William Edward Cordero
Major
8TH BOMB SQDN, 34TH TAC GROUP, 13TH AF
United States Air Force
Santa Barbara, California
July 20, 1935 to June 22, 1965
WILLIAM E CORDERO is on the Wall at Panel 2E, Line 15

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William E Cordero
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Major William E Cordero


Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand,
and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr
Pilot Officer, Royal Air Force
Killed in flight 11 Dec 1941, aged 19



My father is remembered on the
Sons & Daughters In Touch site

His son,
Tony Cordero
tony@sdit.org 
15 Apr 2003

 

Mission Notes

The B-57 Canberra bombers of the 8th and 13th Bomb Squadrons were deployed to South Vietnam beginning in late 1964 and undertook a variety of missions including both strike and "pathfinder" missions for other aircraft.

On the night of 21/22 June 1965, Captains Charles Kennedy Lovelace, pilot, and William E. Cordero, navigator, launched from Tan Son Nhut Air Base in B-57B tail number 53-3910 for a night flare mission (i.e., a pathfinder mission for other strike aircraft) over North Vietnam's southernmost province in the vicinity of the Lao/NVN border. The B-57B went down and both crewmen were lost.

Later in the war their remains were recovered and laid to rest in Section 46 of Arlington National Cemetery, adjacent to the Memorial Amphitheater.

William E Cordero
MAJ WILLIAM EDWARD CORDERO
MAJ CHARLES KENNEDY LOVELACE
Arlington National Cemetery

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