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William Hedtke was part of his unit from it's start on 15 August 1942 and therefore saw action during the first combat engagement at the Chuinzi Pass in Italy and he also landed on the day after D-Day in Normandy.

He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal a first time for wounds, suffered on 23 June 1944.

He was a passenger in glider A-6, #340522, scheduled to land on Landing Zone "T" (The fields near Groesbeek, The Netherlands) to arrive at 1428. It was one of several gliders that overshot the landing zone and landed behind enemy lines behind the church in Zyfflich, Germany.

He was killed, reportedly due to internal injuries and lacerations of the head (official OQMG Form 371, not filed until 20 June 1947).

In June 1945, Canadian graves registration personnel recovered a set of American remains near Groesbeek that were given to the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC). After unsuccessful efforts by the AGRC to identify the remains, they were designated X-1230 Margraten and interred as an Unknown at the Netherlands American Cemetery.

In 2016, DPAA disinterred X-1230 to be scientifically analyzed for possible association to an Operation Market Garden casualty.

To identify Hedtke’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosomal (Y-STR) analysis.

On 17 October 2019 DPAA announced that Pvt Hedtke was accounted for. Pvt Hedtke has been laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on 30 August 2021.