Bill’s blog archive: Daily Posts

Red Baron South Bay Hanger Friday, April 3, 2009

Our April speaker will be Bill Beigel and hosting will be Staffel Baron Hayward von Thomas. Bill will speak to us about Researching World War 2 and Korean War Military Casualty Records, with a special emphasis on aviation casualties. Bill has a BA in History, and an MA in Geography. Bill’s “day” job is as a Senior Contracts Specialist for ARINC in Marina Del Rey and specializes in airport, harbor, and transit security systems and integration.

Many families would say that what Bill does in the evenings is far far more valuable. Bill researches military records for Americans that were killed, wounded, or made Prisoners of War in World War II and Korea. He started doing this in the 90’s when he became aware of one of his Dad’s relatives, SSgt Morris that had volunteered for the Army Air Corps and went “Missing in Action” over Europe. A month after being declared missing the Army sent word that he had been declared deceased, with absolutely no back up information. The lack of information caused the family untold stress for decades. In discussing the situation with his dad Bill decided to use the investigative skills he had learned in College, and was able to find out far more about the status of SSgt Morris then he could have ever imagined. Since that time he has helped or 500 such families across the US and from Belgium, Denmark, England, Germany, Luxembourg and Turkey find out what really happened to their loved ones. Bill’s talk should be really fascinating!