• Sept. 23, 1920 – April 3, 1945
• Huntingdon in Carroll County, Tennessee
• Junior College 1938 – 1939
• Major – Army Air Corps
• Missing in Action since April 3, 1945. Killed in the vicinity of Kiveilin, China; was the flight leader on a strafing mission.
• Pilot, 23rd Fighter Group, 76th Fighter Squadron, 14th Air Force
• P-51D
• Liberty All Church Cemetery in Huntingdon, Tennessee
• Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines

Walter Sidney Butler Jr. (Sept. 23, 1920 – April 3, 1945) was born in Huntingdon, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee’s Junior College at Martin from 1938 to 1939 before transferring to Memphis State. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in 1941 and trained as a pilot flying P-51D fighter planes. As an officer, he served a tour in the China-India-Burma Theater until he returned mid-way through the war after serving out his needed flight missions. However, Butler volunteered for a second tour, again in the China-India-Burma Theater, in the rank of Captain. In this second tour, Cpt. Butler flew with the 76th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group of the 14th Air Force, flying beside veterans of the Army Air Corps’ “Flying Tigers.” He went missing in action on April 3rd, 1945, after his P-51D was shot down in the vicinity of Kiveilin, China. Unknown to him at the time, Cpt. Butler was to be promoted to Major before he went missing during this strafing mission against the Japanese. He is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in Manila, Philippines, and at Liberty All Church Cemetery in Huntingdon, Tennessee.

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