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T/5 Paul Utter worked for the Montana-Dakota Utilities Company.

He was married to Lorene A. Hammond in Phillips County, Montana on 4 May 1940.

He enlisted in Butte, Montana on 28 August 1942. He trained at Fort Knox and was sent overseas in February 1943 and joined his unit in North Africa. He was already a veteran of this campaign and of the ones in Sicily and Normandy.

He was one of five Utter children serving in World War II. Pfc Gilbert Utter received the purple heart for wounds received in the Phillippines, S/Sgt Vernon was awarded the air medal for meritorious service in the European theater, and Merle, was in the army medical corps. Hazel served as a WAC.

The chaplain of the regiment wrote a letter to his parents, explaining what had happened on that tragic day:
"About April 19, 1945, we came back from the vicinity of Magdeburg to the vicinity of Braunschweig, to keep order and temporarily occupy a sector of territory. April 24 he was riding in the turret of a light tank which was going from his company headquarters to his platoon. Near the town of Steinbrock the right track of the tank locked and caused the tank to run over the embankment and turn over. Utter was seriously injured and was soon given medical treatment and sent on to the hospital but unfortunately died on the way."