William A. Callery was born in 1920 to Peter F. Callery of Forest Hills, N.Y. He attended Saint Peter’s College from 1939-1941 and entered the Army Air Corps on January 20, 1942, where he rose to the rank of second lieutenant.

On February 8, 1944, on a flight to Porto S. Stefano on a bombing mission, his plane was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft and was seen to crash. Lt. Callery was the navigator and went down with his plane. He is listed as "Missing in Action or Buried at Sea."

Lt. Callery is honored in The Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Via Cassia, Florence, Italy.

He was posthumously awarded the Air Medal and the Purple Heart.