William Courtney Mills graduated Mooresville High School in 1924 and Davidson College in 1928 with a Bachelor of Science. By 1930 he was in Galveston, TX at the Army Air Corps field at Fort Crocket. (Fort Crocket was the predecessor of the USAF 3rd Wing.) By 1939 he had attained the rank of Colonel.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Col Jimmy Doolittle began feverishly working on the secret mission to bomb Tokyo. Word came down to Mooresville’s own Col Mills and Maj John Hilger to select volunteers for the dangerous mission. Almost to a man, the men of the 17th Bombardment Group and the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron volunteered for a mission they knew nothing about except that it would be dangerous. Col. MIlls delegated to his squadron commanders those that would be selected and those that would be turned away. Although all three squadron commanders included themselves with the volunteers, Col. Mills denied them as a choice because he stated that he needed them for other important and upcoming missions.
It is rather disappointing that this is a very little known fact of Mooresville’s connection to one of the most celebrated and daring missions of early WWII.
Col. Mills later lost his life when his B-25 Mitchell was struck by flak over Tunisia. He was only 35 years old. His remains were never recovered, but his name is on a memorial plaque in Carthage, Tunisia. There is also a marker in Willow Valley Cemetery as a memorial to our hometown hero.