George Putnam; Army general was veteran of 3 wars
WASHINGTON - George Washington Putnam, a retired US Army major general who was a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and who held command positions with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, died Aug. 6 at his home in Arlington, Va., of congestive heart failure and cancer. A native of Fort Fairfield, Maine, he was 89.
General Putnam served in the Army for 46 years, beginning as a draftee in 1941 during World War II. He retired in 1987 as a two-star general, based in southern Europe for NATO.
He received his commission in World War II and served as operations officer for a howitzer battalion in France and Germany. After the war, he was a part of the occupation force in Japan.
He later served a tour in Korea and did three tours in Vietnam, the final one as commander of the First Air Cavalry Division during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
He also oversaw the Army aviation school in Fort Rucker, Ala., and helped develop plans for using helicopters to go behind enemy lines in Vietnam and retrieve injured troops.