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William E. Winder
William Winder was born and grew up in the Bronx area of New York City. His father came to America from Ireland, became a US citizen, and worked as a taxi driver. His mother, also of Irish descent,...view moreWilliam Winder was born and grew up in the Bronx area of New York City. His father came to America from Ireland, became a US citizen, and worked as a taxi driver. His mother, also of Irish descent, was from Fall River, Massachusetts. She worked as a building superintendent. William mostly attended parochial schools early on, then attended a vocational high school and studied cabinetmaking.
When he graduated from high school, the Vietnam War was in full swing, so he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He trained to be a rifleman and was sent to Vietnam. While there, because of his size and weight and expertise, he was volunteered to be a tunnel rat, the unofficial name for soldiers who cleared and destroyed enemy tunnel complexes.
After serving fourteen months in Vietnam, he returned to the States and served out the remainder of his time in the Marine Corps in Norfolk, Virginia, as an MP and at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as a corrections officer in the brig.
He met and married his first wife, Peggy, and soon after, they had a daughter, Elizabeth.
He took the exam for the New York City Transit Police Department and was hired in 1974. He worked in Harlem and the South Bronx area mostly, near Yankee Stadium. After two years of marriage, he and Peggy divorced. Bill subsequently remarried twice, and it was while married to his second wife, Susan, that this incident happened.
While trying to stop a bar robbery on January 8, 1979, Bill was shot in the face, throat, and upper chest with a shotgun from thirteen feet away. He was wearing a bulletproof vest he had purchased on his own. After his shooting, the department took quite an interest in the vests, and now all officers across our great country are fitted with bulletproof vests as part of their issued equipment. William was medically retired on February 14, 1980.
While in service to the city of New York, he received two Letters of Commendation, was awarded three Meritorious Commendations, and was also awarded the New York City Transit Police Department’s Medal of Honor, the department’s highest award.
As a fifth-degree black belt, he studied and taught karate for over fifty-four years. He is a member of the Rockland County, Spring Valley, New York Rotary International Club.
He returned to Vietnam in 2011 and was astonished at how the country had changed. He currently resides in Connecticut with his lovely wife, Bonnie.view less