Colonel Wilfred O. Boettiger, USA Retired, was born in Chicago, June 20, 1920 and he spent his boyhood in Rancho Santa Fe and South Pasadena, California. In 1939, certain that the US would soon be fighting World War II, 19-year old Wilfred Boettiger, an insurance clerk in Seattle, joined the Washington National Guard as a private to get some military training. That was the beginning of a 30-year career in the US Army Antiaircraft Artillery branch in the National Guard and on active duty during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War as an enlisted man and officer in antiaircraft units with three inch and 90mm guns, 40mm automatic weapons, 120mm gun batteries and Nike and Hawk air defense missile units during the Cold War.
During WWII he was trained as a Weissight fire control instructor to serve with and introduce the Weissight to 40mm units in combat in North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. When he was reactivated in 1950 for Korea his initial assignment was at Camp McCoy, WI where he served as Post Training Officer until he was ordered to Korea where he provided gung-ho field artillery support to 1/Bn 35 Infantry and 5th RCT in combat. At the Hanford Washington air defense he commanded a 120mm gun battery and then a pioneer Nike missile battery. As Nike military sales advisor he advised the German Defense Ministry on their NATO SAM build-ups. Next, he commanded an Improved Nike battalion and air defense of Loring Air Force Vase and then went to Japan as military sales advisor to the Japanese Defense Agency. As advisor to the Virginia National Guard he advised to use monthly drills and practice Army Training Tests to improve their readiness. His final assignment was as Chief, Army! Air Defense in the Joint Air Defense of Okinawa from 1967 to 1970, controlling two Nike Hercules and two Hawk battalions.
He retired on July 1, 1970 as a Colonel USA. During his army career he graduated from numerous antiaircraft courses at Camp Davis and Fort Bliss, the Army Command and Staff College, and the Military Assistance Institute. He was awarded two bronze stars, two meritorious service medals and numerous commendations.
After his Army retirement, he and his wife and two children settled in San Diego. He earned a master’s degree at San Diego State University, became a bronze sculptor, and wrote An Antiaircraft Artilleryman 1939-1970 (Privately published 1990), and his autobiography Formerly Classified (Xlibris, 2002, ISBN 1-4010-5049-2).
