William Hendren was born in February 1926 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He spent his early childhood there before traveling with his family to Kansas City, where his father had taken over an advertising business. Many people lost what little they had "squirreled away" during the Great Depression, according to Hendren, but his life in Kansas City was pleasant. The developing situation in Europe was not discussed much in his home, but everyone knew it was going to affect Americans soon. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hendren was in boarding school in Orange, Virginia, and on that Sunday evening he heard the announcement on the radio. As soon as he was 17, Hendren enlisted in the Navy's V-5 program [Annotator's Note: Naval Aviation Cadet Training Program], and went off to Dartmouth College the same day. Hendren said he chose aeronautics because his father had been an Army Air Corps pilot in the First World War, but he was happy out in the ocean, so he chose the Navy for his armed forces service.

In early June [Annotator's Note: June 1943] when William Hendren enlisted, he was told he would be called up soon. Everyone else was going off to training, and while he was home on a brief vacation after his first semester at Dartmouth, he learned that due to his father's influence, he was not going to be called right away. When he protested, his name was moved up the list and he left two weeks later. Hendren said his training was "long and hard." He moved from Hutchinson, Kansas, where he was "cranking airplanes" for the aviation cadets, to Topeka, Kansas where he was placed in a "holding pattern", then to Iowa for pre-flight school and basic training. He stayed there for six months, then went to Norman, Oklahoma, where he finally got acquainted with airplanes. At Corpus Christi, Texas, Hendren had three months of flying before moving to Pensacola, Florida to get a twin-engine billet. Hendren said the cadets had a choice between the 105-foot wing span P-boat [Annotator's Note: Hendren is likely referring to the Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat], used for picking up downed pilots, or the twin engine land plane. He chose the latter because he thought the P-boats would no longer be used after the war. His advanced training was at "Bloody" Barin Field, in Foley, Alabama, so called because of the casualty rates among pilots training there. Hendren saw several of his class perish during his training, and said it taught him to be more careful. He was determined to get his wings, and having kept abreast of the progress of the American effort throughout the war, Hendren was anxious to get to the front. Moreover, he wanted to finish what he had started, and he was glad he did it. But by the time Hendren completed training the war was over, and he just wanted to continue flying in the reserves and get back to school.

William Hendren remembers everybody being pleased when V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] and V-J Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945] happened. When he learned about the atomis bomb being dropped, he said he thought it was "cool," and it stopped the war. He left the Navy because his long-range plan was to become a surgeon, but he continued flying in the reserves until the mid-1950s. Meanwhile, he pursued his medical education through the G.I. Bill, receiving a monthly stipend that took him all the way through medical school. He completed two years at Dartmouth, and continued on through the chief residencies at both Massachusetts General and Children's Hospitals. He became a specialist in pediatric surgery.

Among his most memorable experiences during the war, William Hendren recounted when he was training on an aircraft carrier that was anticipating its 2000th landing. No one knew how the numbers stood, but the pilot who made that landing would be invited to dine with the captain and get a cake to share with the entire dining room. On Hendren's third approach, he had to avert a collision with one of his roommates and circle the ship's island. Everyone on deck thought the two were competing for landing position, when in reality the other guy had inadvertently gotten out of order. The event "scared the dickens" out of him, but he got the seat at dinner and the cake. Hendren also remembered that he had several other near misses, such as the time when his flight suit cuff accidentally unbuckled his seat belt and he almost flew out of the plane without his parachute.

Asked how the war changed his life, William Hendren said he might not otherwise have met his wife. While driving her home from their first date he stopped the car and pronounced "you're the girl I'm going to marry." Two months later they were wed. He believes absolutely in the need for institutions like The National WWII Museum that teach today's generation the history of the war. He feels it necessary to let people see enough of the horrors to convince them of the futility of fighting wars.