The late retired U.S. Army Col. Arthur Buswell was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame Saturday night at a banquet attended by his children and other family members.

Buswell, who served many years as a Kingfisher physician after his military service, was one of 12 inducted this year and one of 223 honorees since the hall of fame’s inception in 1999.

The hall of fame recognizes Oklahoma service men and women “who demonstrated extraordinary acts of courage, heroism or gallantry” in one of the branches of the U.S. armed forces and who continued to serve their country and community after their military careers.

Born in Oklahoma City, Buswell was raised in Kingfi sher and enlisted in the U.S. Army immediately after his graduation from Kingfisher High School in 1944.

He trained as a medical corpsman and deployed to the China-Burma-Indian Theater in April 1945.

After his discharge as a sergeant, Buswell completed a pre-med degree at the University of Oklahoma, graduated OU medical school in 1952 and then received additional surgical training.

He maintained a surgical practice in Hennessey until 1961, when he was recalled to active duty during the escalation of the Berlin Crisis and served in the Army until his retirement in 1983.

Buswell earned the Bronze Star with a “V” designation for combat heroism during his deployment to Vietnam, when he crawled under a collapsing building to rescue the wounded.

In 1968, while stationed at Fort Ord, Calif., Buswell earned the Soldier’s Medal for noncombat heroism when a military plane he was riding in crashed and began burning. Buswell went back into the burning aircraft to rescue the pilot and move him to safety.

By the time of his retirement and return to Kingfi sher in 1983, Buswell had served a combined 34 years in the Army and earned seven more medals: two Legion of Merit medals, three air medals, a Meritorious Service medal and a second Bronze Star.

Buswell, who died Dec. 27, 2016, was an active volunteer at the Kingfisher Memorial Library and Chisholm Trail Museum and also supported local military veterans. At Saturday’s ceremony, Kingfisher attorney Brian Buswell accepted the hall of fame medal on behalf of his father.

Other family members present included daughter Barbara Vauken and husband David of Oklahoma City, sons Robert Buswell of Hennessey and Richard Buswell of Kansas City, Mo.; cousin Charles Moloney of Moore; granddaughters Cami Buswell and husband Ernesto Villalobos of Escondido, Lu Peters of Newcastle, Wash., and Lauren Johnson of Oklahoma City, and former wife Joann Buswell of Kirkland, Wash.