Bill Ward enlisted in the Air Force a few months after he and some friends drove up to the Woodstock festival in August 1969 to check out Sly and the Family Stone.

The unemployed 18-year-old with shoulder-length hair had recently dropped out of Bloomfield College and was living at home in Essex County with little direction or money when a recruitment poster caught his eye, offering a chance to learn computer programming.

Little did he know he would end up with the Air Force’s 388th Supply Squadron stationed at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base in southern Thailand in the throes of the Vietnam War .

“A far cry from programming computers!” said Ward, now 74, and living in Highlands.

More than 50 years later, Ward still suffers the effects of fumes he inhaled while fueling A-7D Corsair II

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