William L. Goldman

WWII vet piloted airships over the Atlantic Ocean.

By R. Kurt Osenlund, BucksLocalNews.com

William Goldman has a buoyant personality that can lift spirits, so it makes perfect sense that in World War II, this 91-year-old Doylestown resident wound up serving as a pilot of the Navy’s Lighter-than-Air (LTA) airships – blimps that watched over American cargo boats as they carried precious material through dangerous waters. Goldman says that when he volunteered for LTA, he didn’t even know the American military had such aircraft – and many people still don’t.

Before joining the armed forces, Goldman, who was raised in West Philadelphia by parents Grace and Samuel and with brother Albert, studied business law at Temple University. After earning his Bachelor’s Degree in 1942, he volunteered for the Navy.

“If I didn’t volunteer, I would have been drafted,” Goldman says. “They needed men in World War II. So, it was a matter of waiting until they called you or choosing what you wanted. I picked the Navy because I wanted clean white sheets when I went to bed at night – I didn’t want to sleep in the mud.”

He also had a strong interest in being away at sea, but that wasn’t in the cards. He was turned down for the Deck Navy, or service at sea, because of his flat feet and slight overbite. (“I told them, ‘I’m not going to trample the enemy to death, nor am I going to bite them to death,’” Goldman says.) He instead volunteered for the Air Navy, and was sent to the University of North Carolina for pre-flight training. It was there that he learned about LTA.

Goldman and 12 other men signed up for airship duty, and moved on to Lakehurst, N.J. for flight training. Goldman earned his Navy wings in the spring of 1943, and was then sent to a naval air station in Glynco, Ga., where he’d fly out on his first anti-submarine patrol missions over the Atlantic.

In January 1944, Goldman was transferred to Amapa, Brazil. He and his outfit were responsible for protecting American ships that were leaving Paraguay with large amounts of bauxite ore, which was mined in Paraguay, then shipped north to the U.S. to be refined and made into aluminum – a very valuable substance at the time, used for military vehicles and weapons. So valuable was aluminum that Germans were attempting to sabotage plants on American soil and attack the cargo-carrying ships that were traveling through the South Atlantic.

But, as Goldman tells it, the Germans rarely attacked a convoy of U.S. boats while the airships were hovering above, watching over.

“The Americans would look up to us and wave, feeling confident we would protect them,” says Goldman, who was one of two pilots on his airship. “They never got attacked under my watch.”

Though he never had to use them, Goldman says each airship was equipped with two depth charges and two 50-caliber machine guns. In addition, the craft had Sonar gear, which could be dropped into the water to detect metal, i.e. submarines.

During his time in Brazil, Goldman traveled from Amapa on south, hitting points like Sao Luiz, Natal, Macio and Rio de Janeiro while protecting the cargo ships. A more southern squadron would precede Goldman’s group in keeping watch, and then Goldman’s squadron would also eventually pass the duties on to a more northern squadron.

Goldman completed his LTA duty in Brazil in November 1944, then came home to the U.S. for various Navy officer duties that kept him on the ground. For a few years after, he visited stations in Atlantic City, Willow Grove, New York and Oklahoma. Most importantly, in Brooklyn, at Floyd Bennett Field, he met his wife, Jean Marie, a Navy nurse. The two were married in 1947 and moved to Wilkes Barre. They’d eventually have five children: William Jr., Bob, Jan, Lee and Jeanie.

After being formally discharged from the Navy in 1949 as a Lt. Commander, Goldman remained in the Reserves and enrolled at Temple Law School. He became a lawyer and started his own practice, William L. Goldman Law Offices. Specializing in commercial law and criminal defense, Goldman practiced in Doylestown for 57 years. He just retired last year. His son, William Jr., remains active in the business.

Extraordinarily peppy and upbeat, Goldman isn’t your average 91-year-old. He says he feels great, and his voice fails him only when he speaks of Jean Marie, who passed away four years ago. He says he loves visiting his vacation home in Ft. Lauderdale, and he especially loves spending time with his children and grandchildren.

“Family comes first,” Goldman says, his spirits high, his mood lighter than air.