William Dean Whitaker was born March 04, 1925 and raised in a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Dean, as he is known, had his youth end quickly when he joined the United States Air Force and became an aviation cadet once he turned 18 years old. The year was 1943 and World War II was raging. He became a member of the 398th Bomb Group and flew twenty missions before being captured by the Germans. He married his wife, Lucille, on May 15, 1946. They moved to Las Vegas, Nevada together in 1990.