<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<p><em>Chester John “Chet” Butcher</em> was born on his Cajun grandfather’s farm in the swamps of southern Louisiana at the intersection of the Old Spanish Trail and the Vermillion Bayou, Pinhook, LA. Speaking more French than English upon entering elementary school, he nevertheless graduated at the head of his high school class at age 16. After a year at the University of Southwest Louisiana, he entered the Academy, one of the younger members of his class.</p>
<p>The military regimen at West Point almost overwhelmed him, but he managed to overcome three “turnouts” plebe year. Chet was mighty proud of those three stars on his bathrobe! Academically, this “goat” went on to an MSE in flight test aerodynamics from Princeton University, an MBA from Georgetown University, and the Advanced Management Program for senior executives at Harvard Business School. Militarily, “Dumb John” Butcher ended his career as a general officer.</p>
<p>After cow year, over half of the class went to flight training rather than to summer “branch indoctrination,” due to the rapid expansion of the Army Air Corps. Air cadets completed their last advanced phase of training during First Class year. Yet, when the War Department accelerated graduation to January 1943, air cadets completed their advanced flight training, received their wings in the fall, and returned for two months of academics before graduation. Not exactly a claim to fame, they were the only group to be accredited Army Air Corps pilots and retained at the rank of West Point cadet!</p>
<p>Completing P-40 and P-47 transition, Chet, with five of his classmates, joined the 355th Fighter Group and went on combat operations out of England in the summer of 1943. In early 1944, he was shot down in his “new” P-51 while strafing German airfields in southern France. He survived a high-speed crash in a wooded area and, though severely injured, evaded capture only to trigger a “Bouncing Betty” (anti-personnel bounding mine) while attempting to bypass a German fortified position. He spent a year and a half in German hospitals and POW camps.</p>
<p>In 1947, after receiving his MSE in flight test engineering, he spent four years testing the jets at the Eglin Proving Ground in Florida and at Muroc Dry Lake in California (a base that was later named after Chet’s roommate at Princeton, Captain Glen Edwards, who was tragically killed testing the XB-49 flying wing). Chet then went to the Pentagon in R&D, initiating the development of the Century Series jet fighters, which was followed by a tour in Air Defense Command overseeing the operational implementation of the new weapons developed earlier. (While at the Pentagon in 1950-54, he had an additional duty as a White House aide to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.)</p>
<p>In 1959, after Sputnik, Chet went back to the Pentagon to head the first “Space War Plans” division as deputy chief of staff of operations. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed executive to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for R&D, then military assistant to the undersecretary of the Air Force. Completing Industrial College of the Armed Forces and Harvard Business School, he returned to the Pentagon again to head, successively, the Air Defense, Strategic, and Space divisions of R&D. In 1965, “out of the blue,” Chet was selected to command a flying training wing. Rather than making general officer rank in his specialty, the R&D business, he was promoted in Training Command, which is a testimony to his flexibility, preparation, and ability to attain that rank in many fields—the true definition of a “general” officer. He was then assigned as deputy director of the Defense Communications Planning Group, which was a cover for of Secretary of Defense McNamara’s scheme to develop and employ seismic and acoustic sensors to detect truck, material and personnel movements in Southeast Asia. In 1969, Chet took over command of Task Force Alpha at Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. Its mission was to locate and destroy Viet Cong transport and supply storage areas and personnel along the Ho Minh Trail in Laos and Cambodia. As a general officer, he prided himself as being combat qualified in the F-4, but he also flew 85 missions in various other aircraft. </p>
<p>From 1970 to 1974, he was deputy commander of NATO’s Fifth Allied Tactical Air Force, located in northern Italy, whose area of operations included Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, mid-Mediterranean waters and North Africa. Chet retired in 1974 and settled in Fort Myers, FL. His decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, three Legions of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, 13 Air Medals, the POW Medal, and two Purple Hearts.</p>
<p>He married his beautiful, gregarious wife, Harriet, in 1955. They lived happily ever after, raising two children. Harriet and Chet spent many carefree, happy years in the paradise of South Florida, doing whatever turned them on. Chet said he was one of the lucky ones, all of his assignments were interesting and dynamic. He felt he had an impact on Air Force weapons development, long range planning, and as a tactical commander. He looked forward to going to work each day. How lucky can you get?</p>
<p><em>— His Family</em></p>
</body>
</html>