Leonard "Bill" William Beadle, Jr.

Second Lieutenant Beadle entered the University of Wisconsin in 1940 and enlisted in the Air Corps Reserves in August 1942. He was called into service soon thereafter in February 1943. He attended training at the University of Pittsburgh, had preflight training at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama, and multi-engine training in August, Georgia. He received his wings in Georgia and was commissioned Second Lieutenant March 12, 1944.

While his crew was training in Sioux City, Iowa he was married to Florence Isely, a woman he met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on June 12, 1944.

On August 8, 1944, Beadle and his crew flew a B17 to England from where he had several missions flying into and over Germany. After returning to base from his 17th mission on December 16, 1944, he and the other pilots were ordered to break formation due to weather conditions; his plane was the only one not to return to base. His body washed up on a beach in the Netherlands on May 17, 1945 and was later found in an isolated grave in Zeutland, Holland. He was reburied at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Luxembourg.