Cdr. William S. Forman

November 8, 1936 - January 22, 1966

  by his brother Craig and sister Diane

 Bill Forman was one of those kids you just knew was going to grow up to be an aviator.  As a kid, he built model airplanes and flew them.  Fortunately, by the time he became a carrier pilot, he'd learned far better flying skills because his Piper Cub model crashed at least a dozen times during early takeoffs and landings at the school playground.  He and his brother each had prop fingers from starting the glow plug engines that invariably zapped their index fingers while
trying to get it running.  In high school, Bill joined the Civil Air Patrol to really test his wings aloft. 

He attended St. John's University where he was manager of the school's book and record shop and worked summers on his father's painting crew learning how to paint barns with a block brush and not put more paint on the ground than the building.  He earned a degree in English literature and spent a short time at home waiting for his orders to come through for Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island.  After graduation and his commission, he served aboard several aircraft carriers as a line officer before deciding to go to flight school.  He won his wings at Pensacola and went on to New Iberia, Louisiana to learn to land aboard an aircraft carrier and proudly became a naval aviator.  During more than seven years with the Navy, he served all his tours in the Pacific, many of them in the Gulf of Tonkin.

He was oldest of six Forman children, two boys and four girls, all raised in southwestern Minnesota.  Bill attended several summer camps during his boyhood, was an avid ham radio operator who built his transmitters and receivers from scratch. He delivered newspapers as a boy and earned money for camp by mowing lawns, shoveling snow, weeding neighbor's gardens, and doing household chores.  As the first Forman to go off to college, he introduced the family to great books and classical composers and the world beyond the narrow confines of the small town where they lived.   

He is remembered by his brother and sisters as an altar boy who grew up to be a devout Catholic and a person who cared about other people as well as those closest to him.  Dozens of letters he wrote home were carefully saved over the years by his Mother who grieved his loss until the day she died.  He was the family trailblazer who bought the family's first TV set during the early 1950's, was first to earn a college degree, first to marry, first to fly, and the first to die.
 
He married Lynne Freeman, daughter of an editor with the San Diego Union, and lived on North Island prior to buying a family home before his final tour of duty to the Far East.  He was the father to two daughters, Teri and Kris, who had his special affection during his short, happy life as a carrier pilot.
 
William Standard Forman's name is etched on the fourth giant slab of black Vermont marble that records the demise of more than 50,000 American servicemen and women who served in Vietnam.  His plane flying off the USS Hornet along with copilot Erwin "Skip" Templin, Jr., Edmund "Frenchy" Frenyea and Robert Sennett disappeared the morning of January 22, 1966.  Only a life raft and Templin's flight helmet were recovered, weeks after Navy aircraft scoured the area where the plane reportedly went down. 
 
His memory has been lovingly preserved with plaques and memorial trees planted at St. John's University and on the Pipestone County Court House lawn, and a street near the small town's airport was dedicated to him in the 1990s.  It was the last occasion for his parents, other family members, and townspeople to pay homage once more to a beloved son, brother, nephew, cousin, patriot and war hero who gave his life in the service of his country.