Rachel M. Riley has lived in the Hollin Hall subdivision of Alexandria, Virginia, for most of her life. Her career was spent in environmental health and safety education in private industry and government. She retired from the Federal Government in 2019 having written technical documents and training curricula among other activities.
The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, The Lincoln Forum, and the Civil War Roundtable of the District of Columbia satisfy her need for history study. A supportive alumna of Fort Hunt High School and George Mason University, she is active in alumni associations, as well as a member of several genealogical and legacy groups. She is exceedingly grateful for her two grown children, Bill (the co-author of this book) and Margaret, an attorney. She has three brilliant grandsons.
William Bruce (“Bill”) Riley spent his childhood in northern Virginia with a love of history, and engineering. He graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors and Masters in Mechanical Engineering. He spent ten years in the automotive industry near Detroit, Michigan, working at Ford and General Motors. During his time at Ford, he worked in Ford Racing and spent a year abroad in Milton Keynes, England working with the Jaguar Formula 1 team.
In 2010 he and his wife, Amanda Adams Riley, moved to Southern California where he has worked the last 15 years at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Bill Riley’s passion for history, flight, and engineering provides a great framework to appreciate these rich stories of his Great Uncle Bill’s. He will always cherish the time he spent with Bill and Nita.
Bill also works to give back to the Formula SAE event, a collegiate race car series which was influential in his college years. He continues to live in Southern California. He has split his time regularly between Southern California and the SpaceX facility in Starbase, Texas, having helped found the site and worked towards making rockets as routine as airplanes and one day building a city on Mars.
Regarding the author’s photo: The jacket that Bill R. is wearing is a duplicate of one that Bill wore. I made it for myself but he looks great in it so I passed it on. They were both hand-painted with Berlin Express on the back and the 357th Fighter Group patch on the right front and Bill’s signature on the left front. I am wearing a scarf made from red and yellow checkerboard silk. It was a gift to me from O’Bee O’Brien. O’Bee had a jumpsuit made of this fabric to wear to a reunion and this was all the fabric that remained. He mailed it to me, and I wear it as a scarf to honor them all.
Questions or comments?
Connect with Rachel or Bill at dogfightunderthetower@gmail.com
© 2026 William B. Riley and Rachel M. Riley