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All —Cumberland Sunday Times, Sunday, January 25. HGenCusterDAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - Walter Custer makes little of the fact that he is a relative of Gen. George Armstrong Custer.The 54-year-old Army sergeant carries the family name proudly, but isn’t one to claim kinship to the famous Army general for self-fulfillment.• They say I’m his 32nd cAi n,” said Custer, brushing his close-cropped graying dark hair with a leathery hand.“My brother looked up our family tree and that’s what he found. I’m sure he’s right, but I’m just going onhearsay George Armstrong Custer was an 1861 graduate ofWest Point whodistinguished himself as an Indian fighter in the Southwest and in the Dakota and Montana territories He made his famous “Last Stand’’ when about 200 members of his Seventh Cavalry were killed by Sioux Indians at the Little Big Horn River in Montana.To Walter Custer, a soft-spoken sergeant first classstationed at the Rock Island Arsenal, the exploits of his famous cousin are exciting But in almost 33 years as a soldier, this Custer has his own battle biographies in World War II and Vietnam.After being drafted in October 1942 in his native Chambersburg, Pa., Custerwas assigned as a gunner to the 139th Glider Infantry, a unit of the 17th Airborne DivisionHe fought in the Battle of the Bulge and helped in the Rhine River crossing His unit was also part of the drive into Luxembourg, which was the largest airborne operation ever attempted.Custer left the Army in 1945 but returned three years later w hen he was laid off his railroad job in Chambersburg He served first as a marksmanship instructor for trainees at Fort Dix, N.J., and later as a machine gun squad leader with the First Infantry Division in Germany.Custer was discharged again in 1953, but remained in a reserve unit while heDistant Kin Forges Own Military Recordworked as an artillery repairman at Letterkenny Army Depot in his hometown At the same time he enrolled in a Red Cross advanced first-aid course, which proved valuable later in his career.His reserve unit was called to active duty in May 1968 to provide aviation maintenance support in Vietnam After taking jungle survival training at Fort Benning, Ga , Custer was sent to Bien Hoa Air Base with his unit’s equipment.As an aircraft armament sergeant, his first task was to scrounge for building materials and set up a shop to repair downed airplanesand helicopters. Once the facility was built, Custer’s crew of 14 soldiers and three civilians worked night and day to keep the aircraftflyingDuring that same time, Custer was ordered to set up the unit’s medical evacuation team, a task he finished after teaching first-aid classes for three daysOn June 6, 1969, histeaching paid off when the Viet Cong hit the 200-man camp.“Charley hit us with mortars and rockets,knocking down more than half of the 32 squad tents,” said Custer. “They blew upthe runway, a large tanker aircraft and a supply of JP-t (aircraft fuel). Two men were killed and 18 were injured ”With shrapnel in his knee, Custer and his five-man medical team worked tosave the injured Custer was awarded his second Bronze Star, this one with a combat “V.” He also has three Army Commendation Medals and the Air Medal Custer returned to Vietnam two years later, but was sent home when he w as found to have diabetes After stints at Fort Carson, Colo., Fort Benning and Germany, he came to the Rock Island Arsenal as a weapons armamentsupervisor and instructor the maintenance dire torate After nearly 33 years federal service, Custer, wl lives with his wife, Doroth in Davenport, said he st loved the Army.r i - I A ■ : t . ’\Experts At Cumberland Electric. You’ll Know WhyAREA’S LEADING MICROWAVEDEALER. TheDuel CaIaaIIan 12A CAm a a acore pI
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Sunday Times
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Sun, Jan 25, 1981
Page 11
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 22 Jul 2020
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