 Goodlin was born on January 2, 1923, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.He began learning to fly at the age of 15, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 on his eighteenth birthday, inspired by the tremendous air battles over the English Channel in early World War II, but was unable to participate as part of the American military since the U.S. had not yet entered the war.He became the youngest commissioned officer in the RCAF and entered the European theater in 1942.