05/30/2026
Faces of Mooresville....
William Courtney Mills (5.31.1907 - 5.6.1943) graduated from Mooresville (Central) High School, Class of 1924, and from Davidson College in 1928 with a Bachelor of Science degree. By 1930, he was stationed in Galveston, Texas, at the Army Air Corps field at Fort Crockett—predecessor to today’s U.S. Air Force 3rd Wing. By 1939, he had risen to the rank of Colonel.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, and under direct orders from President Roosevelt, Col. Jimmy Doolittle began feverishly planning a secret mission to bomb Tokyo in response. Doolittle sent word to Mooresville’s own Col. Mills and Maj. John Hilger of Sherman, TX, to select volunteers for the dangerous assignment. Almost to a man, the airmen of the 17th Bombardment Group and the 89th Reconnaissance Squadron volunteered—knowing only that the mission would be perilous and, in all likelihood, a one-way trip. Col. Mills delegated the selection process to his squadron commanders, instructing them to choose who would go and who would stay behind. Although each commander volunteered himself, Mills denied their inclusion, explaining that he needed them for other critical operations soon to come.
Tragically, Col. Mills later lost his life, May 6, 1943, when his B‑25 Mitchell was struck by flak over Tunisia. He was only thirty‑five years old. His remains were never recovered, but his name appears on a memorial plaque in Carthage, Tunisia, and a marker in Willow Valley Cemetery honors this hometown hero.
It remains a little‑known fact that Mooresville had a direct connection to one of the most daring and celebrated missions of early World War II—the Doolittle Raid.
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