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WWII pilot laid to rest at Fort Snelling
Another member of the Greatest Generation has passed, as WWII pilot Bill Patten has been laid to rest at Fort Snelling. FOX 9’s Tim Blotz recalls a previous encounter when Patten was able to once again step into the cockpit of a vintage BT-13 bomber – at the age of 101.
Remembering Bill Patten
What we know:
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Bill Patten was an everyman of the Greatest Generation. When World War II broke out, he answered President Franklyn Roosevelt’s call to service.
"I don’t want to be shooting out of a trench or a tank or anything like that," Patten told FOX 9 during in interview in 2019. "So I joined the Air Corps."
Patten had graduated from Findlay College in Findlay, Ohio (now The University of Findlay) in 1941 with a degree in aeronautical engineering. With that background, the Army Air Corps assigned him to flight school where he earned his wings as a 2nd Lieutenant. Trained to fly B-17 bombers, he was assigned to the 15th Air Force out of Italy where he flew 36 missions into Germany.
Why it mattered:
While the air campaign against Germany made it possible for Allied ground forces to eventually march across Europe and force Germany’s surrender, it came at a very steep price. The 15th Air Force lost 3,364 planes, and 21,671 airmen either killed, wounded, missing and taken prisoner.
The 8th Air Force based in Britain lost more than 26,000 airmen.
Furthermore, approximately 4,735 B-17’s were lost during the war. By any measure, flying combat bomber missions was dangerous and deadly. It’s why during the early years of the war, most bomber crews were able to rotate home after 25 missions.
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After the war:
After the war, Patten returned home to his wife Mabel and joined Butler Manufacturing in Kansas City, Missouri. He started as a sales engineer and climbed the ranks to become the sales manager of the equipment division in Minneapolis in 1958. He rose to the rank of senior vice president by the time he retired in 1982 and moved to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, and later Osceola.
FOX 9 connected with Patten in November of 2019 when Ron Fagan of Fagan Fighters WWII Museum in Granite Falls, Minnesota took him up in a vintage BT-19 training aircraft. It was the same plane Patten earned his wings in during his Army Air Corps training.
"It’s amazing," Fagan said after he let Patten take the flight controls after they were up in the air. "He just kept his altitude. His turns were perfect. He hasn’t forgotten a thing."
Patten died on January 7, 2025 at the age of 106. He is survived by his daughter Cheryl Gwynne Goodwin and Lisa Anne Johnson. He has five grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.