Richard W. Culter was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry G. Cutler of 240 Wonderly Avenue Dayton, Ohio.  His father was prominent in the Dayton Insurance industry.  Richard had a brother Harry who was also in the service. Richard was married to Jessie May Cutler, and they had a daughter, Judith Ann, who was four years old when her father died. The family belonged to the Methodist Church. Richard had attended Stivers and Parker High Schools.  At the time he enlisted, he was working at Acme Aluminum Alloys.
Richard entered the service on 11 April 1942 and shipped to Europe in April 1943.  He served in Company I of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division.  He saw combat in Sicily, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.   He was Killed in Action in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge on 3 January 1945.
Sgt. Bill Tucker wrote the following account of Richard Cutler’s final battle:

We went along the dirt trail all over the wooded hill between Fosse and Basse-Bodeux till we reached another dirt trail going up the hill. Captain McPHEETERS was leading the company and he moved pretty close to the top of the hill when he directed that my platoon, the second platoon, commanded by Lieutenant CHRISTIAN moved along the right side of the hill, it would be some distance from where we were coming out the woods to the town or the west flank of the town. The three squad leaders of my platoon knew Charlie MATASH, had a feeling that he thought enemy guns were nearby. Captain McPHEETERS was leading us as brave fine leader. Somebody had to move on to that part of the hill and see what had to be done. McPHEETERS was killed instantly with a machine gun bullet to his head and several of us were hit, including the fine Lieutenant DEGENHART badly wounded as he tried to move his men forward McPHEETERS. PFC. CUTLER was cut down and died in the arms of his buddy, Sgt THOMPSON. Near Dick CUTLER, Corporal Bill HALLAHAN, died as several machine gun bullets hit him.  

Information from the Dayton Daily News 18 October 1944, 31 January 1945, and 16 May 1945, all courtesy of Erwin Derhaag.  The account of Sgt. Bill Tucker was provided by Henri Hannon