| Graduation Year | Class of 1966 |
| Date of Passing | (unknown) |
| About | On January 28, 1970, an F-105G aircraft was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a North Vietnamese MiG-21 from the North Vietnamese Air Force. A search and rescue operation was launched and HH-53B search and rescue helicopter was dispatched with SSgt. Shinn, Major Holly G. Bell, Capt. Leonard C Leeser, MSgt. William C. Sutton, SMSgt. William D. Pruett and SSgt. Gregory L. Anderson aboard. While the search and rescue helicopter entered the crash site to save the crew of the F-105G aircraft, it was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a MiG-21. The search and rescue helicopter crashed in to a steep jungle mountain side in North Vietnam. A short emergency beacon signal was detected from the forested crash site, indicating that at least one person aboard the helicopter may have exited the aircraft alive. Attempts to locate the downed search and rescue crew failed; consequently Staff Sergeant William Charles Shinn and the rest of the search and rescue helicopter crew were listed as Missing in Action immediately after the crash. Since 1973 he has been listed as KIA and his body has not been recovered. The foregoing was taken from a September 28 2010, Yolo County Board of Supervisors staff report, that approved the placing of a veteran memorial bench honoring Staff Sergeant William Charles Shinn on the east side of the Erwin W. Meier Administration Building. This initiative, to honor William Charles Shinn, a Woodland soldier who gave his life to defend our freedom, was undertaken by Jordan De Knikker, an Eagle Scout candidate from Woodland Boy Scouts of America Troop 68. |
