textfaustrobertearl1948.html

North High School Wall of Honor
Robert Earl Faust
Class of January, 1948

Research done by Claradell Shedd, class of 1953.

Robert Earl Faust

Bob graduated from North High in January, 1948. At the time, his next of kin was Mr. Earl Faust, 1113 Douglas Avenue, Des Moines, IA. His service number is 01929117. Bob married Jeanne Kochheiser, North High, Class of January, 1951.

Robert Earl Faust

Year		Rank		Status

January, 1948		x	x	Graduated from North High, Des Moines, IA
1948-1952		Student	x	Iowa State; Ames, IA. Graduated, June, 1952.
Dec.19, 1952	x	US Army/2nd Lt.	x	After four years in the ROTC Program at Iowa State, upon graduation was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army.
Feb.15,1953	x	Married	x	Married Jeanne Kochheiser, North High, Class of January, 1951.
April 20, 1953- July 6, 1953	x	Training	x	Ft. Belvoir, VA. Two-three months in US Army Engineers; 73rd Associate Engineer company Officers' Class
Aug.1953- Feb.,1954		Training	x	Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. Company Commander, Company B, 92nd Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division
Feb.,1954-March, 1955	x	Active Duty	x	Bordeaux-Merignac Air Base; Bordeaux, France (6 miles west of the city of Bordeaux) with US Army Engineers. *SCARWAF (Special Category Army Reassigned with the Air Force). The US Army Engineers were working on runways and parking aprons. 469th Engineer Aviation Battalion; Assistant S-3 (Operations Officer)
March,1955	x	Discharged/1st Lt.	x	Discharged from US Army as 1st Lieutenant at Fort Sheridan, IL.
Early 1955 Feb.,1992	x	Employed	x	The Maytag Company, Newton, IA. From early 1955 through retirement in February, 1992. Retired as VP Manufacturing.
Current	x	Retirement	x	Spends six months in IA and six months in AZ

*SCARWAF. The Air Force had a special need for airstrips to be built so that they could fly their planes there. They didn't have anyone who could build airstrips, so after the Army had us in tow, they sort of loaned us to the Air Force to build runways. A candid explanation of the duties of SCARWAF.

The USAF became a separate branch of service in 1947, but until the mid to late 1950's, there remained instances of certain units required by the Air Force, but not yet established under the USAF banner. the Army Engineer Heavy Equipment Battalion was one such unit and this battalion was designated Engineer Aviation Battalion when assigned to the Air Force and those serving were called Special Category Army with Air Force.

In 1951 Bordeaux was turned over to NATO for use by the United States Air Force. Construction of a modern air base suitable for jet aircraft began on 1 August. Much evidence of the war remained with many warning signs still in German, scattered munitions around the facility; the perimeter still mined; large quantities of practice bombs, and destroyed hangars and other buildings, having resulted from Allied air raids.

Site preparation and construction of the new runways was performed by the U.S. Army's 469th Engineer Aviation Battalion (EAB) -- a newly formed SCARWAF (Special Category Army With Air Force) unit.


	Ft. Belvoir, VA

	Ft. Leonard Wood, MO
	1st Lt. Faust; Bordeaux

Robert Earl Faust
First Lieutenant
US Army
Corps of Engineers

US Army Corps of Engineers

References

The comprehensive list of names from North High's 1893-2018 graduation classes are from Claradell Shedd's North Des Moines High School website. The names of all North High School graduates can be found online at http://www.ndmhs.com/. Robert Earl Faust's class page can be viewed at
http://www.ndmhs.com/pages/yearclass1948(2008.60).html.

06/29/10: Died 08/30/11.

Music: "Wind Beneath My Wings"