Decorated Las Vegas WWII veteran dies
William Dean Whitaker, a decorated World War II veteran, wanted his seven grandchildren to know his story, so he immortalized it in a book.
He detailed what he had endured after his plane was shot down over Germany, and he was taken prisoner on Nov. 2, 1944, and held captive for seven months until liberation forces rescued him.
He wrote that he wanted his grandchildren to understand the sacrifices made “for the freedom of all of us.”
Whitaker, a Purple Heart recipient and stalwart of the Southern Nevada veteran community, who through his twilight years shared his story at National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremonies at Nellis Air Force Base, died on July 14.
He was 97.
Mike Whitaker said that his father was “very well valued and very centered,” and he instilled honesty and integrity in him and his brother, Jeff.
“He taught my brother and I the value of hard work, to not give up and that we would not succeed all the time, but you do succeed enough to make it worth your while,” Mike Whitaker said.
William Whitaker and a couple of his best friends joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, which was later dissolved with the creation of the Air Force, after high school.
They had decided that they liked its uniforms and fight song, “Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder,” he wrote in the book titled “My Story.”
“It gave three seventeen year old kids the urge to explore that wild blue!” he wrote.
His father had just died, and he and his three brothers joined different military branches in the midst of the war, which worried their mother, who had picked up two jobs to help raise them.
In 1943, Whitaker enlisted as a bombardier and trained at the Las Vegas Army Airfield, which later was renamed Nellis Air Force Base.
He and his brothers returned home from the war, but his two high school friends were killed in action, he wrote.
Whitaker earned the Purple Heart for injuries he suffered during his first mission.
Later in the war, he and a team of eight soldiers had to jump out of a burning plane. Half of them were taken prisoners.
It took more than 50 years for Whitaker to learn, through a letter, that the four others had been shot and buried.
“It’s always been on my mind, whether they got out of the plane, if they survived the jump, or what happened to them once they landed,” Whitaker told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in a 1995 story.
“It’s like they died yesterday. When I got that letter, I went through it all over, realizing I’m alive and they’re not. Going through some of the simple things in life you wonder, ‘Well gee, why am I here and they’re not?’ ”
After the war, Whitaker returned to California and held jobs in firefighting, education and architecture before he moved to Las Vegas upon retirement.
France bestowed its highest honor on Whitaker in 2019, the Legion d’Honneur, which is given to military and civilians with “outstanding achievements” during World War II.
Asked what he most will miss about his father, Mike Whitaker said: “Just him being there. Just his presence.”
Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 9270 S. Maryland Parkway.
A graveside ceremony at Palm Eastern Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. is scheduled for 1 p.m.
A celebration of life will take place at 2 p.m. at the church.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.
