Chief Warrant Three Baskum "Dave" LeMaster,
born on 27 June 1949 in Jeptha, Kentucky, completed Basic Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and the Automotive
Repair Course at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland, before being assigned in 1968 to the 801st Maintenance
Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Vietnam as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. Returning to Kentucky
in 1969, he served as a wheeled vehicle mechanic in the 584th Light Maintenance Company at Fort Campbell.
LeMaster then travelled to Germany in 1972 to serve in the 517th Maintenance Company in Karlsruhe, where as a tracked vehicle mechanic he maintained prepositioned equipment, supporting four Return of Forces to Germany (REFORGER) exercises in three years.
In 1975, he was accepted as a Drill Instructor, and after graduating from Drill Instructor School was assigned to a Basic Combat Training brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he was selected as Drill Instructor of the Cycle. In 1977 LeMaster was assigned as an Automotive Instructor at the Ordnance Center and Schools at APG, teaching automotive repair theory and application to Advanced Individual Training students before being selected as an instructor for Noncommissioned and Commissioned Officer training courses. In 1979, he was accepted to attend the Warrant Officer Candidate Course, graduating in July. As a new warrant officer, he returned to Germany to serve, from 1979 to 1982, as Automotive Technician in the 122d Maintenance Battalion, 3d Armored Division, supporting six battalions in the US Army's largest combat brigade.
In 1983, LeMaster was assigned as Automotive Repair Technician in the 704th Maintenance Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado. He deployed to Honduras for six months as the Unit Automotive Repair Technician for a support group element. In August 1983, he was assigned to fill a warrant officer vacancy in the division's 1st Battalion 77th Armor. He next served, from 1986 to 1987, in Korea as the Battalion Maintenance Officer for the 802d Engineer Battalion, 2d Engineer Brigade.
LeMaster returned to Fort Carson in 1987 to again serve in the 4th Infantry Division. He initially served in the Division Support Command but was soon assigned as Maintenance Technician in the 1st Battalion, 10th Infantry. Through his training program and improved supply procedures, he consistently met or exceeded the Department of the Army's 90 percent readiness standard despite four demanding rotations to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California.
Chief Warrant Three Dave LeMaster retired from active duty in 1989 after more than 20 years of dedicated service. His contributions to the Army and the Ordnance Corps did not end, however. He served as a US Army Tank-Automotive Command Logistics Assistance Representative at Forts Carson and Leonard Wood. In 1993 he was employed by Kellogg, Brown and Root as a maintenance manager, supporting the Army and training Ordnance Soldiers on deployments to Somalia, Haiti, Hungary, Kosovo, Uzbekistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.