William Charles Anderson

Who was William Charles Anderson?

William Charles Anderson was the author of more than twenty novels, historical and true life stories, and author or coauthor of several screenplays for film and television, including the adaptation of his own Bat*21, which was made into a film, starring Gene Hackman and Danny Glover, and Hurricane Hunters, was made into a TV-movie for ABC, starring Martin Milner.

He served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II up through the Vietnam War, retiring as a colonel. He began writing in the 1950s, with a series of columns for MATS Flyer, the magazine of the Air Force's Military Air Transport Service.

Several of his books were autobiographical accounts of the adventures of Anderson, his wife, Dortha, and their children, Ann, Scott and Holly.

His fiction books all featured a supporting character named Colonel Cornelius C. Callaghan. Callaghan, a career Air Force officer, is a wheeler-dealer who uses his detailed knowledge and skill to help the lead characters, often despite regulations or higher authority.