William E. Pierce served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel with Company A, Headquarters Battalion, Washington, DC, during World War II. He served on the Plans and Policies Commission and as a Radar Officer. He was killed on September 7, 1945, in the crash of an Eastern Airlines DC-3 when it plunged into Pee Dee Swamp near Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The pilot was believed to be searching for a place to make a forced landing.
