[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6806-6807]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING WILFRED EARL ARCHER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DAN BENISHEK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 15, 2012

  Mr. BENISHEK. Mr. Speaker, let it be known, that it is a pleasure and 
honor to pay tribute to Wilfred Earl Archer, who was born in Port 
Huron, Michigan on Jan. 30, 1926, to Glen and Genevieve Archer. 
``Bill'' was raised in Flint, Michigan, and attended North Muskegon 
High School. His family then moved to Detroit, where he attended Denby 
High School.
  Following in the footsteps of his father, who served in the U.S. Army 
and fought in World War I, Bill felt an intense need to serve his 
country during World War II. He left school and enlisted in the U.S. 
Coast Guard, on April 1, 1943. He was stationed in San Diego, CA, where 
he received Amphibious Forces Training in operating Troop Carriers 
(LCVPs). He was then transferred to San Francisco and stationed on the 
USS Middleton, which was modified/transformed into an Assault Personnel 
Attack vessel. The Middleton was sent to Maui, Hawaii, and then to New 
Guinea to assist the 98th Infantry in the invasion of the Philippines. 
Bill was awarded five Battle Stars for service in the battles within 
the Pacific Theater; Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa, Leyte, and Luzon. As an 
LCVP engineer and gunner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Archer also served as 
a Diesel Electrical Engineer. He was honorably discharged in January of 
1946. As a civilian, Bill worked at a foundry in Muskegon.
  In 1948, Bill enlisted as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army Air 
Corps, which shortly thereafter became the U.S. Air Force. He received 
training in aircraft engine repair in Biloxi, Mississippi. His military 
career took another direction when Bill was sent to Japan to activate 
the 1273rd Transport Squadron. While in

[[Page 6807]]

Japan, Bill achieved flying status as a Flight Engineer, and 
accumulated 18,000 flying hours while involved with embassy flights to 
the Philippines and India, and combat flights in the Korean Conflict. 
In 1949, Bill was a crew member of a C-54, which was the first U.S. 
aircraft destroyed in the Korean Conflict. It was unoccupied when it 
was bombed at an air base in Kempo, South Korea. After serving four 
years there, he was transferred back to the United States, and served 
in Great Falls, Montana, with Operation Blue Jay, to build an Air Force 
Base in Tule, Greenland. He received flight training in SA-16 Tri-Phib 
in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was promoted to Tech Sergeant, and flew 
AC-47s inspecting instrument landing equipment, at Hamilton Field in 
San Francisco. Bill later became part of the Strategic Air Command in 
Omaha, Nebraska. He attended flight engineer school at Chanute Air 
Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois and was assigned to Homestead Air Force 
Base in Florida as a Flight Engineer on KC 97s.
  Bill retired from the Air Force, but retirement didn't last long. 
While working with the Civil Service, his knowledge as an F-4 aircraft 
Inspector led Bill to transfer from retired status to the U.S. Air 
Force Reserves, servicing and flying C-124s. He was sent to transport 
combat troops and materiel to Cam Rahn Bay, Republic of Vietnam. Bill 
was discharged from the U.S. Air Force Reserves in 1974. That was the 
end of an exemplary thirty-one-year military career, involving combat 
service in three major conflicts. Technical Sergeant Wilfred Earl 
Archer served with great distinction in World War II, the Korean 
Conflict, and the Vietnam War.
  When his exemplary military career ended, and his civilian career 
began, Bill received a Teachers Certificate in Automotive Technology 
from Texas State Technical Institute, and later taught at the TSTI 
Connally campus. He is a Life member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars 
and served his fellow veterans as a VFW Commander of Post 2053 in White 
Cloud, Michigan.

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