William Anthony Wynne (March 29, 1922 – April 19, 2021) was an American author, photographer, award-winning photojournalist, and community advocate.
[citation needed] As aerial photographer, he flew 13 combat missions with the 3rd Emergency Rescue Squadron from Biak Island to Ceram, Halmahera, Celebes, Borneo, and Mindanao between September and December 1944.
While stationed on the Island of New Guinea, Wynne bought a Yorkshire Terrier, which he later named Smoky, from a fellow soldier for two Australian pounds.
[2] Their adventures together ranged from flying in PBY Catalinas to assisting engineers with getting the communications operational at an airbase at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, where Wynne had Smoky drag a telegraph wire, tied to her collar, under a runway, through a 70-foot-long (21 m) culvert only 8 inches (200 mm) in diameter, reduced in places by silt.
After a brief stint in Hollywood, they starred on their own shows on all three television channels Cleveland had at the time.