“When the U.S. got into WWII, Bill enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was accepted as an Aviation Cadet and graduated in 1945 and began his career as a 2nd Lt. flying missions over the southeast coast of the U.S. spotting German submarines.
Bill was also a dedicated family man and he and Louise raised 4 children as they traveled with the Military. Bill proudly served his country in three wars with the USAF.
After WWII, Bill polished his fighter skills and did fighter and guided missile testing at Wendover, UT and Alamagordo, NM. He was deployed to Japan to participate in the occupation of Japan. He flew combat missions in the Korean War. In 1952 he flew the first wing fighter flight over the Atlantic to Europe and the UK. He did early in-air refueling and was stationed at Weathersfield, Braintree, Englund. By 1960, he and his family were stationed at Kadena AFB in Okinawa and then Bill went to Tan Son Nuit Air Base in Vietnam where he was a Squadron Commander and flew daily sorties in the souped up P-51 and F-86. In 1965 he was deployed a 2nd time to Vietnam where he flew 109 missions from Tan Son Nuit.
In 1966 he returned to the U.S. to Cannon AFB, NM, where he retired in 1970 as Lt. Col.” (1)
Source: (1) Published in the Gazette on Dec. 20, 2020.
William O. Lighty, LtCol USAF, Ret., “Headed West” on November 26, 2020.
Bill Lighty, 96, passed away at Penrose Hospital on November 26, 2020. Bill has slipped the surley bonds of earth as he began his final flight into eternity to see the face of God.
Bill was born on April 8, 1924, on the family farm near Satanta, KS. His early years were spent on the plains of western Kansas and southeastern Colorado. As a child he was fascinated by the early airplanes that would fly over the farm. One day a barnstorming pilot noticed his Dad’s gasoline pump and landed in their field and offered to take young Bill and his father for a ride in exchange for a tank of gasoline. That was Bill’s first flight. The family lived near Holly, CO, during the Dust Bowl, and he remembered the black walls of sand moving across the landscape, and rising to the fence tops. In the mid-thirties they moved to Canon City, CO, where Bill attended school. After high school he married his high school sweetheart, Louise Stockton. They set off to Chicago where Bill found a job and was able to take some flying lessons. When the U.S. got into WWII, Bill enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was accepted as an Aviation Cadet and graduated in 1945 and began his career as a 2nd Lt. flying missions over the southeast coast of the U.S. spotting German submarines.
Bill was also a dedicated family man and he and Louise raised 4 children as they traveled with the Military. Bill proudly served his country in three wars with the USAF.
After WWII, Bill polished his fighter skills and did fighter and guided missle testing at Wendover, UT and Alamagordo, NM. He was deployed to Japan to participate in the occupation of Japan. He flew combat missions in the Korean War. In 1952 he flew the first wing fighter flight over the Atlantic to Europe and the UK. He did early in-air refueling and was stationed at Weathersfield, Braintree, Englund. By 1960, he and his family were stationed at Kadena AFB in Okinawa and then Bill went to Tan Son Nuit Air Base in Vietnam where he was a Squadron Commander and flew daily sorties in the souped up P-51 and F-86. In 1965 he was deployed a 2nd time to Vietnam where he flew 109 missions from Tan Son Nuit.
In 1966 he returned to the U.S. to Cannon AFB, NM, where he retired in 1970 as Lt. Col. During his service he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal and 8 Oak Leaf Clusters, WWII Victory Medal, Army of Occupation Medal of Japan, Korean Service Medal, 3 Bronze Stars Armed Forced Expeditionary Medal, Vietnam Service Medals. Bill flew every fighter plane between the P-51 and the F-111.
ln 1976 Bill settled in Colorado Springs, CO, where he married his current wife, Joan Greenwalt Ummel and added two more children to his family. He started a new career in commercial Real Estate. He and his partners owned Transwestern Properties. Back in his beloved mountains, he loved fishing, camping, cutting his own firewood and Christmas trees. He loved backyard gardening and dragging around railroad ties, laying paver bricks, and building fences while landscaping their hillside home. He built model airplanes and gardened into his 90’s. His grandchildren loved the raspberries and cherries and called him the Grandpa who tells stories.
Bill is preceded in death by his parents, Ora J. and Zelpha Ann Lighty, bothers, Orlan and AIfred Lighty, Great Grandson, Joshua Mapstead, and Son-in-Law Tom McClure. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joan, 6 children, Barbara (Hugh) Fordyce, Pat (Tom) McClure, Michele (Dennis) Raisch, William C. (Carol) Lighty, Clark Ummel, and Carrie Beck. Sister Orda Mae (Russell) Bean, 12 Grandchildren, 19 Great Grandchildren, and 2 Great Great Grandchildren.
[was] postponed until later in [2021] when friends and family are able to travel to Colorado Springs, and congregate safely.
