Editor’s Note: The following information was provided by Buster Prosser, originally of Monticello, regarding his time in the military, as well as several family members.
HOULTON — The Prosser family of Monticello has a rich history of serving the United States in the armed forces. Lawrence E. “Buster” Prosser and his sons Buster and Chuck served their country well. As did an uncle, Wallace John Farrington.
The following is a submission by the Prosser family.
Lawrence E. “Buster” Prosser
Lawrence was born in Monticello, Aug. 28, 1925 and died Feb. 28, 2010 in Tucson, Ariz. He was drafted into the Navy in October, 1943 and was discharged in January, 1946. His father was killed when he was just 12 years old. Having five brothers and two sisters, he became the man of the house.
Upon being drafted, he was assigned to the U.S.S. Fitch, a minesweeper. He saw service during the Normandy Invasion and later recalled the ship next to him getting blown up, but all hands were saved. Some were so badly burnt that they begged him to pull the burnt flesh off their faces so they could breath. Others asked to be put out of their misery.
He was later assigned to a destroyer, where he lost the hearing in his left ear because of the ship’s guns. He gave food and clothing to naked and dirty children in Italy and swept for mines off the coast of Japan. His ship was beside the ship where the Armistice treaty was signed with the Emperor of Japan and General MacArthur’s entourage. He brought home a Japanese rifle and many memories and horrors of the war.
Buster Prosser
Buster joined the Army under the delayed entry program in February of 1975. On June 19, 1975, one week after his high school graduation, he was taking orders from a drill instructor similar to the one seen in the movie “Forrest Gump.”
Leaving behind his high school sweetheart, Roxanne, Buster was soon trained to be a military policeman in Germany. His first duty was a station at a “boring” nuclear missile site, where he protected his country from the Russians during the “Cold War.”
Next, he went to Stuttgart, Germany, where he answered complaints from assaults, thefts and suicides. In a 10-day period from Christmas to New Years alone, Buster investigated seven suicides. He said the young soldiers were depressed and far away from home.
“To keep our sanity, we saw all the wonders of Germany, from beer halls in Munich to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest and castles,” he said.
Buster returned home only to do another tour of duty in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“Castro had emptied his prisons, so to Wisconsin we went to Fort McCoy to process the boat people, from mass murderers to any criminal imaginable,” he said.
Chuck Prosser
Chuck Prosser was born July 2, 1948 in Houlton. He joined the Marines, but could not swim so he was discharged. He then joined the Army and later became a member of the 101st Airborne’s “Screaming Eagles” during the Vietnam War.
He witnessed too many horrors to describe as 57,000 soldiers and two million Vietnamese died. Thank God for Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers. Another brother, Jim Bryant James Prosser joined the Maine National Guard and served for 20 years.
