flew on several missions in the B-29 over North Korea, before they stopped me because I had access to the war plan.

I returned to MacDill in June 1952, and was assigned to the 305th Bomb Wing Intelligence Section and was promoted to Tech Sergeant. There, I met and married Ida. We were assigned to Hq SAC in the fall of 1953. I was assigned to Hq SAC Intelligence Section, and had the job of reviewing all the POW and DP interrogations from Germany, to extract useful information for our escape and evasion programs. I wrote three books that were published Air Force-wide. In 1955, I was transferred to a special project called Moby Dick. It was a project designed to float camera-carrying balloons over the USSR. The project came to an end when a few were shot down, and Khrushchev complained loudly. After this assignment, I was reassigned to Hq SAC in the Technical Intelligence Section. During that assignment, I attended night school at the University of Omaha, received an AA degree, applied for OCS, and was accepted for Class 57C.

After OCS graduation as a second lieutenant, I – along with several other classmates – spent a year at Lackland AFB as a training officer in the basic military training program. My assistant, and later my replacement, was a fine 57D graduate, Ray Bratcher. After my year was up, I was transferred to Oklahoma City and became the Assistant Director of Intelligence for the 33rd Air Defense Division. During this period, I became a father for the fourth time. In 1960, I transferred to Clark Air Base, in the Philippines and was assigned to intelligence duty as Country Officer for Vietnam, and bumped heads several times with the CIA. One incident was resolved by General Maxwell D.Taylor’s fact-finding mission in 1961. I had a number of TDY’s throughout Asia, including a four month tour at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon, beginning on January 1, 1962, to help set up the Air Force Advon and man the joint operations center. I had been attending the University of the Philippines classes on base, and received a BA in 1962. In early 1963, I went to Bien Hoa for a short TDY, returning to Clark AB, PI. In June of 1963, I was transferred to Hq AFSC at Andrews AFB, for a very enlightening tour with the Foreign Technology Division.

In early 1965, I was called over to the Pentagon and offered a special duty assignment to Southeast Asia. It turned out to be a civilian clothes job with the Air Attaché office in Laos, as Liaison Officer to the Commander of the Royal Lao Air Force. The assignment lasted for a year, and I spent many hours flying with Air America and the RLAF. The OV-10 was conceived from that assignment and I gave a mid-tour briefing to the Commander of AFSC. My private license and flight training were put to work, but my big job was to keep MGen Tao Ma from trying to engineer a coup. He did just that shortly after I left.

In 1966, I was transferred to Alaskan Air Command and assigned duties as Intelligence Officer, and later as Special Security Officer for the Alaskan Command. In 1968, I was promoted to major. In 1969, I was transferred to the Attaché Division, Hq DIA in the Pentagon. Within a year, I was selected to attend Staff Intelligence School, which would have been followed by yet another tour in Vietnam with Hq MACV, after which I would have returned to the Pentagon. I decided that Ida needed my help raising our four children, and I retired in September 1970 after 22 years.

I turned down jobs with NSA and the President’s Economic Advisory Committee and moved to Merritt Island, Florida. I went to work for Sears in a temporary (2 weeks) job, but retired as a manager in 1992 after 22 years. It helped put food on the table and get six kids through college. Ida and I separated in 1977, and I married Judy in 1979 and helped raise her two children. She is from Knoxville, Tennessee and recently retired from our local county government. From our home in Merritt Island, we can watch all of the shots from Cape Canaveral AFS and the John F. Kennedy Space Center. We have ten grandchildren, ages from 9 months to 25 years.

Since 1992, I have been active in church and various government and social activities. I am currently the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at church, on the board of directors at the Brevard Veterans’ Council, and help when I can at the VFW, American Legion, and the Moose Lodge. I also volunteer at Patrick AFB assisting the Security Police, and at the King Center for the Performing Arts at Melbourne.

Bill Weimer