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Air Force to name B-52 hangar after area man

WORKING — A B-52 hangar in Minot, N.D., will be named for Chief Master Sgt. Fred Gantzer, a Wheeling native, shown in this photo. -- Contributed

WHEELING — As a teenager growing up in Wheeling during the 1950s, Fredrick Gantzer regularly hopped on his bicycle and pedaled all the way from the Clator neighborhood to the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport to take flying lessons.

On Friday, the late Air Force chief master sergeant whose military career spanned more than three decades will have his name immortalized on a B-52 hangar at Minot Air Force Base in Minot, N.D.

Learning his older brother would be honored in such a way was a proud moment for Thomas Gantzer of Triadelphia, who can’t help but get a little choked up when speaking of his sibling, who died in January 2015 at the age of 74.

“He spent 31 years up there in the Air Force — a lot of time away from his family in service to our country,” Thomas Gantzer said.

“He was my hero. … He was everything that an American should be.”

Fredrick Gantzer graduated from Triadelphia High School in 1958, and immediately enlisted in the Air Force, where he specialized as an aircraft electrician and maintenance person for the B-52 aircraft.

He also earned the Meritorious Service Medal.

“As a matter of fact, he spent his 18th birthday in basic training. He graduated high school and the next day he was gone,” Thomas Gantzer said of his brother.

Fredrick Gantzer’s military career included two tours of duty in Vietnam.

That was a stressful time for the family, Thomas Gantzer recalled, particularly when Fredrick broke both his arms after getting caught in an aircraft’s landing gear.

In addition to Vietnam, Fredrick Gantzer’s military career took him to Savannah, Ga., Fairbanks, Alaska, Japan and Minot, N.D. Despite all that moving around, he never lost touch with his family, his brother recalled.

“We used to talk to each other three times a week or more, that’s the one thing that sticks in my mind,” Thomas Gantzer said.

After his retirement from the Air Force, Fredrick Gantzer continued to make aviation a big part of his life, working at Lockheed maintaining T-38 aircraft and at the Minot Municipal Airport.

Thomas Gantzer remembers his brother as “understanding, loving, caring and very generous.”

“My goodness, he mentored so many young adults as they went into the service and he trained them,” he said. “And he’d help anybody and everybody — total strangers, he’d help.”

Thomas Gantzer remembers riding in a car with his brother near Coleman’s Fish Market when they saw an elderly woman who looked as though she’d fallen on hard times. Without giving it a second thought, Fredrick Gantzer stopped the car, got out and handed the woman a $20 bill.

“He was that kind of a guy — like I said, my hero,” Thomas Gantzer said.

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