Fred "Buster" Wallace Revels

RUSTON LA- Services for Fred Wallace “Buster” Revels, 88 and a member of the “greatest generation,” will be held at Hill Crest Funeral Home in Haughton, LA on Thursday June 21, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. with Mr. Frank Breithaupt officiating. Interment will follow at Hill Crest Memorial Park. The family will be receiving visitors prior to service beginning at 1:00 p.m.

Buster Revels, a native and long time resident of Bossier City and a 43 year employee of the Illinois Central Railroad, passed away on Friday, June 15, 2012 at North Louisiana Medical Center in Ruston, Louisiana. He was a resident of Mineral Springs (Dubach), Louisiana in retirement for 23 years. Buster was the son of the late Artist Jewel Revels and Lorna Doone Brothers Revels of Bossier City and Mineral Springs, Louisiana.

Mr. Revels is survived by a son, Michael Revels of Mineral Springs, Louisiana; two daughters, Mrs. Gayle Parker (Don) of Elkhart, Indiana, and Mrs. Linda Gates (Greg) of St. Charles, Missouri. He was preceded in death by his parents and Jimmie Ann Sutton Revels, his wife and sweetheart of 69 years. He was a devoted and loving Husband, Father, Grandfather (5 grandchildren), Great-grandfather (10 great-grandchildren) and Uncle of numerous nieces and nephews.

Mr. Revels served his Country in time of war from June 1943 to November 1945. He served aboard the U.S.S. Sangamon (CVE 26), an escort aircraft carrier, for more than two years of World War II, in the Western Pacific. He and his shipmates served in the campaigns at Guam, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Palaus, New Guinea, Halmahera, the Battle of the Philippine Seas, Leyte in the Philippines, the Battle off Samar, Saipan, the Ryuku Islands, and Okinawa. On May 4, 1945, Buster was aboard the USS Sangamon when it was struck and catastrophically damaged by a Kamikaze plane and bomb, near Kerama Retto Island, while participating in the landings at Okinawa. Among his naval service citations were a Presidential Unit Citation and seven Battle Stars. He was a Scottish Rite Freemason of the 32nd Degree.

Mr. Revels was Christian-spirited and a member of Mineral Springs Baptist Church for many years. His family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in memory of Fred Wallace “Buster” Revels to a Christian charity of your choice.

You may share words of comfort with the family by visiting www.hillcrestmemorialfh.com