Major General William O. Butler, USAF (Ret), died in California at the home of his daughter Anne, Mrs. Gerard Grady, on 27 October 1962 at the age of 67. He had flown to California with Helen, his wife, from Montgomery, Ala. after having been recently released from the Maxwell Air Force Base Hospital. Burial was with full military honors by the Air Force at his home town and birth place, Marshall, Va. He was the first of the Class of 1917 to join the Air Service and the last of those intrepid ones to survive.

 

Bruce’s father, a civil engineer, and his mother both having deep family roots in the State of Virginia returned to the ancestral Monterey Farm home for the birth of each of their three children. This farm had been in the possession of his mother’s family since before the American Revolution. The present home was built in 1867 on the foundations of the old home.

 

The family was living in Marietta, Ohio where the father was building a dam when Bruce learned that Congressman George White of that District, later Governor of Ohio, was holding examinations for the United States Military Academy. Bruce was given an alternate appointment and was successful in gaining admission.

 

As one of the youngest members of the Class of 1917, "He still has”, as Louie Ford, a teammate but who played in the back field wrote, “the distinction of playing on the team that defeated the Navy in football all four years of his cadet days. This was made possible by a stalwart forward wall where Bruce played. His alert, superb and hard driving force as a lineman helped carry the Army team and in our First Class year it was the best team of all. Bruce was a quiet fellow who needed little urging but had that in dominable will to do more than his share. He was never found wanting when the play came his way.”

 

Bruce kept growing throughout his military career. From graduating Number 33 in his class at West Point he was Number 3 at the old Air Corps Tactical School and then Number 1 at the Command and General Staff School.

 

In France early in World War I his classmates in the First Infantry’ Division learned that Capt. William O. Butler had command of their Balloon Company. Riding over to his Company on horse back to verify this, I found it true, and although his company had no horses to ride, nor did he need one, for he had that balloon. He did a great job for us from up there.

 

My path crossed again with Bruce in Manila, P.I. in 1930 where in the Manila Club the mint julep flowed smooth and strong.

 

During World War II from April 1942 until September 1943 Bruce was Commanding General of the 11th Air Force in Alaska. During this time the Japanese occupied Attu and Kiska and also were driven off. In the American Heritage History of Flight, General H.H. (Hap) Arnold quotes a sentence from one of his letters from Bruce, of that time, which he said summed up the problems of all the Army Commanders, “I Need Everything.” In England Bruce was Deputy Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force; returned to the United States to take over the B 29 Bomber program and a tour also at the Maxwell Air Force Base with the Eastern Flying Training Command. His last active duty was in Panama where a strained and diseased heart forced his retirement in 1945 and thereafter he spent much of the remainder of his life in the Maxwell Air Force Base Hospital. He had his home on a nearby plantation at Prattville, Ala.

 

Bruce’s serious illness was learned in the spring of 1962 when he wrote to his classmates apologizing that he would be unable to attend the 45th reunion at West Point bccausc of his being in the hospital.

 

Fast friendships were made wherever he went. Bruce was one of those illustrious sons of West Point and we are proud that he was a member of the Class of 1917. He is survived by the Cadet Girl he married, Helen Daniell from Williamsport, Pa; a daughter Anne, (Mrs. Gerard Grady); two sons, Maj. William O. Butler Jr. (Ret), Montgomery, Ala., and Edwin D. Butler, a Delta Airlines pilot; grand children, and a sister Frances, (Mrs. E.C. Collins) who lives on the home place, Monterey Farm, Marshall, Va.

 

-C.W.Y.