2nd Lt Dean D. Willard, USAAF

Foil: 9 Panel: 1 Column: 2 Line: 98

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
A. Daniel De Foe

Dean Willard enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943 and received his pilot wings in January 1944. His brother Rush Willard -- a P-47 pilot like Dean -- had died in 1943 when the Air Corps plane in which he was a passenger crashed en route from Florida to Virginia.

Considering this, the Air Corps assigned Dean as an instructor at the Oscoda Army Air Field, MI. After a year as instructor, Dean volunteered for overseas duty and was killed on his first mission 14 April 1945. He crashed while strafing a German tank.