Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s only permanently-named building is the two-story concrete structure on Lewis Main inscribed as the Crotts Building.

The 15,398-square-foot structure was built in 1951 and is named for World War II hero, Cpl. Lawrence Leigh Crotts, a technician fifth grade with the Third Signal Company, Third Infantry Division, who was killed by enemy fire in 1944, while leading a team laying signal wire in Italy.

Crotts was selected in order to honor a Signal Corps hero and Washington resident who also trained at Lewis Main, according to JBLM’s history of the Crotts Building.

Although Crotts received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart posthumously and the Lewis Main structure was named in his honor complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by several of Crotts’ family members June 15, 1952, none of the local family members living now were at that ceremony. In fact, prior to this week none had seen the structure and its memorial plaque with Crotts’ photo and a brief history that graces the inside hallway of the building.

“My grandmother wouldn’t let me attend the dedication because she thought I was too young and might be disruptive,” said Crotts’ 69-year-old nephew and namesake, Lawrence Lee Crotts, of North Bend, Wash., Tuesday afternoon. He and his siblings, Susan Swenson of Granite Bay, Calif., and James Crotts of Gig Harbor, Wash., were treated to a VIP tour of the main floor of Building 2003 — the Crotts Building.

The Crotts siblings were all in town this week for a family funeral. Corporal Crotts’ sister, Edith, recently passed away, according to Swenson.

“It’s sad, but she lived a full life and it was good for the family to get together,” she said.

The Crotts family’s tour Tuesday included very little access to the structure, being as — in line with Crotts’ chosen career field in the Army — the building is used for IT equipment, cyber security and data center. All are off limits to civilians, according to Amy Ridgeway, director of the JBLM Network Enterprise Center, 106th Signal Brigade, who organized and led the tour. Ridgeway also provided each of the Crotts siblings a framed history of the Crotts Building when they arrived at the installation.

Crotts was born in Tacoma in 1920 and grew up in Snoqualmie, Wash. He enlisted in the Army on Nov. 27, 1940, and completed basic training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Crotts’ body was originally buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery but was returned to the United States in 1948. He was laid to rest in the Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Washelli Cemetery in Seattle.

Lawrence Lee Crotts said he remembers hearing war stories about “Uncle Bud” as a child.

“There were pictures of Uncle Bud, and we knew he was a war hero who saved lives and watched over his men in the field,” the younger Crotts said.

It was perhaps because of those stories that he joined the Navy as a young man and served from 1965 to 1971.

“The stories about Uncle Bud made us all proud,” he said.