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BIOGRAPHY OF COL. BUNKER, PRESIDENT, THE AHS

Col. Wm. B. Bunker, Commandant of the Transportation School, Ft. Eustis, Va., was born September 30, 1910 at Fort Slocum, N.Y., and is a former resident of Washington, D.C. He was born into a military family, receiving a true service education, was schooled in grade schools from the Philippines to Washington, and was graduated from Flushing High School in Flushing, L.I., N.Y., in 1927.

In 1929 he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy and, upon graduating on June 12, 1934, was commissioned a second lieutenant of calvary and stationed with the Third Cavalry Division at Ft. Ethan Allen, Vermont. In 1936 and 1937 he attended MIT as a graduate student and was awarded the degree of Master of Science in Civil Engineering. On June 12, 1937 he was commissioned a first lieutenant. 

After attending the Engineers School at Ft. Belvoir, Va., in 1938 and 1939, he was placed in charge of the field surveys for a proposed transcontinental barge line in Nicaragua. 

In 1940 he was promoted to the rank of captain. During this period, he acted as instructor in Engineering, Mathematics, and Drafting, at the Nicaraguan Military Academy, for which the President of the Republic presented him with the Nicaraguan medal of distinction. In 1942 he returned to the United States where he was promoted to the rank of major and assigned to the newly formed Transportation Corps. He was placed in charge of organizing a procurement and supply system, and it was during this same year that he was made a lieutenant colonel. 

From 1942 to 1944 he filled the post of Deputy to the Assistant Chief of Transportation for supply in charge of carious items of transportation equipment. During the next six months he conducted a transportation survey of the Republic of Paraguay for the coordinator of the Inter-American affairs, after which he was assigned to New Orleans and then San Francisco to reorganize field procurement officers under a decentralization plan. 

After being promoted to colonel in August, 1945, he was appointed Transportation Officer of the 7th Army of the Occupation Force in Europe. During most of his stay in Germany of over 3 years, he acted as Chief Operations for the Theatre Chief of Transportation which resulted in his being placed in charge of terminal operations in the Berlin Airlift, securing cargoes, loading them aboard aircraft and unloading and delivery in blockaded Berlin. 

In 1949, after returning to the U.S., he was stationed in Philadelphia, and was assigned to organize an airlift terminal system in the large airborne maneuver, SWARMER, in North Carolina, and later, a similar air supply system for the support of the Korean campaign in Japan. 

Col. Bunker was assigned to the Transportation Corps in Dec., 1951 (Army Aviation) and, as Chief of the Air Transport Service Division, Office of the Chief of Transportation, was responsible for formulating Army procurement, research, and maintenance programs for Army helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft. On March 24, 1954 he was designated Assistant Chief of Transportation, and permanent member of the Transportation Board the following June.