William Chandler enlisted in the Army at the age of 17, and was assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at the University of Kentucky and Purdue University. After Infantry Basic Training at Camp Robinson, Arkansas, he returned to ASTP for further studies at Penn State, where he was recruited for the Manhattan Project and assigned to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He worked at the Instrument Division in K-25 until the war concluded.
As older veterans received discharges, he was appointed Assistant First Sergeant, Special Engineering Detachment, then transferred to Manhattan Project Headquarters in Washington in 1945. He served on the USS Albemarle, JTF-1, during the Bikini Atoll bomb tests. After discharge, he completed further studies at Ohio State University, where he received a commission through ROTC. He re-entered the US Army as 2nd Lt, Signal Corps, in 1948 and retired as Colonel in 1975. His service included tours in the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and as an Associate Professor at West Point, and qualifications as Parachutist and Army Aviator.
He worked in the Washington, DC area as a civilian communications and systems engineer until a second retirement in 1992.