For the family of a four-star Army general and former Biddeford mayor, a long-overdue, homespun tribute has finally come.
But the naming for the late Wallace Nutting of a bridge linking Biddeford and Saco could never erase the lowest-possible point of his very public life.
Nutting, who became an influential, ramrod military commander, was born in Newton, Massachusetts and spent much of his childhood in Saco. He retired to Biddeford Pool in 1985.
He was accused two years later by the same government he fought for in more than one war of arguably the worst alleged criminality any soldier could possibly face.
In the late 1980s Nutting allegedly conspired with officials of a private defense contractor he worked for after his untouchable military career to sell $40 million in defective weapons to the U.S. government.
Nutting, who headed the U.S. Readiness Command at MacDill Air Force Base from 1983 to 1985, faced up to 15 years in prison on charges of conspiracy, giving false statements and obstruction.
The government argued he committed those crimes while serving as a board member and president of Sooner Defense of Florida, a Lakeland-based munitions manufacturer.
Nutting and seven others were accused of conspiring to make and sell shoddy ammunition parts, fake safety tests, bill the Defense Department for munitions never delivered and offer bribes to government engineers and specialists.
During Nutting’s trial in Florida he endured probably also the second-worst humiliation when Gus Dielens, once his roommate at West Point, testified against him as of the government’s star witnesses.
It was Dielens who had invited Nutting to join Sooner as a consultant and outside director in 1986.
Dielens testified that one-third of the 25-millimeter artillery shells made by Sooner did not work during tests in late 1984.
The jury, however, apparently believed expert testimony that the shells, used in the Army’s new Bradley Fighting Vehicle, were sound, acquitting Nutting in 1993.
Six of Nutting’s co-defendants, however, were found guilty in the case.
“Anyone who thinks that I would send the army faulty ammunition is insane,” Nutting said after being cleared.
He said he vividly remembered how bad weaponry wounded four soldiers under his command and destroyed two tanks in Korea.
Nutting saw combat in the Korean War and received the Silver Star and the Soldier’s Medal, the latter being for rescuing a wounded Korean woman from a minefield. He also received two Purple Hearts for his service in Korea.
The bridge at York Hill will be named Nov. 11 for Nutting, who served two terms as Biddeford mayor, as part of the twin cities’ Veterans Day festivities.
Nutting, who served as a commander during two tours of duty in Vietnam, died two years ago at the age of 95.
