William S. Donaldson

Who was William S. Donaldson?

Commander William S. Donaldson III was a United States Navy pilot with more than 24 years of experience in nearly all phases of naval aviation and Vietnam War veteran. He became famous as a critic of the US Government's TWA flight 800 investigation.

An All-State football player at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in New Jersey, Donaldson won a Football Scholarship to the University of Maryland. He has since been inducted into the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Hall of Fame. He joined the Navy and entered flight school in 1965 and in 1968 he flew more than 70 strike missions over North Vietnam and Laos in an A-4 Skyhawk off the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.

Donaldson graduated from the Navy's Postgraduate Aviation Safety School in Monterey, California, where he completed the long course in aviation safety and crash investigation. He served as a safety officer and crash investigator at both the Squadron and Air Wing levels, and was qualified as a maintenance check pilot in six models of prop and jet aircraft. In later years he was a qualified Air Traffic Control Officer on the carrier USS Forrestal and flew an A-6 Intruder off the carrier USS Eisenhower.