A native of Ravenna, Ohio, Bower graduated from Ravenna High School in 1934. He attended Hiram College and Kent State University from 1934 until 1936. In 1940, Bower graduated from the United States. Army Air Corps Flying School and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States. Air Force on October 4, 1940, with a rating of Army Aviator.
Bower was the last surviving pilot of the Doolittle Raid, the first air raid to target the Japanese home island of Honshu. Bower then joined the Ohio National Guard 107th Cavalry, based in Ravenna, from 1936 to 1938. In October 1940, Bower joined the 37th Bomb Squadron, based at Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado.
He then transferred to the 17th Bombardment Group, headquartered at McChord Field, Washington, in June 1941.
In the months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bower volunteered for the first American aerial attack on Japan. The air raid, which came to be called the Doolittle Raid, after Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, took place on April 18, 1942.
Bower piloted one of the sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers which took off from the United States Ship Hornet to attack cities on Honshu. Bower and his five-member crew bombed the city of Yokohama during the raid.
They parachuted out of their B-25 over China during the night, which was his first jump from an airplane.
They were taken in by Chinese villagers until rescue by the Americans. His mother, Kathryn Bower, was informed by Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle that Bower had survived the attack approximately one month later.
Bower and the other crew members were brought from China back to the United States.
He commanded the 428th Bombardment Squadron during the war and served in Africa, including the allied invasion of North Africa, and the European Theater, including Italy, until September 1945. He became an accident investigator following the end of World World War II and transferred to the newly established United States. Air Force in 1947.
He also served as a commander of a United States. Air Force transport organization in the Arctic and commanded Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, Georgia. He lived in Boulder until his death on January 10, 2011, at the age of 93, after suffering from complications from a fall in June 2009.
The Colonel William Marsh Bower Center will open in the Portage County Regional Airport in Shalersville Township, north of Ravenna, in June 2013.
In June 1942, Bower and twenty-two other participants in the Doolittle Raid received the Distinguished Flying Cross during a reception held at the White House. Bower remained in the United States. Army Air Forces throughout World World War II, achieving the rank of Colonel. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and two Air Medals during his career.
Eleven members of the Doolite Raid were killed or captured.
