William
H. Harter, Jr., was born on 22 May 1925 in Greensboro,
NC. While still in his infancy, his family moved to Salisbury,
NC. This has been his life long residence. After attending
public schools there, Harter went to college in Salisbury.
He worked various jobs and prior to World War II, and
at the age of eighteen he was inducted into the service
at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After basic training, he
enrolled in the Aviation Cadet Program and was shipped
to Knoxville, Tennessee and then on to Aerial Gunnery
School at Tyndell Field, in Panama City, Florida. Upon
completion, he received crew training at Alamogoro, New
Mexico and Salina, Kansas. It was at the later situation
that he became P-32's tail gunner.
At
war's end, Harter didn't return home right away, instead
he was assigned to the B-29 "Waltzing Matilda" to participate
in the War Bond tour, a tour of whose itinerary included
every major city in Australia as well as many smaller
ones. At the end of this duty, William was sent back to
Guam and then Saipan. From there he boarded a troop ship
back to the United States, eventually arriving back at
Fort Bragg. He was discharged from the service March 3,1946.
Ironically, two months later, P-32, was removed from the
USAF inventory at Davis-Monthan Air Base.
William
married Marian Britton on July 2, 1949. For the past 35
years he has been working for Security Bank and Trust
Company in Salisbury. At the time of this writing, he
is Senior Auditor and Corporate Secretary for the bank.
He and his wife reside in Salisbury. |