“An Unruffled Nature”

Lyana Bonnette on Her Father, Watson W. Waddell (’56)

Memory #5 of 100

Today’s Project 100 entry is about another alumnus who has passed away, meaning the story will be told through research and an interview with his relatives.  In this entry, we learn about Watson Waddell from the perspective of his daughter, Lyana Bonnette, who I interviewed on July 12, 2023.  Lyana’s mother, Phyllis Waddell, provided important details to Lyana and reviewed the final version of the entry.

*****

Watson William Waddell was born on November 30, 1933, in Camden, New Jersey.  He was the son of Edward Waddell, a Brooklyn-born World War I veteran of the United States Marines.  When Edward left the active service, he was marked as having “excellent” character and chose to enter the Reserves.  He later became President of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 980 in Camden.  His mother, Roxaline, was active as a volunteer, including the VFW, where she served actively in the Ladies Auxiliary of Post 980.  When Watson was growing up, Edward was a painter for the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Trainline.  In 1943, at age 52, he passed away of a heart attack when Watson was ten years old.  Roxaline lived for another thirty-three years, passing away in 1976 at the age of 79. 

In 1952, Watson graduated from Haddonfield High School.  His high school annual described him as a “lover of the great outdoors.”  He enrolled in Glassboro State Teachers College that Fall intending to become a teacher.  At the time, Glassboro State only offered programs for Elementary school teachers and Junior High teachers.   He was enrolled in the Junior High Curriculum. In the Oak yearbook, “Wats” was said to possess an “unruffled nature” and to tell “corny jokes.”  He also remained a man of the outdoors who enjoyed fishing, hunting, and camping.  He was involved in the social studies club advised by Harold Wilson and was President during his senior year.  Sponsored by the Social Studies Department, the group was open to all but designed to “stimulate and further the interest of students in national and international affairs.”

After graduating in 1956, Watson decided that he would not become a teacher after all.  Like his father, he joined the military but he chose the United States Navy in order to become a pilot.  In 1957, he married Phyllis, and they had two children, Lyana and Watson, Jr.  He earned his “wings” in Pensacola, Florida.  He subsequently was involved in the aborted Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.  Later, he was an all-weather fighter pilot flying the F3H-2 Demon from the carrier U.S.S. Saratoga.  He became a flight instructor and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander.  In 1965, he was assigned to serve in Vietnam on the nuclear-powered carrier U.S.S. Enterprise, the longest ship ever built (1,123 feet) and hosted a crew of over 5,000.  Over the next two years, Waddell was Assistant Strike Officer and oversaw bombing flights from the U.S.S. Enterprise.  As reporter Peter Berr noted in 1967 for the Courier-Post, Waddell was “one of the officers who helps catapult hundreds of men into the air every day, keep them there, and see that they return safely.”  Waddell responded to criticism that the United States was bombing civilian population centers by saying that we “go to great lengths to avoid civilian populations and this complicates the job.”  He noted that things would be much different if they conducted “all-out raids” against Hanoi and other population centers but “morally, tactically, and for more other reasons this is not our policy.”  The Enterprise finished their mission and departed the Gulf of Tonkin on June 20, 1967, just three days before President Lyndon Johnson met with Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin on the campus of Waddell’s alma mater to discuss the Vietnam War among other topics.  By that date, the pilots of Enterprise had flown 13,400 battle missions over 132 combat days.  

After he left the military, he flew DC-8s and 747s for United Airlines.  Upon retiring from United in 1993, he began farming on his family’s property in Erial.  He passed away in 2018 at the age of 84.

***** 

My father loved his time at Glassboro State, as it came at the end of a hard period of time for him.  His early years were challenging because his father died when he was ten years old.  Watts (as people called him) and his mother, Roxaline, moved from Camden to the family farm in Erial.  The farm had been in the family since the middle of the 19^th century.  Without having his father, the work on the farm was long and hard, but it led him to be both physically and mentally strong. He was not a tall man, only about 5’6”, but working on the farm gave him surprising strength, which was useful when bullies at school tried to pick on him.  He attended public schools and graduated from Haddonfield High School. 

I am sure he chose to major in history because he loved the subject.  We always stopped at historic sites when we were travelling for various reasons.  He was always teaching us things, testing us on our historical knowledge.  After he joined United Airlines, there was a strike, and he decided to teach during the strike.  He got a job at Glen Landing, a middle school in Gloucester Township.  So, he got to use his teaching degree then.  But, as I said, he was always teaching, just not in a traditional classroom.

After graduating from Glassboro State in 1956, he enlisted in the United States Navy.  In 1958, he became a jet pilot.  He was part of squadron EF31 and he flew the F3H aircraft.  When he was stationed in Washington, D.C., he studied International Relations at American University.  He worked in the Pentagon at this time.  He was part of the plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion and sat in his aircraft on the Florida coast waiting to be given the order to take off.  However, that order never came due to the problems that plagued that operation.  In 1965, he became an operations officer on the USS Enterprise during Vietnam, and he served there until 1967.  He retired from active duty in the Navy as a commander in 1967, and he went into the Reserves.  He remained in the Reserves until 2006.  In 1968, United Airlines hired him as a pilot.  In 1993, he retired from United Airlines as a captain.  He returned to our family farm, growing vegetables.  He ended up focusing on corn, and Perdue purchases our corn to this day.  The farm was originally 100 acres, but he sold some of it to Gloucester Township so that they could erect Timbercreek High School.  He was a member of many groups, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Masons, and the Boy Scouts.  I remember him having the Boy Scouts over every Halloween, and he would drive the boys all over the farm on his hay cart.  One of his passions was his participation in the Union Valley Volunteers, a musket team.  From 1964 to 2016, he participated in annual competitions with them, camping out, and enjoying himself tremendously.  He was also an active fly fisher and hunter.

My father didn’t talk about his time during Vietnam.  We never learned about the award that he got for his service record until after he died.  I can only remember him talking about the war one time, and it was to discuss an accident that claimed the life of a friend.  He mentioned that he lost many friends during this time.  Even this brief conversation was clearly hard on him, and he never spoke about it again.

When I was about seven or eight years old, I remember that a man knocked on my door.  He was dressed in a military uniform, and he asked to see my mother.  I closed the screen door and got my mother.  She came and started screaming and hugged him.  She said, “Lyana, it is your father!”  It was only then that I recognized him.  He had been away for many months, and he was usually away seven months of every year, so I had forgotten what he looked like.

As I look back now, his not identifying himself to me is not surprising.  He liked to pull practical jokes, and one of his favorite holidays was April 1^st.  He used to call me on that day every year no matter where he was, and he would always slip in a joke on me.  Even though I knew it was coming, they were so clever, he always got me.  I tried to do the same to him but always failed.

***** 

This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff.  One memory will be released per day in the 100 days leading up to October 20, 2023, the date of a reunion celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  The reunion will take place at 7pm at the Summit City Farm and Winery in Glassboro, New Jersey.  Registration for the reunion will be open from July 11^th and will remain open until the venue reaches its 100-person capacity (or October 13^th if capacity never reached).  We do anticipate that the reunion will sell out, so please register as soon as possible by visiting the Alumni Office’s registration page here:  alumni.rowan.edu/historyreunion2023. 

You can also find the up-to-date set of Project 100 memories on the Department of History’s webpage and selecting from the Alumni sidebar.

William Carrigan arranged, interviewed, transcribed and/or edited these memories.  Laurie Lahey proofread and helped edit the final versions.  If you wish to share your own memories, please email Dr. Carrigan at carrigan@rowan.edu.  Alumni with Facebook accounts are encouraged to join the RU/GSC History Alumni group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/251485937221524.