Ward Hindman oral history interview

The Scope and Contents note of this oral history was originally generated by feeding the electronic transcript into OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o on 2027 July 26. It was then reviewed and edited by a human.

Oral history interview with Ward Hindman, Dartmouth Class of 1965 and Thayer 1968. Hindman recounts his early life and education, growing up on Long Island, N.Y. before attending boarding school in Switzerland. He describes his time at Dartmouth, where he joined the Air Force ROTC, balancing academics and extracurriculars like theater and the rifle team. Hindman recounts his experience training as a pilot following graduation, ultimately choosing the F-105 fighter bomber due to an instructor's influence. He details his deployment and participation in bombing missions over Laos, South Vietnam, and Cambodia, and working in Task Force Alpha on the H? Chí Minh trail operations. Hindman reflects on the changing attitudes towards ROTC and the impact of the war on his personal life, including a significant relationship's end. He recounts his post-war military career in intelligence and as an instructor pilot, expressing pride in his service, and concludes with reflections on his aerospace engineering career.