HM2 William McCormick

William Livingston McCormick was born December 31, 1945, and listed his home of record as Greensboro, North Carolina. He served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman (HM2) attached to the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines, 1st Marine Division, III MAF during the Vietnam War. Corpsmen in that role provided frontline emergency medical care, evacuated casualties, and often exposed themselves to enemy fire while aiding wounded Marines. He took part in several military operations during his deployment, including Operation Taylor Common, Russell Beach, and Defiant Measure.

He was killed in action by small arms fire on March 7, 1969, in Quang Nam Province at age 23. McCormick is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery. He is honored on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall of Faces) at Panel 30W, Line 67.

Colleagues and unit histories that reference him remember McCormick (sometimes called “Wild Bill”) as a respected, skilled corpsman and a mentor to junior medics — a person who repeatedly risked his safety to treat others under fire. His name and image continue to be used in local memorials and online remembrance projects preserving the stories of those lost in Vietnam.