I often spend many hours more researching each profile prior to publication. Some have a development period of just a few days, while others have sat in various stages of completion for more than a year. I often work on a piece until I hit a wall, and then shift gears while I wait for a solution. As this project approached the five-year mark, I decided to present some work in its incomplete, unpolished state. As an article is finished, I will publish a full-length article and remove it from this page.

The reasons each story is on hold varies. In many cases, I am waiting for my next visit to the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, to obtain unit records which contextualize the servicemember’s experiences, or photos to better illustrate the piece. In other cases, I am waiting to obtain morning reports or personnel files that may shed light on a servicemember’s career. In a few cases, I’m stumped by a mystery and fear publishing inaccurate information.

One of the motivations in presenting these briefs is the hopes that family members of the fallen—or somebody with information about the man or his unit—may stumble across them and provide assistance in getting them across the finish line. Bibliographies and acknowledgments have been omitted until final publication. Completed articles are removed from this page.

Lieutenant Colonel Louis E. Roemer (1901–1945)

Author’s note: This article incorporates some text from my previous article, Master Sergeant Andrew Gorman (1896–1944), who was also on Bataan, the prison camps in the Philippines, and aboard one of the same hell ships.

Early Life & Family

Louis Edward Roemer was born on March 26, 1901, at 701 Madison Street in Wilmington, Delaware. He was the third child of Frederick Roemer (1870–1907) and Louisa Roemer (née Hill, 1878–1952). His father, known as Fred, was a German immigrant who worked as a saloonkeeper. He was also a volunteer fireman for the Water Witch Steam Fire Engine Company No. 5, prior to the foundation of the career Wilmington Fire Department. He died on November 10, 1907, from cirrhosis of the liver, when Roemer was six.

Roemer had an older brother, Frederick “Fred” Carl Roemer, Jr. (1898–1959), an older sister, Helen Roemer (1899–1955), and two younger brothers, Francis Hill Roemer (1902–1964) and John George Roemer (1904–1987).

Roemer was recorded on the census in April 1910 living at 219 North Rodney Street in Wilmington with his mother, four siblings, and his uncle, Louis Hill. At the time of the next census in January 1920, Roemer was living with the same six people at 807 Harrison Street.

After graduating from Wilmington High School on June 26, 1918, Roemer enrolled at the University of Delaware in Newark. Roemer’s junior yearbook stated that “Lou” was assistant manager of the university football team, a member of the Wolf Chemical Club, and in the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He was manager of the team during his senior year. On June 12, 1922, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.

Roemer’s older brother, Fred, was in the Students’ Army Training Corps at the end of World War I. His younger brothers also served during World War II: Francis in the U.S. Army and John in the Marine Corps.

Interwar Military Career

Roemer was cadet in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at University of Delaware, which had an Infantry program at the time. A June 1, 1922, article in The Evening Journal mentioned that Roemer was a cadet lieutenant shortly before his graduation. However, the program was not his pathway to a commission, at least not directly. The Wilmington Morning News reported on January 27, 1923, that Roemer and two other “former students of the University of Delaware were among the successful candidates, as a result of the examination conducted October 23, 1922, which the Secretary of War today recommended to the President for nomination for commissions as second lieutenants in the regular army.”

Roemer accepted a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army Infantry on February 10, 1923, with a date of rank of January 5, 1923. Although Roemer gained prominence as an officer in the Chemical Warfare Service during World War II, that was his branch only for the last quarter of his long career.

A roster for Headquarters Fort Thomas, Kentucky, reported that Roemer was assigned to the 10th Infantry on February 18, 1923, but had not yet joined. He arrived at Fort Thomas on March 9, 1923, and was assigned to Company “H,” 10th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division but did not immediately join it.

On April 21, 1923, 2nd Lieutenant Roemer joined Company “H” at Camp Knox, Kentucky. At the time, there was only one other officer in the company. All the noncommissioned officers and many of the other enlisted men had reenlisted in the U.S. Army after serving in World War I. The interwar U.S. Army was small, with anemic funding, and advancement could be painfully slow by modern standards.

2nd Lieutenant Roemer went on detached service at Camp Perry, Ohio, from August 24, 1923, until rejoining his company—now stationed at Fort Thomas—on September 28, 1923. Roemer and his unit returned to Camp Knox on April 10, 1924. They headed back to Fort Thomas on August 3, 1924.

Roemer went on leave on October 13, 1924. He returned to duty on November 12. Roemer departed the 10th Infantry on February 28, 1925, after he was transferred to the Philippine Department.

On March 4, 1925, Roemer sailed aboard an Army transport, U.S.A.T. Chateau Thierry, from New York to San Francisco, California, via the Panama Canal. In San Francisco, he transferred to U.S.A.T. Thomas, shipping out on March 24, 1925. After intermediate stops in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Guam, the ship arrived in Manila, Philippine Islands. On April 18, 1925, 2nd Lieutenant Roemer joined Company “M,” 45th Infantry (Philippine Scouts), 23rd Infantry Brigade (Philippine Scouts), Philippine Division, at Fort William McKinley. On February 20, 1926, he went on detached service to the Bataan Peninsula, where he would fight the Japanese some 16 years later. He returned to Fort William McKinley on April 14.

One year later, on April 18, 1927, the two-year anniversary of his arrival in the Philippines, 2nd Lieutenant Roemer went on detached service to Camp John Hay. Located in the highlands near Baguio, east of Lingayen Gulf in central Luzon, the camp was renowned for its pleasant climate and Roemer may have been there for rest and recreation. At the end of World War II, Yamashita Tomoyuki (1885–1946), the Japanese commanding general in the Philippines, surrendered there.

Roemer returned to Company “M” on May 17, 1927. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on October 11, 1927. A few months later, 1st Lieutenant Roemer was transferred to the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division at Fort Screven, Georgia, per Special Orders No. 6, Headquarters Philippine Department, dated January 11, 1928. He left the 45th Infantry on February 15, 1928. After three years overseas, he arrived at San Francisco, on March 17, 1928.

On or about March 21, 1928, Roemer sailed from San Francisco, California, aboard U.S.A.T. Cambrai, bound for New York via the Panama Canal. It appears that he went on leave prior to reporting to Fort Screven, since he did not join the 8th Infantry until July 10, 1928. In addition to his other duties, he served as post exchange officer.

On September 25, 1928, 1st Lieutenant Roemer joined Company “D,” 8th Infantry. He remained with the company until June 7, 1929. That same month, he joined Company “C.”

August 1929 was an eventful month for Roemer. According to newspaper articles—the story was gleefully picked up by the Associated Press in 1931—Roemer met Doris K. Ferguson (1906–1991), apparently at a party in Ridgeland, South Carolina, about 30 miles north of Fort Screven. Ferguson, a beautiful 20-year-old woman from Paterson, New Jersey, was described in 1934 by her hometown paper, The Morning Call, as “prominent among the younger social set of this city[.]”

Jack Miley wrote in the Daily News that after the party, “somebody suggested that she take part in a mock wedding with Louis E. Roemer[.]” On August 27, 1929, the couple was married by the county clerk in Jasper County, South Carolina. Miley continued:

A few days later Miss Ferguson learned she was legally married to Roemer. The clerk, whom she thought was not empowered to perform marriages, had spliced them according to law.

The young woman was horrified. As a staunch member of St. Joseph’s Catholic church in Paterson, she did not recognize divorce as a solution to her difficulties.

In early January 1931, when Ferguson was working as a teacher and Roemer was also a New Jersey resident while training at Fort Monmouth, Ferguson tried to get an annulment. “Our marriage was only a lark,” she was quoted as arguing, “and I want to be released.” The Daily News reported on June 21, 1931, that she had “obtained a final decree of divorce from her husband, Louis E. Roemer of 424 River Road, Red Bank, in Supreme Court” though “Roemer said that his wife had been guilty of fraud because she did not let him know of her intentions not to live with him.”

The tale ended happily for Ferguson, who evidently was able to secure a religious annulment as well. The Morning Call reported that on December 22, 1934, Ferguson married Albert Hibbs Tomlinson (1896–1975) at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic rectory and then departed for a yearlong around-the-world honeymoon.

Shortly after the disputed marriage, on August 26, 1929, prior to his transfer to The Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia. Roemer reported to The Infantry School on September 20, 1929, to take the Company Officer’s Class 1929–30. The faculty at that time included Lieutenant Colonel George C. Marshall (1880–1959), later the U.S. Army chief of staff during World War II and postwar secretary of state.

After nearly a year of training at Fort Benning, Lieutenant Roemer arrived at the Signal School, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, on September 8, 1930, to begin another training class. On June 15, 1931, he completed the Communication Officers’ Course. Three days later, he was transferred to the 12th Infantry, 4th Division at Fort Howard, Maryland, which guarded the entrance to Baltimore Harbor. He took some leave before reporting for duty on June 23. That day, he joined Headquarters Company, 12th Infantry, which he assumed command of on June 26. He was also assigned the duty of post signal officer at Fort Howard.

On October 12, 1931, another Delawarean, Captain John Wilson “Iron Mike” O’Daniel (1894–1975), newly arrived from the Hawaiian Department, replaced Roemer as commander of Headquarters Company, 12th Infantry. Roemer remained assigned to duty with Headquarters Company as well as the post signal officer. Another officer who arrived at Fort Howard that fall was Captain Louis D. Hutson (1893–1962), who assumed command of Company “A,” 12th Infantry on September 21, 1931. During World War II, Hutson, by then a colonel, became a prisoner of the Japanese and would later recall an act of kindness that Roemer did for him in the dark days after the American surrender in the Philippines.

1st Lieutenant Roemer went on leave December 31, 1931, returning to duty on January 3, 1932. He was on detached service at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, during the entire month of February 1932. On March 25, 1932, Roemer assumed command of Headquarters Company, 12th Infantry when Captain O’Daniel went on leave and subsequently took ill. Roemer relinquished command of the company to Captain O’Daniel on April 4. Roemer’s unit relocated to Fort George G. Meade on May 13, 1932, but returned to Fort Howard on May 28.

Roemer married Mary Davis Learn (née Mary Virginia Davis, 1902–1969) on May 6, 1933. The Long Branch Daily Record reported: “The ceremony took place in the Presbyterian Manse at Ellicott City, Md.,” adding that Roemer’s bride “has been head of the filing department of the Sigmund Eisner Company at Red Bank” in New Jersey. He became stepfather to her son, Ralph Stanley Learn (1920 or 1921–2007), who served as a pilot in the Army Air Forces during World War II.

1st Lieutenant Roemer was with the 12th Infantry at Fort Howard, Maryland. He went on detached service at the C.C.C. Camp No. 2, Green Ridge State Forest, Maryland, on May 21, 1933. The Sun reported that the following morning, May 22, 1933, Company 324 arrived at their new camp, adding that

the tent city did not rise as rapidly as enlisted men could have erected it, and getting the supply trucks over Fifteen-Mile creek, which runs by the camp, took time. It seemed like a stroke of genius when Lieutenant Roemer finally brought order out of the chaos.

The article also mentioned one or Roemer’s rules for his men: “When you want to cuss, whistle.”

The C.C.C. for Morris Weinberg (1911–1994) provides some glimpses into Roemer’s leadership style at the time. A young Jewish man from Baltimore, Weinberg had previously attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy but failed the physical due to a hernia. He did not disclose the condition during his C.C.C. physical—he claimed he was not asked and the doctor did not notice it—but in a labor company like the 324th, it soon became a problem. To make matters worse, he was mistreated by other men in his unit. Lieutenant Roemer later testified at a hearing:

On the morning of June 14, 1933 I called Morris Weinberg into the orderly tent and told him that I knew he was being annoyed and teased by other members of the Company, and that he should not pay any attention to them; to go ahead and do his work and that I would take care of him. […] Three hours later I was informed that he had deserted, carrying with him a lot of equipment.  The next morning he reported back stating that he was present for duty and that he had lost a lot of clothing equipment off of a truck on which he was riding.  I told him that although he admitted stealing this Government property that I would give him a chance to work it out.  He said he would be glad to do this.

Soon, however, the pain from his hernia became unbearable and Weinberg had no choice but to come clean. He was in a bad situation given that he had not been forthcoming about a preexisting condition, not to mention going absent without leave and losing equipment. On July 5, 1933, Roemer convened a board of officers which found that although Weinberg “had potential Hernia before enrollment at Fort Howard,” his present illness “was precipitated by work at this Camp” “in line of duty and not the result of his own misconduct.” The board recommended that Weinberg “be sent to the Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington D.C. for repair of Hernia at government expense.” He was transferred to Walter Read two days later, though it is unclear if he had the surgery before returning to camp on July 14. Weinberg was honorably discharged from the C.C.C. on July 17, 1933, due to disability, but did another stint in 1935 and served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

On October 1, 1933, the 12th Infantry transferred from the 4th Division to the 8th Division.

Roemer returned to duty with Headquarters Company, 12th Infantry, at Fort Howard on December 14, 1933.

With his wife now in the advanced stages of pregnancy, Roemer went on leave beginning June 29, 1934. On July 5, 1934, Mary Roemer gave birth to the couple’s only child in Washington, D.C. Lieutenant Roemer returned to duty soon afterward. The following month, from August 2–13, 1934, he went on detached service at Camp Holabird in nearby Baltimore for C.C.C. work. Records are incomplete, but it appears that in September 1934 Roemer’s unit moved to Fort Hoyle, Maryland, and then Fort George G. Meade in early October, before returning to Fort Howard on October 13, 1934.

Roemer went on leave on November 30, 1934, staying at the Officer’s Club at Fort Monmouth. Effective December 14, 1935, he was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone. According to census records and a return passenger manifest, Roemer’s wife, son, and stepson lived with him in Panama.

On December 23, 1934, 1st Lieutenant Roemer joined Headquarters Company, 14th Infantry, at Fort Davis, on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal Zone. On February 25, 1935, he took on the addition duty of recruit instructor. He was released from that duty on March 6. At the end of the month, on March 31, 1935, Roemer left on detached service to Fort Clayton, on the Pacific side of the canal. A roster noted that he went “via Jungle Route” suggesting he traveled overland rather than by boat. He returned to Fort Davis on April 4, and was sick in quarters April 16–25.

1st Lieutenant Roemer assumed command of Headquarters Company, 14th Infantry on May 14, 1935. He was sick in quarters June 20 through July 2. Roemer went on detached service again during July 16–21, doing “Jungle trail reconnaissance” at Bocas del Toro. He was promoted to captain on August 1, 1935. Any celebration over the promotion may have been tempered by the fact that he was sick in quarters for three days afterward. The next 19 months passed uneventfully at Fort Davis.

On March 12, 1937, Captain Roemer took on the additional duty of post inspector. On April 21, 1937, Captain Roemer was transferred to the 11th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. He was authorized travel time and a lengthy leave before reporting. Roemer and his family boarded U.S.A.T. Chateau Thierry that day, arriving in Brooklyn, New York, on April 27, 1937. He began his leave two days later, with authorization to visit 58 East River Road, Rumson, New Jersey.

After nearly four months of leave, on August 26, 1937, Captain Roemer arrived at Fort Benjmain Harrison and assumed command of Company “E,” 11th Infantry, 5th Division. The 11th Infantry moved to Fort Knox on May 2, 1938, before returning to Fort Benjamin Harrison on May 28.

Roemer went on detached service at Fort Knox during June 12–17, 1938, for the 10th Brigade School of Arms. Due to the absence of many of his regiment’s field grade officers, Roemer also commanded 2nd Battalion from August 11, 1938, to September 2, 1938. Captain Roemer was on detached service at Fort Knox September 2–25, 1938, “in connection with 2nd Army CP Exercises.” During October 23–29, 1938, he was on detached service at Wright Field, Ohio, “in connection with Air Corps training for ground officers.”

Most of the 11th Infantry, including Roemer, moved to Fort Knox again on May 1, 1939, but returned to Fort Benjamin Harrison on May 27. On June 10, 1939, Captain Roemer went on detached service to Fort Knox for the Fifth Corps Area School of Arms. He returned to duty with the 11th Infantry on June 15. On June 16, 1939, Captain Roemer transferred from the Infantry to the Chemical Warfare Service (C.W.S.) and was reassigned to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland. However, he was attached to—and continued serving as commanding officer of—Company “E,” until June 21, 1939, when he was attached to Headquarters & Band, 11th Infantry. He was detached from the 11th Infantry on July 1, 1939, and joined Headquarters Edgewood Arsenal. By August 1, 1939, he was attached to Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 2nd Separate Chemical Battalion, at Edgewood Arsenal. He had a full portfolio, including commanding the 412th Chemical Depot Company from August 8, 1939, to October 9, 1939, and commanding the 2nd Separate Chemical Battalion for several stretches: August 1, 7–12, and 20–28, and September 13–14, 1939. On October 15, 1939, he began a class as a student at the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood.

Clay: “The 2nd Chemical Battalion was located at Edgewood Arsenal and performed duties as the support unit for the C.W.S. school.”

Captain Roemer completed his training class on December 1, 1939. The following day, he was detached from the 2nd Separate Chemical Battalion on December 2, 1939. The same day, he was made chief of the I & S Division & Proof Division [unknown what that means, as of July 1940 the C.W.S. divisions were Personnel, Information, Training, Supply, Procurement, Fiscal, and Technical.], the base’s survey officer, and commanding officer of the detachment from the 6th Field Artillery. On December 22, 1939, he was designated the acting signal officer at Edgewood Arsenal.

The C.W.S. originated during World War I, which saw the first widespread use of chemical weapons during warfare. In the years leading up to World War II, American policy was to use gas warfare only in retaliation for first use by the enemy. The Axis never used chemical weapons against American forces and the C.W.S. was limited to secondary roles during the war, such as using chemical mortars to fire high explosive and white phosphorous rounds instead of poison gas and generating smoke screens to shield friendly units from enemy view.

Captain Roemer was recorded on the census in April 1940 living at Edgewood Arsenal.

He was promoted to major on July 1, 1940. Later that month, on July 22, 1940, Journal-Every Evening reported that although Roemer was service at Edgewood Arsenal, “Major Roemer has been assigned to duty with the 45th Infantry of the Philippine Scouts.”

If he did go to the Philippines, it was only briefly. On or about March 18, 1941, Major Roemer was transferred to the 9th Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? He was authorized leave prior to reporting, joining the division on March 31, 1941. On August 28, 1941, he went on detached service for 30 days at Edgewood Arsenal. Another entry on September 27, 1941, initially stated that he was taking a leave of absence, but that was crossed out and detached service written in, without specifying where he was performing it. The Army and Navy Journal dated September 13, 1941, stated that Major Roemer was being transferred “from Ft. Bragg, N. C., to Philippine Dept., sail 4 Oct., San Francisco, Calif.” Indeed, a Headquarters 9th Division morning report dated October 4, 1941, documented that Major Roemer had been transferred to the Philippine Department.

Defense of the Philippines

At the start of World War II, the Philippines were still an American possession, but in the mid-1930s the U.S. had promised the archipelago independence in 1946. Toward that end, the Americans established the transitional Commonwealth of the Philippines and Philippine Army.

Per Special Orders No. 248, Headquarters Philippine Department, dated October 23, 1941, Major Roemer was assigned to the Philippine Chemical Warfare Depot, Fort Mills, Corregidor, in Manila Bay. Roemer was also attached to Headquarters Philippine Department for duty, where he served as assistant chemical officer under Colonel Stuart A. Hamilton, chemical officer, U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (U.S.A.F.F.E.). Many American records were lost in the fall of the Philippines—some by Roemer’s own orders—though Roemer’s role is unusually well-documented because Colonel Hamilton managed to dispatch a report on C.W.S. activities during the campaign about three weeks before the American surrender.

C.W.S. had minimal personnel in the Philippines. Colonel Hamilton later recalled that when the Pacific War began, there were only 14 American C.W.S. officers and 275 C.W.S. American enlisted men, plus 12 Philippine Scouts. Most of the enlisted men were in chemical units in the Far East Air Force (F.E.A.F.) The nascent Philippine Army had no chemical units at all, although soon after Pearl Harbor the 301st Chemical Depot Company (Philippine Army)—also known as the 301st Chemical Company (Depot) (Philippine Army)—was activated, adding four officers and 70 enlisted Filipino men.

On December 8, 1941—shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which was on the other side of the International Date Line—the Japanese launched an offensive against British, Dutch, and American possessions in the eastern Pacific, including the Philippines. The outbreak of war saw the Philippine Department’s gas masks stored in warehouses at Manila. Major Roemer’s first job was supervising the stockpiling and issue of gas masks at Fort William McKinley.

At the outbreak of war, neither the Americans nor the Japanese knew if their enemies planned to use chemical weapons. Both decided against using gas weapons during the campaign, meaning C.W.S. efforts to distribute gas masks and anti-gas impregnated clothing ended up being largely pointless. Evidently to prevent the possibility of provoking reprisals, MacArthur’s headquarters went so far as to ban the use of white phosphorus munitions, smoke pots, and tear gas effective January 3, 1942.

C.W.S. contributions to the Philippines campaign included manufacturing sulfuric acid for use in batteries, making Molotov cocktails, manufacturing thiamine supplements, developing an improvised flamethrower, researching quinine substitutes, evaluating captured Japanese chemical equipment, and repurposing existing American equipment and supplies to purify drinking water and manufacture bleach for sanitation purposes.

On December 19, 1941, Roemer was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Army of the United States, though word did not reach the Philippines until the following month.

Japanese amphibious forces began landing on Luzon on December 10, 1941. Although the prewar War Plan Orange-3 called for a withdrawal to the Bataan Peninsula if the Japanese invaded the Philippines, few supplies had been stockpiled there. To make matters worse, General Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) had also delayed executing the plan until two weeks into the invasion in the vain hope that American and Filipino forces could halt the Japanese without ceding most of the archipelago. In the case of the C.W.S., its only completed storehouse was the one under Roemer’s command, the Philippine Chemical Warfare Depot on Corregidor. Eight more warehouses for chemical supplies were under construction on Luzon, all of them in locations that the Americans would cede to the Japanese in the first weeks of the campaign. War Plan Orange-3 provided for two C.W.S. sub-depots on Bataan but construction had started on neither one when the plan was implemented.

Finally, on Christmas Eve 1941, MacArthur ordered War Plan Orange-3 to go into effect. The C.W.S. journal recorded that morning that “Roemer left with a convoy of supplies for Bataan at 9:00 AM.” Accompanied by the 301st Chemical Depot Company, he found the planned site for the C.W.S. depot on the peninsula already occupied, so another site was developed “at Km Post 175.8 Mariveles Cut-off Road[.]”

With the Japanese arrival in the Manila imminent, on December 31, 1941, acting on Roemer’s orders, one last convoy to Fort McKinley recovered as many masks and cans of gasoline as their trucks could carry and then burned down the warehouses before returning to Bataan.

General MacArthur’s delay implementing War Plan Orange-3 meant that forces evacuating to Bataan had no choice but to abandon food and equipment that would be desperately needed in the months ahead—indeed, during the first week in January 1942, the defenders’ rations were drastically reduced to conserve what remained. Still, with Bataan and the island fortresses in Manila Bay in American–Filipino hands, the Japanese were denied use of the vital port.

A C.W.S. journal entry dated January 10, 1942, stated that 1st Lieutenant Charles Allison Morgan, Jr. (1917–1984) “went to Bataan tonight to check with Major Roemer regarding the division of CW supplies and equipment between Fort Mills and Bataan.  The amount stored at each place will be governed by the number of troops stationed thereat.”

The following night, Morgan returned to Fort Mills with “a Japanese gas mask captured on the previous day.  Major Roemer sent over a free translation of characters on the various parts of the mask.”

The C.W.S. journal recorded that on January 14, 1942, the day after word arrived about Roemer’s promotion, “Lt. Schaf went to Bataan tonight to confer with Col. Roemer re CW supplies.  The Depot at Bataan is assembling equipment and filling quantities of anti-tank mines for the forces there.”

According to the citation for the Legion of Merit posthumously bestowed upon Roemer and quoted in the Red Bank Register:

          Lieut. Col. Louis E. Roemer performed exceptionally meritorious service from 7 December, 1941, to 9 April, 1942, as assistant chemical officer, Philippine Department, Commanding Officer, Chemical Warfare Depot on Bataan, and Instructor, 301st Chemical Depot Company (PA. [Philippine Army]). The Chemical Warfare Depot, under his direction, improvised a method of manufacturing incendiary grenades, devised a means for the field impregnation of clothing and developed a mobile repair shop for travel to the forward areas for repair of Chemical Warfare equipment.

          He also directed and supervised the emergency field manufacture on Bataan of liquid bleach which was used extensively as a disinfectant in combating diseases and pestilence. He participated in many patrol actions and trained the 301st Chemical Depot Company (PA.) as a combat unit. By his unceasing efforts, inspiration leadership and tenacity of purpose, Col. Roemer contributed materially to the defense of the Philippine Islands.

American and Filipino defenses on Bataan held against repeated Japanese assaults. Frustrated, beginning the night of January 22, 1942, the Japanese attempted an amphibious operation to land two battalions on the southwest side of the Bataan Peninsula. The attack was poorly planned and executed, but with largely rear echelon personnel in the area, the operation was still a serious threat.

What followed came to be known as the Battle of the Points. One portion of the battle involved a Japanese amphibious force that had taken Lapiay Point, Longoskawayan Point, and threatened Mount Pucot. On January 23, 1942, the Naval Battalion, an improvised unit of sailors acting as infantry under the command of U.S. Navy Captain Francis J. Bridget 1897–1945), engaged the Japanese.

Thanks to his background as an infantry officer, Roemer was better qualified than most to leap into action. He led 60 Filipino soldiers from the 301st Chemical Company into the battle, joining an ad hoc force of sailors, Marines, and Army Air Forces ground personnel. With artillery support, including from Fort Mills on Corregidor, they drove the Japanese from Lapiay Point by January 26. The following day, reinforcements from the 57th Infantry (Philippine Scouts) arrived. The last of the Japanese in the area were killed or captured on January 31.

In a report dated February 19, 1942, Captain Bridget wrote of Roemer and his men:

          These troops were used on the right flank of the Naval Battalion on the north slope of Mount Pucot, to prevent the Japanese forces from circling Mount Pucot and obtaining access to the Mariveles Road.  During the action it became necessary that a detailed search of the coast be made.  This search was made personally over extremely rugged terrain prior to the disintegration of the Japanese Forces on Longoskawayan Point.  In carrying out this duty Lt. Col. Roemer was exposed to small parties of Japanese who were known to be in the area.  At this and other times the willingness of LT. Col. Roemer to take immediate and direct action was decidedly in keeping with the best traditions of the U.S. Military Forces.

Roemer’s role was summarized in his posthumous Bronze Star Medal citation, quoted in the Red Bank Register:

          Lieut. Col. Louis E. Roemer, Commanding Officer, Chemical Warfare Depot, distinguished himself by heroic achievement in the Philippine Islands, 25 and 28 January, 1942. Following a series of landings on Longoskawayan Point, Bataan, the enemy attempted to seize Mariveles road and sever the last supply route of I Philippine Corps. With conspicuous courage and resourcefulness, Col. Roemer reconnoitered enemy positions, gaining information regarding hostile strength and dispositions, which enabled army and navy units to destroy the enemy and prevent a successful assault on Mariveles road. Through his brave actions and unfaltering devotion to duty Col. Roemer mad a distinct contribution to the heroic defense of Bataan.

On March 9, 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Roemer, Colonel Hamilton, and Captain Lazzarini went on a mission to the front, inspecting I Philippine Corps [?] units and discussing “CWS supply and training programs” at various command posts.

A reorganization on March 11, 1942, saw officers assigned to Headquarters Philippine Department reassigned to a new entity, Headquarters Luzon Force. Roemer remained assistant chemical officer. A journal entry made on Corregidor that day stated “Lt. Colonel Roemer arrived from Bataan this morning to inspect and plan the gas-proofing projects for Malinta Tunnel”—the headquarters bunker on Corregidor—“and Harbor Defense[s] of Manila and Subic Bays.”

On March 12, 1942, after completing his plans and testing some Molotov cocktails, “Lt. Colonel Roemer returned to Bataan tonight by the 6:30 PM boat.”

In an April 1945 letter to Roemer’s wife that was quoted in Journal-Every Evening, Captain (1st Lieutenant during the events he described) Frank L. Schaf, Jr. (1918–2002) wrote:

          During the campaign, Colonel Roemer had a great number of jobs. He was in command of the area where the battle of Mount Pucot was fought and it was through his leadership that the untrained Philippine army was able to completely destroy the enemy.

Schaf added that Roemer “contracted a tropical disease during this time and it left him weak and sick.” Indeed, a document in Roemer’s individual deceased personnel file (I.D.P.F.) stated that he was under treatment at Little Baguio, Bataan, during February 18–21, 1942.

The rear echelon forces contained the Japanese amphibious forces until the arrival of American and Filipino reinforcements, which isolated and eventually annihilated them by February 13, 1942. It was a rare setback for the Japanese, who briefly halted their offensive against Bataan.

Though the defenders exulted at their victory, events elsewhere in the Pacific had already sealed the fate of the Philippines. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was just the first of a series of disasters for the Allies that went on, practically unmitigated, for five months. Guam, Wake Island, and the Gilbert Islands fell in December 1941. Malaya fell in January 1942. Singapore capitulated in February 1942 and Dutch East Indies the following month. The American, British, Dutch, and Australian navies suffered devastating loses in a series of engagements, most notably the Battle of the Java Sea in February 1942. The Allies were not prepared to risk what assets they had left on a relief mission to the Philippines. With the Japanese in control of land, air, and sea for hundreds of miles around the Philippines, it was also impossible to stage a Dunkirk-like evacuation of the men on Bataan.

The Allied forces grew weaker from hunger and disease as the Japanese grew stronger. By March 27, 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Roemer was in command of an ad hoc force known as Group No. 3, headquartered at the chemical depot on Bataan, and prepared to go into action as infantry once again. On that day, he issued orders that the group, “consisting of the 301st Chemical Company Depot, the 301st Engineers, and the Engineer Depot Detachment, will defend the Mariveles Cut-off.”

The renewed Japanese offensive proved unstoppable. Captain Louis T. Lazzarini later recalled:

          At approximately 10:00 A.M. on April 8, 1942 a communication was received from HPD [Headquarters Philippine Department] at the PCWD [Philippine Chemical Warfare Depot], stating that preparation and plans were to be made for the destruction of all material and supplies which would be of value to the enemy. […]

          Upon receipt of the above mentioned communication, Col. S. A. Hamilton, Lt. Col. L. E. Roemer, and Capt. Lazzarini discussed ways and means of destroying all material and supplies then on hand in the PCWD on Bataan.  It was finally concluded that the best method of destroying the supplies and assuring that none would fall into the hands of the enemy would be to dump as much of the chemical munitions as time would permit in the middle of Mariveles Bay and to destroy the rest of the munitions and depot stocks by fire.

1st Lieutenant Morgan recalled in a statement dated April 10, 1942:

          About 7 PM on the 8th of April Lt. Col. Roemer came into the tent getting his equipment together and at that time he informed me he could use some extra help if I felt like it.  I was informed then for the first time that the depot was being destroyed.  Prior to this time I had been sick in quarters from diarrhea.  I told Col. Roemer that I felt weak but would try anything once. […] About 12 midnight, Colonel Hamilton arrived in camp and directed that trucks and equipment proceed to the docks in Mariveles and to make sure they got through the traffic.

This proved easier said than done. It soon became clear that with traffic congestion on Bataan and limited shipping capacity it would be impossible to evacuate very much materiel to Corregidor. Morgan continued: “About 1 AM Colonel Hamilton told me to take his car and go back to camp and inform Col. Roemer not to ship any more supplies to the dock but to destroy them.”

Morgan was unable to get through to Roemer. C.W.S. officers dumped some chemical weapons into the water while evacuating to Corregidor, but Lieutenant Colonel Roemer and several other officers were left behind. Lieutenant Roemer, along with the rest of the Allied forces on Bataan, surrendered later that day, April 9, 1942, and virtually all American forces in the rest of the Philippine Islands capitulated the following month.

Schaf stated of Roemer: “At the surrender of Bataan, he was able to get a box of much needed medical supplies and he used it on the men. He continued this work for the sick and wounded until his medical supplies ran out.”

Prisoner of the Japanese

The Japanese mistreatment of their American and Filipino prisoners was infamous. The defenders of Bataan endured a multiday forced march in the heat without adequate food or water, forever known to history as the Bataan Death March. Japanese guards often robbed their prisoners of their few personal effects. They inflicted injury or death for the most trivial of offenses, or for no reason at all. Men who collapsed were frequently bayoneted or shot. Those who made it to San Fernando were crammed aboard freight cars and moved by rail to Capas before finally marching to Camp O’Donnell.

Conditions there were abysmal. There was little water and inadequate sanitation facilities. In a memoir written in 1945 but not published until 2016, David L. Hardee (1890–1969), a lieutenant colonel when captured on Bataan, recalled of Camp O’Donnell:

          We had steamed rice three times a day and some salt. Usually it was accompanied with oleomargarine at breakfast and a vegetable and boiled camote soup for the other two meals. We had a little brown sugar occasionally but no meat and very little grease. […] The hospital had little or no medicine. There were not enough tools to dig enough latrines. Those that were dug were open ones, with no lumber for covering them. Flies were rampant. When you drew your food you ate with one hand and beat them off with the other. Everyone was weak and hungry. The starvation days in Bataan and the Death March had weakened all and would soon take its toll. Lieutenant Colonel Louis E. Roemer, an old friend who lived next door to us at Fort Howard, was there when we arrived. He helped me by giving me a sheet, some clothes, and other odds and ends. He said another day or two of marching would have done me much permanent injury.

          The men were weak, hungry, homesick, heartsick, and despondent. We were so numbed by the Death March that we could only eat and sleep. Despair, diarrhea, and dysentery seized them and the death rate began to mount.

In mid-1942, most of the prisoners at O’Donnell were moved to another camp at Cabanatuan, in central Luzon. Conditions were better than at Camp O’Donnell, but prisoners continued to die in large numbers. 1st Lieutenant Schaf, who was captured on Corregidor, recalled that he was reunited with Roemer at Cabanatuan in May 1942: “He was still sick. We were able to bring him back to health.”

In a letter to Roemer’s wife dated March 5, 1945, and quoted at length in Journal-Every Evening, Colonel Louis D. Hutson, who had served with Roemer in the 12th Infantry in the 1930s, recalled that although their paths did not cross on Bataan or for several years afterward—Hutson was at Bilibid Prison in Manila while Roemer was at Cabanatuan—that they were aware of one another’s presence in the Philippines:

          In fact, he very kindly sent me, by one of the other officers, a small can of ham and eggs. This act I consider very unusual and showed the greatness of his heart, but knowing Louis from the old days it was not unexpected. As you know, food at that time was beyond price, and I greatly appreciated his thoughtfulness and kindness.

In contrast to Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan did not make timely notifications about Allied prisoners in their custody. Journal-Every Evening reported that Roemer’s wife did not receive confirmation from the War Department that her husband was a prisoner of war until December 6, 1942, nearly one year into the Pacific War.

Conditions slowly improved at Cabanatuan. During Christmas 1942, the Japanese finally distributed packages from the Red Cross filled with food, medicine, and hygiene supplies. John C. McManus wrote in his book, Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943, that during late 1942 and 1943:

Food consumption rose from starvation to subsistence levels. Death and disease rates declined. The average prisoner received between two thousand and twenty-six hundred calories per day. […] Meals consisted mainly of steamed rice, beans, scrawny sweet potatoes, or onions or squash, augmented with a little carabao meat, maybe an ear of corn or a tomato.

Sanitation also improved, with a septic system replacing open latrines. Some prisoners earned extra food and a small amount of money, which they could spend in the camp’s commissary, by working on the camp’s farm. The Japanese allowed the prisoners to entertain themselves by putting on plays, concerts, lectures, and playing sports. There was even a camp library. Still, many guards were quick to resort to violence for minor or imagined infractions, and attempting to escape was punishable by death. Major E.R. Fendall of the 57th Infantry (Philippine Scouts) noted in a diary entry on July 25, 1943: “Col Roemer was beaten up on the farm this morning.”

Captain Schaf recalled in his letter that he had been separated from Colonel Roemer from October 1942 when Schaf was transferred to another camp at Davao, but they were reunited at Cabanatuan in June 1944:

          He was in good health. He had been using everything he could get his hands on for the enlisted men. He was at that time in charge of a detail that was building an airport for the Japanese near the camp.

By the end of 1944, American forces had begun retaking the Philippines and landings on Luzon were imminent. In his March 5, 1945, letter to Roemer’s wife, written one month after his own liberation from captivity, Colonel Hutson recalled:

          On about Dec. 1 of last year, Louis, with many other officers, was brought through Bilibid on his way to Japan. He spent several weeks in Bilibid Prison where I was, and I had the pleasure of renewing our old friendship of Fort Howard days. He was transferred out for Japan or Formosa, but I feel certain that Louis was one of those who successfully made the trip.

Colonel Hutson was quoted in another Journal-Every Evening article—it is unclear if it was the same letter—as writing about Roemer:

          At the time of his transfer he was in very good health and quite cheerful and he asked that in case I were returned to the States before he returned that I write you and send you and his boys and his mother all his love.

Captain Schaf’s account about Roemer was similar: “In October of 1944 he was sent to Bilibid Prison in Manila, to await shipment to Japan. The detail left Bilibid on Dec. 13, 1944. That was the last time that I saw him.” He closed his letter to Roemer’s wife: “Colonel Roemer installed such love in his men and we respected him so much, that it would be only a pleasure if I could do anything more for you.”

Roemer and over 1,600 other Allied prisoners were crammed into holds aboard Oryoku Maru on December 13, 1944. The ship was overloaded with prisoners and Japanese civilians. For the prisoners in the holds, the heat was unbearable. There was inadequate food and water. Sanitation, space, and ventilation were non-existent. The hell ship got underway that evening. Dozens of men died from the abysmal conditions even before U.S. Navy aircraft bombed and strafed the ship on the morning of December 14, 1944. Some Americans were killed outright in the attack, but the survivors’ ordeal was only beginning.

Oryoku Maru staggered back to Subic Bay. The Japanese began evacuating the ship’s passengers, while ordering the Americans to stay put aboard the foundering ship. Men who tried to escape the ship were ruthlessly shot. Finally, the next day, December 15, 1944, the prisoners were allowed to abandon ship, though only some of the wounded were allowed to use lifeboats. The other weary men had to swim for their lives. Another American air raid struck the ship, killing more prisoners. Even after everything else, the Japanese machine gunned some of the survivors as they struggled to shore. The ship finally sank that same day.

Lieutenant Colonel Roemer survived the sinking of the Oryoku Maru, but was placed aboard another hell ship, most likely Enoura Maru but possibly Brazil Maru, which sailed from the Philippines on December 27, 1944, just under two weeks before American forces began landing on Luzon. Conditions, once again, were abysmal, with inadequate food, water, and sanitation. The ships reached Takao, Formosa—now Kaohsiung, Taiwan—on December 31, 1944. There, the prisoners from Brazil Maru were crammed in with the others aboard Enoura Maru.

On January 9, 1945, American naval aircraft attacked Formosa in support of the landings at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon. They found Takao’s harbor full of ships. Multiple bombs struck Enoura Maru and killed hundreds of American prisoners. The remaining American prisoners, which according to Japanese records included Lieutenant Colonel Roemer, eventually shipped out aboard Brazil Maru for the Japanese Home Islands. Many hundreds more prisoners died during that journey.

Japanese recordkeeping, like its treatment of its prisoners, was very poor. A list of prisoner fatalities aboard Enoura Maru did not include his name. The Japanese submitted a report through the International Red Cross that Lieutenant Colonel Roemer died at sea of acute colitis on January 22, 1945, and his remains cremated. Graves Registration personnel were unable to recover these remains. War crimes trials also revealed that some victims who died aboard hell ships were thrown overboard by the Japanese. In 1947, a board of officers concluded that on the basis of known facts, Lieutenant Colonel Roemer’s body was nonrecoverable.

In fact, Roemer had most likely died aboard Enoura Maru and was buried at Takao.

As the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency revealed on January 14, 2026:

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel. In May 1946, AGRC Search and Recovery Team #9 exhumed a mass grave on a beach at Takao, Formosa, recovering 311 bodies. Following unsuccessful attempts to identify the remains, they were declared unidentifiable. They were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

Between October 2022 and July 2023, DPAA disinterred Unknowns from the Punchbowl linked to the Enoura Maru. The remains were accessioned into the DPAA Laboratory for further analysis.

To identify Roemer’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial, Y-chromosome and autosomal DNA analysis.

The exact date and cause of Roemer’s death remain unknown. It is likely that he died in the American air raid on January 9, 1945, but as the press release observed, “he conceivably could have died at any point during this December 1944 to January 1945 POW transport, including the Jan. 9 attack on the Enoura Maru.”

Journal-Every Evening reported that Roemer’s stepson, Captain Ralph Stanley Learn of the Army Air Forces, had volunteer to fly a relief mission transporting supplies from Tinian to a prison camp in Korea via B-29 Superfortress shortly after the Japanese capitulated. At that time, he knew Colonel Roemer had been a prisoner but was unaware of his fate.

At a ceremony in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 29, 1947, Captain Henry J. Boudreaux presented Mary Roemer with the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star that her husband had earned.

Why on hold: Reconstructing career

---

Private 1st Class Alfred A. Rosendale (1916–1943)

Early Life & Family

Alfred Rosendale was born in the Delaware Hospital in Wilmington on March 20, 1916. He was the child of Arthur Penn Rosendale (c. 1878–1951), a farmer, and Eva Rosendale (née Eva May Mahan, 1895–1972).

He had an older half-sister, Elizabeth May Mahan (later Smith and eventually Elizabeth Smith Maio, 1914–1996). Census and Social Security records suggest that she was raised by her maternal grandparents, Howard W. Mahan (1867–1941) and Emma Sheppard Mahan (1877–1947). Rosendale would later list his half-sister and grandmother as his beneficiaries when he entered the service.

When he was born, Rosendale’s parents were living on Christiana Road. By September 12, 1918, when Rosendale’s father registered for the draft, his father had moved to 302 Jefferson Street in Wilmington, where Rosendale’s father was working as a dairy operator for the Cloverdale Dairy at 12th and Orange Streets. Curiously, Eva Rosendale was described as a resident of Marshallton west of the city. However, the entire family was recorded on the next census in January 1920 living at 302 Jefferson Street. The elder Rosendale was described as a milkman.

The Rosendale family likely moved to the Delaware City area by the fall of 1925, when an Alfred Rosendale was noted as being a third grader there. The next census in April 1930 recorded Rosendale and his father living on River Road in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, with his father again farming. Curiously, Eva Rosendale was not recorded in that census, though it appears her parents, daughter, and some of her siblings were living next door to her husband and son. The Wilmington Morning News later described the Mahans as living at the “Hill Top Farm, near Delaware City,” formerly the H. M. Pierce farm. Documents in Rosendale’s individual deceased personnel file (I.D.P.F.) also establish that his parents were living at the Hill Top Farm during the war.

A 1940 Wilmington directory listed Rosendale as a mechanic working for the Porter Motor Company and living on State Road. A U.S. Army data card described him as having completed two years of high school.

Military Career & Marriage

Prior to World War II, Rosendale joined the Delaware National Guard. Journal-Every Evening stated that he joined the National Guard in 1940. It was likely later that year, since his name was not mentioned in a Delaware National Guard book published around June 1. Private Rosendale went on active duty on September 16, 1940, the same day the 198th was federalized. The following day, he joined Battery “B,” 198th Coast Artillery.

A roster dated July 31, 1941, the earliest to list duty codes, listed Private 1st Class Rosendale’s as 014, automotive mechanic.

Private Rosendale was transferred to the Enlisted Reserve Corps (E.R.C.) on inactive duty just prior to September 25, 1941. The exact reason for that change is unclear, but he may have requested it due to his age based on a policy announced on August 19, 1941. In his book, The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940–1941, Paul Dickson wrote that

the Associated Press in a totally unexpected story revealed that despite the provisions of the draft extension bill, the Army was planning to release a selected 200,000 draftees, Guardsmen, and Reservists before Christmas, meaning that these men would have served, on average, less than 18 months rather than the 30 months just authorized by Congress. […] These early releases were not automatic; men had to request them. Those with a proven hardship would be released first, followed by married men and those who would be 28 years of age or older by July 1, 1942.

When he registered for the draft on September 25, 1941, Rosendale was living on Rural Free Delivery No. 2, River Road near Red Lion Creek, between New Castle and Delaware City. He may have been residing with his recently widowed maternal grandmother, Emma Mahan, who was listed as his emergency contact. Rosendale was working for the Diamond Ice & Coal Company in Wilmington. The registrar described him as standing five feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 192 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes.

After Pearl Harbor, Private 1st Class Rosendale was recalled to active duty effective January 17, 1942. That day, he was attached unassigned to Company “A,” 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix, New Jersey, along with other E.R.C. personnel. He did not rejoin his old unit, which was about to ship out for the Pacific.

Rosendale was hospitalized from January 29, 1942, to February 8, 1942. Later that month, on February 26, 1942, he was transferred to the 717th Military Police Battalion at Fort Ontario, New York. The base was located where the Oswego River flows into Lake Ontario.

Rosendale married Marjorie C. Hague () in McDaniel Heights, Delaware, on the evening of February 21, 1942. Journal-Every Evening reported: “The wedding took place at the parsonage of Mt. Lebanon Methodist Church, Rockland, with the Rev. W. E. Fosnocht officiating. Mr. Rosendale is in the military police at Ontario, N. Y.”

On the morning of May 26, 1942, Rosendale went on detached service with Company “C,” 717th Military Police Battalion, the same day it moved to Burlington Armory, New Jersey. He was hospitalized at Fort Dix, New Jersey, during June 23, 1942. While still hospitalized, on July 1, 1942, he was officially transferred from Headquarters Company to Company “C.” He returned to duty with Company “C” at Burlington at 1100 hours on July 18. However, at 0900 hours on July 20, he was transferred to Headquarters Engineer Amphibian Command at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts.

On July 31, 1942, at 1000 hours, Rosendale joined Company “G,” 3rd Battalion, 531st Engineer Shore Regiment at Camp Edwards. His company (regiment?) had been activated on June 15, 1942.

On the evening of August 4, 1942, Rosendale and his new comrades boarded a train for the New York Port of Embarkation. At 0630 hours the following morning, they boarded the ocean liner turned transport U.S.A.T. Thomas H. Barry. Their ship got underway at 0530 hours on the morning of August 6, 1942. They pulled into Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the morning of August 8, sailing for Europe one day later. While still at sea, Rosendale was promoted to sergeant on August 14, 1942.

After crossing the Atlantic Ocean safely, Thomas H. Barry arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on August 17, 1942. Company “G” disembarked around 1600 hours and moved by train to Red Hall Camp outside the city. Later that month and into early September, they trained with the M1 Garand rifle. The 531st Engineers had presumably been equipped with the older M1903 Springfield bolt action rifle.

On September 4, 1942, Sergeant Rosendale and his company moved again by train to Eglinton Camp, Northern Ireland. Later that month, at 1300 hours on September 22, they departed Eglinton by train, arriving at 1700 at Larne, Northern Ireland, where they boarded the British ferry turned transport Princess Maud at 1815. That night, they crossed the North Channel, disembarking at Rothesay, Scotland. They transferred to a landing craft for a quick jaunt to Camp Toward, Scotland.

At 1400 hours on January 31, 1943, Sergeant Rosendale was hospitalized at the 180th Station Hospital for an unspecified illness not in the line of duty. He returned to duty at 1300 hours on February 11. He was reduced to the grade of private on February 27.

Most passenger manifests associated with the U.S. Army’s massive overseas buildup were disposed of after the war. However, manifests from the period in which the 531st Engineers were staging at Camp Edwards ended up preserved in a collection of general correspondence at the National Archives. It lists Private Rosendale as a member of 1st Platoon, Company “G.”

He returned to duty from detached service at 1800 hours on June 13, 1943.

Combat on Sicily

The plan for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, called for the 531st Engineer Shore Regiment to support the 1st Infantry Division. The 531st’s shore party, including the engineers, signal personnel, and a U.S. Navy beach battalion, were collectively known as the Dime Force. Per Field Order No. 6, 3rd Battalion “assists the landing of CT [Combat Team] 16 (reinf) D-day y organizing and operating all shore installations on Beaches RED 2 and GREEN 2, necessary for debarkation, supply, evacuation, and local security.”

D-Day on Sicily was July 10, 1943.

531st Engineer Shore Regiment records are incomplete, with after action reports preserved for 2nd Battalion but not 3rd Battalion. The Allies’ amphibious doctrine was still being honed in mid-1943 and not everything went smoothly on Sicily. A Western Naval Task Force report noted:

Dumps did not appear to be organized according to a predetermined plan. On some beaches there was a critical shortage of transportation, in spite of the thousands of vehicles being landed. […]

          Supplies were piled high on the beaches without any effort to accomplish segregation. Gasoline, ammunition, water, food, and assorted equipment were strewn about in a hopeless mass.

The report stated specifically of Dime Force:

          In the DIME area the chaotic condition on D day was terminated on D plus one by the evacuation of those beaches due to the advance of the German tanks. Enemy shelling of these beaches resulted in the Engineer Regiment being called inland as support troops and the withdrawal seaward by boats of other beach personnel.  The DIME beaches were at a standstill on D plus one, though some ships diverted boats to the beaches near the Acate River in order to continue unloading. As the enemy threat was overcome, the DIME situation gradually cleared up as naval working parties took over unloading of boats and craft.

Private 1st Class Rosendale was killed in action on the afternoon of July 11, 1943, when he was struck in the thorax by artillery shell fragments, likely during the German counterattack. Private 1st Class Stanley E. Bohac (1912–1943) was killed in the same incident or around the same time.

Journal-Every Evening reported Rosendale’s death on September 2, 1943, noting:

          Mrs. Rosendale said today that last word she had received from her husband was a letter dated June 30 and received July 10, the day before he was killed.

          She said that, not having heard from him for some time prior to receiving the telegram from the War Department, she had worried “for fear something had happened.”

Rosendale was initially buried at a temporary military cemetery near Gela. On July 25, 1943, he was reburied at another cemetery nearby, 2-S Gela. After the war, American authorities began consolidating the temporary cemeteries scattered across Europe. As a result, Rosendale was reburied on April 10, 1947, at Monte Soprano, Italy. The following month, Marjorie Rosendale requested that her husband remain overseas in a permanent military cemetery. In 1948, he was reburied for the final time at the Sicily–Rome American Cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. His name is honored at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.

Why on hold: Unit movements and records

---

Private Francis C. Dill (1908–1943)

Early Life & Family

Francis Cubbage Dill was born on May 27, 1908, in Felton, Delaware. He was the first child of Walter Graham Dill (a farmer, 1881–1964) and Mattie Dill (née Cubbage, 1885–1979). Dill had two younger brothers. The Dill family was recorded on the census in April 1910 living in unincorporated Kent County, Delaware. A few months later, on June 23, 1910, Dill’s father purchased land along the state road between Milford and Frederica. A later property record, when he added to the holding on December 29, 1922, specifies that the land was on the east side of the road between Tub Mill and Frederica. The Dill family was living there at the time of the next census in April 1930.

Dill graduated from Milford High School on June 11, 1931. According to census records, by April 1, 1935, the Dills were living along Highway 8 in unincorporated Kent County, and were in the same home as of April 1940. Dill was described as assistant engineer on a steamboat. Similarly, his parents told the Public Archives Commission that their son was a marine engineer. The Wilmington Morning News reported that “Dill was forme[r]ly employed by the J. C. Penney Company store in Milford, and later became a  nautical engineer.” On the other hand, his enlistment data card classified his occupation as “unskilled oilers of machinery.”

When Dill registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was living on Rural Free Delivery No. 2 near Milford and working for the Delaware–New Jersey Ferry Company. The registrar described him as standing about five feet, six inches tall and weighing 176 lbs., with black hair and gray eyes.

Military Career

After he was drafted by Local Board No. 2, Kent County, Dill was inducted into the U.S. Army in Camden, New Jersey, on July 21, 1942. He went on active duty on August 5, 1942, at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was attached unassigned to Company “F,” 1229th Reception Center. On the morning of August 10, 1942, he was dispatched by train to the Engineer Replacement Training Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, for basic training. That afternoon, he was attached unassigned to Company “B,” 3rd Engineer Training Battalion. On the evening of September 25, 1942, he was detached from Company “B” and attached unassigned to Company “D,” 1st Engineer Training Battalion.

Private Dill was transferred to the 759th Engineer Battalion at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, on November 12, 1942. It is unclear if he ever joined that unit. He transferred Company “E,” 360th Engineer General Service Regiment, also at Camp Claiborne, probably on or about November 20, 1942. He was transferred to the 39th Engineer Combat Regiment on December 10, 1942. Soon after, he joined that regiment’s Company “F,” at Camp Bowie, Texas.

Unfortunately, many records that would shed light on Private Dill’s career were lost during or after the war. His personnel file was among those lost in the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire. All morning reports for 2nd Battalion, 39th Engineer Combat Regiment, including Dill’s Company “E,” from May 1942 through August 12, 1943—his entire time with the unit—were lost or destroyed before they could be microfilmed. Payroll records from Company “F” reveal no notable changes in Dill’s status from the time he joined the company until he was killed in action.

Dill was overseas in Algeria by January 1943.

1st Battalion of the 39th Engineers went into combat near Gela, Sicily, on July 10, 1943, while Dill’s 2nd Battalion arrived later in the campaign.

On August 3, 1943, west of Triona, Private Dill was fatally struck by shell fragments in his thorax and foot.

Dill was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. After the war, his body was repatriated to the United States and buried at Barratts Chapel Cemetery in Frederica. His parents were also buried there after their deaths.

Why on hold: Unit textual records

---

Cadet Staff Sergeant James Walter Taylor, III (1928–1944)

Early Life & Family

James Walter Taylor, III was born on July 18, 1928, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was the first child of J. Walter Taylor (James Walter Taylor, Jr., 1902–1975) and May Taylor (née Deputy, 1900–1986). Taylor had a younger sister.

Taylor was recorded on the census in April 1930 living in Claymont, Delaware, with his parents and paternal grandmother. His father was described as working as assistant secretary of an incorporating company. The Morning News later reported that in 1938, the elder Taylor “became assi[s]tant to the president of the Security Trust Co., Wilmington[.]”

Taylor was recorded on the next census in April 1940 living with his parents, sister, and both of his grandmothers on Philadelphia Pike in Claymont. His father was described as a bank executive.

Taylor attended Claymont High School. Journal-Every Evening reported that on June 7, 1944, at the end of 10th grade, Taylor was among the recipients of the “scholarship ‘C’ award” for “having been on the school honor roll for at least four of the six marking periods[.]” The paper also reported that Taylor was his class’s president.

Civil Air Patrol

According to his father’s statement to the Public Archives Commission, on November 29, 1943, Taylor became a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol (C.A.P.), assigned to the Wilmington Squadron of the Delaware Wing. No individual records for Taylor are known to have been retained at the National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri. Taylor’s father stated that his son was promoted to cadet staff sergeant on January 29, 1944.

Journal-Every Evening reported that on Saturday, August 19, 1944, Taylor and a group of other C.A.P. cadets arrived at Dover Army Air Base, Delaware, “for 10 days’ pre-flight training under Lieut. Robert C. Hawkins, CAP. With others he was assisting Army men [preparing] airplanes for flight” on August 22, 1944. The paper stated that Taylor and three other boys—Cadet 1st Sergeant Martin Dwyer, Cadet Staff Sergeant Colvin Franklin, and Cadet Staff Sergeant Donald Lynam—were

riding on the rear of the air field “tug”—a small tractor—and it is believed he touched the hot exhaust pipe, lost his balance, and fell to the concrete ramp. The tractor was going not more than 12 miles an hour.

Although Taylor fell only a short distance—the platform on the back of the tug was only two feet off the ground—he suffered a severe head injury when he struck the ground. He was rushed to the Army Air Forces Station Hospital at the base, where he died at 1500 hours the following day, August 23, 1944. Journal-Every Evening reported on August 24, 1944: “Airport officers said today the investigation of the Army showed that no one was at fault and that the accident was unavoidable.

After his funeral in Claymont, Taylor was buried at Union Hill Cemetery in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Journal-Every Evening reported on August 26, 1944, that he “was buried today with full military honors—an Army chaplain, a firing squad, and a bugler blowing taps.” The officiant was the chaplain from Dover, Earle Robert Landtroop. His fellow C.A.P. cadets served as pallbearers, including the three boys who had been riding on the tug at the same time. Taylor’s parents were also buried there after their deaths.

The 1946 Claymont High School yearbook was dedicated to him: “To James Walter Taylor, Jr., an able leader, worth classmate and loyal friend, who lost his life at the Dover Army Air Base while serving in the Civil Air Patrol Cadets, we dedicate the Clay Tablet of 1946.” His name is honored at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.

Why on hold: Trying to obtain Dover Army Air Base records and locate family

---

1st Lieutenant Edward V. Atwell, Jr. (1920–1944)

Early Life & Family

Edward Victor Atwell, Jr. was born at St. Paul’s Sanitarium in Dallas, Texas, on January 19, 1920. He was the only child of Edward Victor Atwell, Sr. (a real estate broker 1883–1969) and Ida Bakey Atwell (née Ida Mary Bakey, 1883–1933). His birth certificate noted that his parents were residents of Wilmington, Delaware, at the time. On September 30, 1921, Every Evening, a Wilmington newspaper, described Atwell’s father: “During the World War he left Wilmington to enter the military service, and after the declaration of the armistice he went to Texas. Since his return from the South he has resided in Delaware City.” On the other hand, in 1969, the Evening Journal reported that the elder Atwell “was formerly a real estate researcher for the Du Pont Co. Later, he went into the real estate business for himself, occupying an office at 10th and Market Sts.” The paper described him as a resident of Wilmington since 1901, though it appears that the Atwells divided their time between residences in Wilmington and a farm they owned in Cecil County, Maryland.

The Atwells were recorded on the census in April 1930 living at the Du Pont Building on West 10th Street in Wilmington.

Atwell was 13 when his mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage on May 23, 1933. Her obituary gave her residence as Barksdale, Maryland, in unincorporated Cecil County off Barksdale Road, north of Elkton, Mayland, while her death certificate described her as a resident of Elkton itself. Atwell graduated from Wilmington High School in June 1939. Later that year, on October 28, 1939, his father remarried in Wilmington to Emma Whiteman Snyder (née Emma Whiteman Richards, 1886–1973), herself a widow. The 1940 census recorded the Atwells as living in the Fair Hill area north of Elkton, Maryland.

When he registered for the draft on July 1, 1941, Atwell was living with his father on Rural Free Delivery No. 3 in Elkton, Maryland. His occupation was listed as “Farming & Automobile Mechanic” and his employer as Mackenzie & Strickland Automobile Agency in nearby Newark, Delaware. Similarly, his enlistment data card later that year described him as a semiskilled motor vehicle mechanic. The registrar described him as standing about five feet, eight inches tall and weighing 150 lbs., with blond hair and blue eyes and scars on his right elbow. His military paperwork described him similarly, albeit with brown hair.

Upon enlistment, Atwell described his work history as three years of “General Mechanic Work” earning $25 per week (about $525 in 2025 dollars). On the other hand, the Wilmington Morning News reported that “Atwell was an auditor with the Coca-Cola Company here before entering the service.”

Military Career

A portion of Atwell’s personnel file, mostly pertaining to his time as an enlisted man, survived the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire, meaning some more details about his career are available than many other soldiers. Microfilmed copies of his flight records and morning reports also survived.

Atwell was drafted before the U.S. entered World War II. The Wilmington Morning News reported that on November 17, 1941, Atwell and 14 other men selected by the Local Board, Cecil County, were notified to report for induction into the U.S. Army on November 24, 1941. On November 25, 1941, he went on active duty and was attached unassigned to Company “B,” 1303rd Service Unit, Camp Lee, Virginia. Evidently Atwell expressed interest in the Army Air Forces or was recruited based on his background as a mechanic, but there was a catch: Atwell had to commit to a three-year stint in the Regular Army. As a formality, he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army on November 26, 1941, and reenlisted the following day. On December 6, 1941, he was transferred to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, though he did not leave Camp Lee until December 11, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Upon reporting at Jefferson Barracks on December 12, 1941, Private Atwell was attached unassigned to the 357th School Squadron.

In 1942, Atwell volunteered to become an aviation cadet. On September 7, 1942, he passed a flight physical at the Army Air Forces Classification Center, Nashville, Tennessee.

By May 25, 1943, Atwell had 231.4 hours under his belt as a student pilot, including 171.8 hours as first pilot. In April and May 1943 he was flying the AT-6 and AT-10.

Aviation Cadet Atwell was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army on May 27, 1943, at Blytheville Army Air Field, again as a formality. On May 28, 1943, Atwell was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant.

On May 29, 1943, a set of orders came down transferring 2nd Lieutenant Atwell to the 46th Bombardment Group at Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma. He was authorized to take 10 days of leave prior to reporting by June 10, 1943. He joined the 51st Bombardment Squadron (Light), 46th Bombardment Group (Light). On June 19, 1943, he was transferred to the 673rd Bombardment Squadron (Light), 417th Bombardment Group (Light). He accumulated more hours, mostly flying the A-20 and B-25.

On the morning of October 19, 1943, Lieutenant Atwell was cleaning a pistol but failed to verify that the weapon was unloaded. When he pulled the trigger, it discharged, fracturing the terminal phalanx (bone at the tip) of his left hand. He was treated at the Station Hospital, DeRidder Army Air Base, where physicians debrided the wound and applied a Banjo traction splint. He returned to duty on November 7, 1943.

The Pacific Theater

By May 22, 1944, 1st Lieutenant Atwell had 643 hours, 25 minutes of flight time under his belt, including 365 hours, 55 minutes as first pilot since getting his wings. May 1944 was a particularly busy month. During the first three weeks of the month, Atwell logged 20 flights in A-20s and B-25s, totaling 45 hours.

On May 22, 1944, 1st Lieutenant Atwell and his copilot, 2nd Lieutenant Chester N. Burns (1919–1944), took off from Nagzab, New Guinea, in B-25 serial number 41-29692. In addition to the three crew members, there were seven passengers aboard. Their route would take them over the dense mountains of eastern New Guinea to Saidor, on the northern coast. The bomber was not heard from again. Searches of the rugged terrain along their route turned up nothing.

In a March 11, 1947, letter to State Archivist Leon deValinger, Jr. (1905–2000), the elder Atwell glumly noted:         “No further word have [sic] ever been received of my Son, or any of the 10 [sic] others in the Plane with him […] no one seems to know what happened and I doubt now if we ever will.” In 1950, a board of officers declared that Lieutenant Atwell and the others aboard the plane were non-recoverable. However, that was not the end of the story.

According to a summary by the Quartermaster Corps Memorial Division, in May 1959, a Lutheran missionary notified the U.S. consulate in Sydney, Australia, that

certain United States Army publications had been recovered from the wreckage of a plane found by natives at the headwaters of the Sorop and Erap rivers in New Guina.  Human remains were reported to be present at the wreckage site.

A U.S. Army search and recovery team based in Hawaii arrived in New Guinea on June 23, 1959. The crash site was deep in the mountainous interior of the island. The town of Naramonke was the closest the team could approach by road. With an Australian guide and locals hired as carriers, the team hiked from village to village along mountain trails. “On 1 July, the Search Party finally reached the site of the wreckage, situated below the tree line at an elevation of 9,500 feet.”

The team was able to recover human remains from at least seven men and some personal effects, including identification tags for Captain Randall M. Dorton, Jr. (1920–1944) and a plate from a flight jacket belonging to 1st Lieutenant Robert J. Arndt (1921–1944). Individual identification proved impossible and in 1960 the remains, which the Army declared were from all 10 men, were given a group burial at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Missouri.

1st Lieutenant Atwell’s name is honored at the Manila American Cemetery and Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.

Why on hold: Gathering unit records

---

Sergeant John J. Paisley (1920–1944)

Early Life & Family

John Joseph Paisley was born at 1340 Claymont Street in Wilmington, Delaware, on February 25, 1920. He was the son of Elizabeth May Paisley (also known as Elizabeth Needham, later Denn, and eventually Murphy, 1905–1987). His mother, only 14 at the time, was the victim of rape. She declined to name the father when she applied for a birth certificate for him in 1939. Paisley may have been raised to believe that his mother was his sister, since he described her that way when he registered for the draft.

Paisley was recorded on the census in April 1940 living at 929 East 17th Street with his mother and stepfather, John Murphy. He was described as a truck driver working on a C.C.C. drainage project. Journal-Every Evening reported that Paisley “attended the George Gray School and St. Patrick’s Parochial School.”

Paisley’s enlistment data card described him as a carpenter with a grammar school education.

When Paisley registered for the draft on July 1, 1941, he was still living at 929 East 17th Street with his mother and stepfather, but was now working as a joiner for the Pullman Company in Wilmington. Journal-Every Evening stated that Paisley worked for the company for over a year prior to entering the military. The registrar described him as standing five feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 153 lbs., with brown hair and hazel eyes.

Military Career

After he was drafted, Paisley joined the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on January 28, 1942. Another Delawarean, Harold T. Hitchens (1915–1944), was drafted in the same cohort as Private Paisley. On April 9, 1942, both men joined Company “B,” 104th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division, at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, transferring from the Branch Immaterial Replacement Center, Fort McClellan, Alabama.

The 104th Infantry was originally part of the Massachusetts National Guard. Company “B” had been federalized in Springfield, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1941. The company was understrength at the time, with only 48 enlisted men on the rolls. Draftees flowed into the unit beginning with local conscripts and then, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, those from further afield like Hitchens and Paisley.

During the spring of 1942, the 104th Infantry was scattered across the southeastern United States, patrolling the coastline from Florida to North Carolina. Despite the paranoia that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Germans lacked the amphibious capacity to successfully cross the English Channel, much less the Atlantic Ocean. At most, German submarines could land spies or saboteurs, which happened only a handful of times.

As of May 31, 1942, Private Paisley’s duty and military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) codes were both listed as 521, basic. That indicated he was still in training or not yet qualified for an M.O.S. The last known Company “B” roster to list duty and M.O.S. codes was September 1942. Private Paisley was still listed as a 521.

A 104th Infantry history book published at the end of the war, History of a Combat Regiment 1639–1945, “In January, 1943, the regiment was withdrawn from patrol duty and reassembled on the 27th of the month at Camp Blanding, Florida, for conditioning and amphibious training.” Similarly, Company “B” morning reports state that on January 24, 1943, Paisley and his comrades moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where they boarded a train, arriving at Camp Blanding early the following morning.

Paisley was promoted to private 1st class on April 1, 1943. On the night of April 17–18, 1943, Company “B” boarded a train and headed back north around midnight. Following a brief stop in Macon, Georgia, Paisley and the others arrived at Camp Gordon, Georgia, that afternoon. At Camp Gordon, the 26th Infantry Division was finally reassembled and continued its training.

Paisley and Hitchens were among a group of enlisted men who went on furlough on June 21, 1943. After returning to Delaware, on the afternoon of June 27, 1943, Paisley married Mary Christine Lentelle (1924–1974) in Wilmington. Paisley was due back by at Camp Gordon by midnight on the night of July 1–2, 1943. Four men including Paisley and Hitchens did not make it back in time and were declared absent without leave (A.W.O.L.). Presumably, their return journey took longer than anticipated and they did not attempt to contact their commanding officer to request an extension, could not get through, or their requests were denied. It may also have complicated matters that on July 2, Company “B” moved a short distance to a bivouac area outside Camp Gordon. There is no indication that the two Delawareans were traveling together since Private 1st Class Paisley returned to duty at 1000 hours on July 3, while Hitchens returned the following day at 1500 hours.

Going A.W.O.L. for any length of time could be extremely damaging to a soldier’s career, with demotions to private and fines common. In Paisley’s case, neither occurred—perhaps his company commander took pity on his newly married soldier—though perhaps not coincidentally, he was selected for a special duty assignment pulling guard duty at the post stockade later that month.

On September 2, 1943, Company “B” departed Camp Gordon by road. After stopovers in Fairmount, Georgia, and Fayetteville, Tennessee, the unit arrived at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, on September 10.

Paisley went on furlough on November 17, 1943. He was promoted to corporal effective November 19, 1943, and returned to duty on November 27. He presumably became an assistant squad leader at that point.

Paisley was promoted to sergeant on January 1, 1944, apparently in anticipation changes to the rifle company table of organization that was officially released the following month, with rifle squad leaders becoming staff sergeants rather than sergeants and assistant squad leaders becoming sergeants rather than corporals. Later that month, on January 22, 1944, the 104th Infantry departed Camp Campbell for the Tennessee Maneuver area near Lebanon.

For the next two months, the 104th Infantry was in the field. Sergeant Paisley and the men of Company “B” were constantly on the move by truck or on foot, participating in various exercises and bivouacking while waiting for the next. History of a Combat Regiment 1639–1945, stated:

Tennessee Maneuvers were “rough.” The problems, with the accompanying rain, snow, and mud, were executed so realistically that men of the 104th later agreed that the only difference between maneuvers and combat was that there was no “hot lead” flying around. The combat battalions marched through a blacked-out countryside, forded small streams, ate K-rations, and slept in the mud. Always it seemed to rain. Support and supply units followed up and performed their duties much the same as in combat. Armies were designated by red or blue helmet and arm bands. Each week a different type of tactical problem of from three to five days was “fought,” with umpires armed with special signal flags and score sheets ruling on the success or failure of local actions and ultimately determining the “victors” in each week’s campaign.

On week-ends, a limited number of men when into troop-crowded Lebanon, Nashville or surrounding towns for showers and a good meal.

Company “B” crossed the Cumberland River during at least two exercises, including one on March 16, 1944. Viewed from above, the meanders of the river north of Lebanon resemble a series of horseshoes lined up from west to east. The land on the interiors of the horseshoes, surrounded by the river on three sides, are known as bends: Cairo Bend, Belotes Bend, Hunters Point Bend, etc.

On the night of March 22–23, 1944, the 104th Infantry Regiment began its last exercise of the Tennessee Maneuvers at Averitts Ferry on the east side of Beasleys Bend. The mission to cross over the river to Puryears Bend must have seemed simple enough. In that area, the Cumberland River is about 400 to 500 feet wide. What they saw that night, however, must have given them pause: swollen by days of rain, the river was a raging torrent.

That night, 23 men, all but one of them from the 104th Infantry, clambered into an assault boat. 17 of the men were from Company “B.” Aside from Sergeant Paisley, the occupants included 1st Lieutenant John N. Dunski (1918 – 1944), the regimental S-1 (personnel officer); 1st Lieutenant Walford T. Nilsson (1915–1985), the Company “B” executive officer; 2nd Lieutenant Richard P. Grosvenor (1919–1944), who had been attached to Company “B” from the 76th Infantry Division on February 11; 1st Sergeant Bernard J. Jackimczyk (1915–1944); and Private Leroy C. Strand (1921–1944), a combat veteran who was wounded during the Battle of Attu in the Aleutians.

Out in the Cumberland River, the boat overturned, throwing the soldiers into the swift-flowing water. Sergeant Paisley and 20 other men drowned. There were only two survivors: 1st Lieutenant Nilsson and Private 1st Class Simon Neurick (1912–2004) from Medical Detachment, 104th Infantry. The Nashville Tennessean reported on March 25, 1944, that the two men were “rescued by another boat after they had struggled to the point of exhaustion in the heavy waters[.]” The article added that “Private Neurick reported that he touched shore on at least three occasions, but could find no foothold that would enable him to crawl ashore.”

Accounts are contradictory about whether the tragedy occurred before or after midnight on March 23, 1944, though officially the men went missing on the 22nd. Recovery efforts continued for weeks afterward. Sergeant Paisley’s wife was notified on March 25, 1944, that her husband was missing. Paisley’s body was recovered on April 5, 1944.

After funeral services at his mother’s home on April 11, 1944, and requiem mass at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Paisley was buried at Cathedral Cemetery.

Paisley’s widow remarried on June 10, 1946, to James Robert North (1926–1995), with whom she raised two daughters.

Paisley’s name is honored at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware, and on a plaque at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, commemorating the accident.

---

Staff Sergeant Charles E. Banning (1921–1944)

Early Life & Family

Charles Edward Banning was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 21, 1921. He was the son of Charles Edward Banning (1892–1950?) and Anna Sabina Banning (née Mark, c. 1891–1951). His father was born in England, immigrated to the United States, became a naturalized citizen, and worked as a bricklayer. He had an older sister, Muriel Barbara Banning (later Fennimore, c. 1917–1997?)

Banning graduated from Pierre S. duPont High School in 1939. He told the Army that the only sport he participated in was boxing.

Little is clear about Banning’s early life. He was not recorded on any known census records from 1930, though it appears that his parents were separated or divorced by then. Banning’s mother was described as a widow on the 1940 census—though this was a common deception at the time due to the shame of divorce—and when consenting to her son’s enlistment later that year, she told the U.S. Army that her husband was deceased.

According to his enlistment paperwork, Banning had worked as a truck driver for five months prior to entering the military, earning $18 per week. On his qualification card, he also stated he had worked for one year of experience as a carpenter apprentice for the Boyce Construction Company in Wilmington, earning $15 per week until he left that job on September 1, 1940. The job included setting floor joists, laying hardwood floors, and installing window sashes.

As of November 5, 1940, when he was examined in Wilmington prior to enlistment, Banning was described as standing five feet, 7½ inches tall and weighing 139 lbs., with brown hair and eyes.

Military Career

Soon after he turned 19, Banning volunteered for the Regular Army in Wilmington, Delaware, on or about November 4, 1940. Since the age of majority at the time was 21, his mother consented to his enlistment.  By volunteering, he was able to pick his branch and duty station, something that would be inconceivable soon after when draftees swelled the ranks of the Army. On November 9, 1940, Private Banning enlisted in Wilmington for a three-year term in the Hawaiian Department in the Medical Department.

According to his personnel file, Banning was attached to 3rd Recruit Company from November 12, 1940, until January 4, 1941. After basic training, Private Banning shipped out from Fort McDowell, California, on January 24, 1941, arriving in Honolulu, Hawaii, six days later.

On January 30, 1941, Private Banning was attached to the Division Medical Detachment, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. For unknown reasons—possibly because he was still training—he did not become an assigned member of that unit until February 20, 1941. On March 14, 1941, Banning transferred to the (4th?) Service Company, 11th Medical Regiment, also stationed at Schofield Barracks. On an unknown date, he was transferred to the 44the Pursuit Squadron at Wheeler Field. He was attached to that unit around September 8, 1942, until October 17, 1942, possibly before a transfer. He joined the 333rd Fighter Squadron at Wheeler Field on August 23, 1942. He was attached to Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, 18th Fighter Group, from October 17, 1942, through January 21, 1943.

On May 1, 1941, Private Banning was rated as a specialist 6th class. At the time, specialist ratings indicated that a private or private 1st class possessed a special skill. His personnel file gave the reason for the rating as Banning being qualified as a clerk. However, he was derated on July 1, 1941.

Banning was promoted to private 1st class on October 2, 1941, and to corporal on an unknown date. The first military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) listed in Banning’s personnel file was 055, general clerk, as of December 1941.

On or about March 10, 1942, Corporal Banning was accused of being drunk and disorderly in Honolulu. He was placed under arrest in his quarters at Wheeler Field, demoted to private, and referred for trial by summary court-martial. On March 23, Banning pled guilty. He was restricted to the base for one month and forfeited $20 in pay. However, he was promoted back to corporal on May 1, 1942. He was promoted to sergeant on July 21, 1942.

He was attached to the 73rd Fighter Squadron from February 18, 1943, through April 15, 1943.

On April 18, 1943, Banning departed Honolulu by sea, arriving at San Francisco, California, on April 27. Around April 28 he joined the 4th Air Force Replacement Depot, Hammer Field, California. On May 23, 1943, he joined the 337th Fighter Squadron at Glendale, California. On May 25, 1943, his M.O.S. was reclassified as 747, airplane and engine mechanic. On July 5, 1943, Sergeant Banning was examined at Sawtelle, California, to determine if he was physically qualified to attend aerial gunnery training. Physicians determined that he did meet the qualifications. Sergeant Banning graduated from Aerial Gunnery and Fire Control School at Wendover Field, Utah, on an unknown date. On September 18, 1943, Sergeant Banning was rated as 748, airplane mechanic-gunner. On December 24, 1943, Sergeant Banning qualified at the expert level with the .45 pistol.

Although he had previously passed on purchasing National Service Life Insurance, on January 6, 1944, Sergeant Banning applied for a $10,000 policy effective February 1, with his mother as beneficiary.

In February 1944, Sergeant Banning went overseas via the southern route. Flying to Europe via the Caribbean Sea, South America, and Africa took significantly longer time than flying over the North Atlantic Ocean, but had generally less hazardous weather and shorter overwater segments.

Banning’s crew departed from West Palm Beach, Florida, on February 1, 1944, arriving at Borinquin, Puerto Rico. They flew to Atkinson Field, British Guiana, on February 2; to Belém, Brazil, on February 6; to Natal, Brazil, on February 7; across the Atlantic to Dakar, Senegal on February 11; and to Marrakesh, Morocco, on February 12. The final segment on February 17, 1944, was the longest, an 11-hour flight to Prestwick, Scotland, bypassing neutral Portugal, Spain, and Ireland, as well as German-occupied France.

Banning was with Squadron “A,” 14th Replacement Control Depot until he was transferred to the 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on February 28, 1944. The same day, his crew was assigned to the 68th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) per Special Orders No. 59, Headquarters 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy), and joined the squadron the following day.

Why on hold: He has the largest and most comprehensive B-file that I have ever seen. This a good thing, but it also means a lot of material to go through and incorporate.

---

2nd Lieutenant Charles D. Campbell (1911–1944)

Early Life & Family

Charles Denard Campbell was born in Selbyville, Delaware, on September 13, 1911. He was the second child of George Campbell (a sawyer in a sawmill) and Elizabeth Hubbard Campbell.

Military Career

Campbell was drafted a few months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His enlistment data card described him as a manufacturing foreman with one year of college. He was inducted back into the U.S. Army on March 21, 1942, at Fort Dix, New Jersey. That same day, he was attached to Company “G,” 1229th Reception Center at Fort Dix. He left Fort Dix by train for an unknown destination on March 25, 1942. According to his mother’s statement, Campbell was quickly promoted back to sergeant and stationed at Camp Jackson, South Carolina. She added that he moved to Fort Benning, Georgia—probably for Officer Candidate School—and was subsequently stationed at Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, and Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

It appears 2nd Lieutenant Campbell was on detached service at the B.F. Goodrich Army Training School, Akron, Ohio, when the 533rd Armored Infantry Battalion was disbanded on August 31, 1943. He was attached unassigned to Headquarters 534th Armored Infantry Battalion, joining that unit on September 13, 1943, at Camp Chaffee after completing his assignment in Akron. He was transferred from the 12th Tank Group to go overseas as a replacement officer. On October 3, 1943, he was detached from the 534th Armored Infantry Battalion and dispatched to Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot No. 1, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. On October 5, 1943, he was attached unassigned and joined Headquarters Detachment, 4th Replacement Regiment there. He was assigned the duty of pool officer.

On November 13, 1943, Campbell was transferred to a replacement shipment, GI-633-A., which also included Private Ralph G. Henretty (1925–1944), a fellow Delawarean also destined to lose his life in the Mediterranean Theater. Campbell most likely shipped out from the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation and arrived in Casablanca, Morocco. On December 4, 1943, he was attached unassigned to Company “B,” 32nd Replacement Battalion (Separate), at Camp Don B. Passage, near Casablanca, Morocco.

Campbell’s movements for the next few months are unclear, but he was with the 2nd Replacement Depot by the summer of 1944. He was attached unassigned to the 405th Replacement Company, 18th Replacement Battalion, 8th Replacement Depot effective July 23, 1944.

Why on hold: Awaiting release of 1945 morning reports and still hoping to get photo from family.

---

Private Paul O. Miller (1916–1943)

Early Life & Family

Paul Otto Miller was born at 615 Concord Avenue in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 26, 1916. He was the eldest child of Paul William Miller (né Müller, 1889–1979) and Rebecca M. Miller (née Rebecca Morgan Mammele, 1898–1959). His father, who various records recorded as a clerk, salesman, machinist, mechanic, and merchant, was born in Germany but he had immigrated to the United States as a young child and grown up in Wilmington. Miller had four younger sisters and two younger brothers, one of whom died very young.

The Miller family was living in Marshallton, west of Wilmington, on February 20, 1919, when Miller’s younger sister, Elizabeth, was born. The Miller family was recorded on the census on January 17, 1920, living on Lincoln Highway in Representative District 7. At that time, Lincoln Highway was apparently contiguous with Capitol Trail, now Old Capitol Trail, suggesting that the family lived north of Newport, such as the Cranston Heights area, a little to the east of Marshallton.

The family was living in Centerville, Delaware, by the time Miller’s next sibling, William, was born on March 24, 1925. The family was listed as living in Hockessin when Miller’s next sibling, Frederick Mammele Miller, was born on October 19, 1927, but in Centerville when the infant died of hydrocephalus on November 21, 1927. The Millers were living at 200 West 26th Street in Wilmington by August 11, 1929, when Miller’s sister Alma was born. They were recorded there on the next census on April 17, 1930. The elder Paul Miller was recorded as a radio store proprietor.

Miller married Elizabeth Smith in Wilmington, Delaware, on May 2, 1941.

Military Career

After he was drafted, Miller was inducted into the U.S. Army at Camden, New Jersey, on October 22, 1942. According to a statement by his brother, De Witt Miller, Private Miller went on active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on November 5, 1942, and began basic training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, on November 11, 1942. He added that Private Miller left Camp Wheeler on February 23, 1943, and was briefly at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, during February 25–28, 1943. Miller’s brother stated that Private Miller shipped out from the New York Port of Embarkation on February 28, 1943, arriving in Casablanca, Morocco, on March 14, 1943. Beyond the fact that his brother had moved to Oran, Algeria, he was unaware of any subsequent movements

After arriving in North Africa, Private Miller was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division Training Battalion. On May 7, 1943, he was transferred to and joined Company “A,” 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. At the time, the Tunisian campaign was winding down. That same day, Allied forces captured the major ports of Tunis and Bizerte, cutting off over 200,000 Axis troops in North Africa from resupply and forcing their surrender. Those ports also proved to be a critical jumping off point to continue the Allied offensive in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily.

Before World War II the 1st Infantry Division had been composed of men from the Regular Army. After two campaigns, however, transfers and casualties meant that a significant portion of the unit was made up of men who had volunteered or been drafted in the preceding three years, like Private Miller. As of October 31, 1942, just prior to entering combat, about 64% of Company “A” enlisted men were Regular Army. By the end of May 1943, only about 45% of Company “A” enlisted men were holdovers from the prewar Regular Army.

During the Sicilian campaign, Private Miller was struck in the neck by shell fragments and killed. Private Miller’s wife was notified of his death on August 14, 1943. Even so, as Miller’s mother-in-law wrote to the Adjutant General’s Office on October 9, 1943, that her daughter still held out hope because none of his personnel belongings or dog tags had arrived, explaining: “My daughter, by not receiving these things, is under the impression he is still alive, wounded, or a prisoner.  The suspense of all this uncertainty is making her a nervous wreck and is impairing her health.” In fact, dog tags were used to mark the body and grave and not returned to the family, and return of belongings from overseas was often a drawn out process.

Private Miller was initially buried in Gela, Sicily, and later moved to Monte Soprano, Italy. In 1948, Miller’s widow requested that his body be buried in a permanent cemetery overseas. Postwar, the American military cemeteries in Italy were consolidated into two permanent cemeteries, near Florence and Rome. Miller’s body was disinterred and reburied at Nettuno, now known as the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.

Miller’s widow remarried on January 29, 1949.

Why on hold: Need to gather unit records

---

Private James J. Giletti (1906–1945)

Early Life & Family

James Joseph Giletti was born Vincenzo Giletti in Wilmington, Delaware, on December 18, 1906. He was the son of John Giletti (c. 1871–1949) and Sabina Giletti (née Colalillo or similar, 1881–1920), Italian immigrants. His father was a stonemason. He had at least five sisters.

A document listing “Infant Baptisms at Italian Mission,” West Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, listed Giletti and one of his younger sisters being baptized on July 16, 1909.

In April 1910, the family was recorded living at 1814 West 7th Street.

The family was at 1916 West 8th Street in January 1920 when recorded on the census. Giletti was recorded as Vicent. It appears that his mother died of complications from childbirth that same year.

In April 1940, Giletti was recorded as Vincent Giletti living with his father and older sister at 406 North Union Street.

When Giletti registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, he was unemployed and living with his father at 406 North Union Street. The registrar described him as standing five feet, 5½ inches tall and weighing 145 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes and a mole on his left cheek. He worked as a roofer before entering the service.

Although he was already 35 years old, Giletti was examined at the direction of Local Board No. 3, Wilmington, and found to be suitable for military service.

Though he served under the name James Joseph Giletti, and it is the most common spelling in other records, his headstone gives his name as James Joseph Gilletti. However, his mother’s headstone uses the spelling Giletti. Another variant seen in some directories is James J. Gillette.

Military Career

After he was drafted, Giletti was inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on May 12, 1942. That same day, he went on active duty and was attached unassigned to Company “D,” 1229th Reception Center there. On or about May 16, 1942, Private Giletti left Fort Dix to begin his training. On May 26, 1942, Giletti was assigned to Company “C,” 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, at Camp Blanding, Florida. He was placed on special duty with the 36th Division Reception Center, presumably for basic training. On July 8, 1942, he went on detached service with the 36th Division Rear Detachment, Camp Blanding, Florida.

On August 22, 1942, he transferred to Medical Detachment, 142nd Infantry.

The Wilmington Morning News reported on November 21, 1942: “Announcement has been made by Mr. Frank Colonna of the engagement of his daughter, Miss Frances Clonna, to Mr. James Giletti, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Giletti.”

Giletti’s personnel file was among those lost in the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire, but a few documents pertaining to his service survived, including morning reports, a surgical record from June 14, 1944, his last pay voucher, and a set of special orders pertaining to his transport to a Veterans Administration facility and discharge from the U.S. Army. A June 1944 morning report recorded his military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) code as 657. In the context of a regimental medical detachment, 657s were litter bearers.

On September 2, 1943, Private Giletti and 22 other enlisted personnel from the regimental medical attachment were attached for duty and rations to Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment. Although members of the regimental medical detachments worked closely with them, as Medical Department personnel they could not be organic to any infantry unit, only attached. Based on this morning report, Private Giletti most likely served as a litter bearer evacuating 1st Battalion casualties for at least five months.

On March 10, 1944, he went to a rest camp, returning to duty on March 14. On May 10, 1944, Giletti and 33 other medical personnel attached to 1st Battalion were detached from that battalion.

Giletti was severely injured in a jeep accident around 2330 hours on June 10, 1944. He was rushed to the 1st Battalion Aid Station in about 10 minutes. From there, he transferred by Company “B,” 111th Medical Battalion to the care of the 52nd Medical Battalion (?). He arrived at the 38th Evacuation Hospital before 0900 on June 11. His case was handled by Neurosurgical Team No. 1 (N.S. 1) led by Major Charles Edward Dowman (1910–1987) and Captain Warren W. Greene (probably 1912–2003) from the 2nd Auxiliary Surgical Group on detached service at the 38th Evac. The neurosurgical teams consisted of a neurosurgeon, an assistant neurosurgeon, a nurse anesthetist, a surgical nurse, and two technicians, though it appears the team may have been without the nurse anesthetist at the time.

His physicians later wrote:

Seen first on 11 June at which time patient was still groggy from [anesthetic] but was moving his legs slightly, particularly flexio[n] of knees. KJ [knee jerk] & AJ [ankle jerk] were slightly hyperactive, with positive plantar response.

Although his condition was unchanged on June 12, it deteriorated drastically the following day, with the knee jerk and ankle jerk reflexes absent and his legs rendered largely insensitive. Doctors later determined that Giletti suffered a fracture to his T11 vertebrae and traumatic myelitis, inflammation of the spinal cord. At 0815 hours on the morning of June 14, 1944, surgeons spent three hours and 15 minutes performing a laminectomy to try relieve pressure on his spinal cord, but Giletti did not regain the use of his legs and remained paraplegic. Since the injury also paralyzed his bladder, doctors performed a suprapubic cystostomy on June 21, 1944.

It is unclear how long Giletti remained at the 38th Evacuation Hospital since evacuation hospitals often did not maintain morning reports documenting their patients. At some point between June 14, 1944, and June 25, 1944, he was treated at the 59th Evacuation Hospital.

On June 25, 1944, Giletti was admitted to the 32nd Station Hospital in Caserta, Italy, after being transferred from the 59th Evacuation Hospital. At 0800 hours on the morning of June 27, he was transferred to the 64th General Hospital at Maddaloni, Italy. He was admitted there the same day.

On July 2, 1944, Giletti was transferred to the 3rd General Hospital at San Leucio, Italy. The following month, Giletti was evacuated to the United States by air from Casablanca, Morocco. His plane arrived at Mitchel Field, New York, at 0930 hours on August 13, 1944. He was admitted to the Detachment of Patients, Army Air Forces Convalescent Center & Regional Station Hospital, Mitchel Field, New York. On August 18, 1944, a set of orders came down transferring him to Ashford General Hospital in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia.

Private Giletti transferred to the Veterans Administration Facility, Fort Howard, Maryland, and honorably discharged from the U.S. Army.

Around that same time, his injuries resulted in pyonephrosis, a kidney infection. Damage to his kidneys resulted in chronic uremia around January 1945. Giletti was pronounced dead at 1140 hours on April 5, 1945. Journal-Every Evening reported the following day that funeral services “will be held at 8:30 o’clock Tuesday morning” April 10, 1945, at his former home, “with solemn requiem mass at 9:30 o’clock at St. Anthony’s R. C. Church.” He was buried at Cathedral Cemetery. His father was also buried there after his death.

Even though his death was due to a wartime injury, since Private Giletti had been discharged prior to his death, his name was omitted from the official 1946 list of U.S. Army fatalities compiled for Delaware. However, due to the vigilance of the Public Archives Commission, he is honored at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle.

On May 18, 1944, Private Giletti and other members of Medical Detachment, 142nd Infantry Regiment were awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge (C.I.B.). This was subsequently revoked because medical personnel were not supposed to be eligible for that decoration. Giletti would have been eligible for a retroactive award of the Combat Medical Badge (C.M.B.) once it was created in 1945, but it is unclear if that ever occurred. That would also have made him eligible to be retroactively awarded the Bronze Star under a 1947 policy that determined any soldier who had earned the C.I.B. or C.M.B. during World War II had also met the criteria for the Bronze Star.

Why on hold: Genealogical mysteries and unit records

---

Private Raymond E. Garrett (1923–1943)

Early Life & Family

Raymond Edward Garrett was born in Seaford, Virginia, on February 8, 1923. Garrett married Edith Blanch Rainone (1926–1952) in Wilmington on June 7, 1942.

When he registered for the draft on June 30, 1942, Garrett was living with his wife’s family at 116 Brookside Avenue in the Brack Ex area west of Elsmere. The Brookside Avenue address was crossed out at some point and 619 West 4th Street, New Castle, Delaware, was written in. That address was also crossed out. 116 Brookside Avenue was written again at the top of the card, suggesting the couple may have returned to Brack Ex, but none of the alterations were dated. Garrett’s employer was recorded as the Pullman Shops in Wilmington. The registrar described him as standing five feet, five inches tall and weighing 120 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes.

Military Career

After Garrett was drafted, he was inducted into the U.S. Army in Camden, New Jersey, on January 21, 1943. He attended basic training at Camp Croft, South Carolina, and volunteered for the airborne.

Private Garrett was attached from Casual Company, The Parachute School to the 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment for administration per Special Orders No. 161, Headquarters The Parachute School, dated July 8, 1943. He was placed on special duty as a range guard. The following day, July 9, 1943, he was attached for quarters, rations, and administration to Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 515th Parachute Infantry, while remaining as a range guard.

He was with the 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment until August 5, 1943, when he transferred to the 1st Academy Company, The Parachute School, Fort Benning, Georgia.

He went on furlough October 5–17, 1943.

On November 15, 1943, Private Garrett transferred to the 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment, also located at Fort Benning. He departed from the 1st Academic Company at 1600 hours. The following day he was assigned to and joined Company “A,” 515th Parachute Infantry Regiment.

According to a 515th Parachute Infantry history:

          From 31 May 1941 till 1 December 1943 the regiment functioned as a replacement pool for The Parachute School.  The original cadre of 184 non-commis[s]ioned officers were furnished by the 507 Parachute Infantry Regiment.  The officers were drawn from the Parachute Loss and Replacement Pool.  The Regiment was kept on cadre strength until it was relieved from duty as an administrative agency, effective date 1 December 1943.

          At this time the 1st Battalion was composed of qualified parachutists and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were composed of unqualified parachutists.  Qualification of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions was commenced on 20 December 1943 and the 1st Battalion concurrently began a basic training program.

On December 30, 1943, Private Garrett was killed in a training accident. Journal-Every Evening reported that he died “when his parachute failed to open during a paratroop training jump[.]”

After funeral services at his in-laws’ home on January 4, 1944, Garrett was buried in Silverbook Cemetery in Wilmington.

---

Technical Sergeant Harry N. Russell (1924–1944)

Early Life & Family

Harry Nutter Russell was born in Elsmere, Delaware, on October 24, 1924. He was the third child of Harry Lee Russell and Bessie Russell (née Snowberger). At the time, his parents were residents of Bridgeville, Delaware, where his father was a farmer. Russell had two older sisters, a younger sister, and a younger brother.

The Russell family was recorded on the census in 1930 living at 718 Monroe Ave in Plainfield, New Jersey. The elder Harry Russell was working as a foreman for a concrete contractor.

According to census records, the family had returned to Bridgeville by April 1, 1935. When the family was recorded on the census in April 1940, Russell had completed two years of high school and his father was working as county director for the W.P.A. Russell attended Bridgeville High School, but dropped out after completing three years. He worked as a butcher before entering the service.

Military Training & Marriage

Soon after he turned 18, Russell volunteered for the Army Air Forces, enlisting at Camden, New Jersey, on October 31, 1942. According to a document in his individual deceased personnel file (I.D.P.F.), Private Russell was briefly stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey, beginning on November 1, 1942. On November 5, 1942, he was dispatched to Basic Training Center No. 7, Army Air Technical Training Command, Atlantic City, New Jersey. The same day, he was attached unassigned to Flight “A,” 988th Technical School Squadron (Special).

If Atlantic City was a comfortable place to be for basic training, Private Russell’s next assignment was anything but. On November 23, 1942, Private Russell headed west to attend the Radio Operator & Mechanic(s?) Course, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. As of March 10, 1943, found him assigned to the 605th School Squadron. According to his I.D.P.F., Russell was stationed at Sioux Falls until May 1943, when he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Around May 15, 1943, he moved to Laredo Army Air Field, Texas.

Private 1st Class Russell attended the Army Air Forces Flexible Gunnery School at Laredo. Upon completing the course, he was promoted to sergeant. His military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) code changed to 757, Army Air Forces radio operator-mechanic-gunner. Around August 1943, he was attached unassigned to the 18th Replacement Wing, Army Air Base, Salt Lake City, Utah. On September 10, 1943, he was detached from that unit and attached to an operational training unit, the 470th Bombardment Group (Heavy), Mountain Home, Idaho. The following day, Sergeant Russell was further attached to and joined the 803rd Bombardment Squadron (Heavy).

By November 13, 1943, Sergeant Russell was a member of a crew led by 2nd Lieutenant John Crotty Rush (1921–1988). Although he was on furlough at that time, a set of orders came down effective upon his return transferring his crew by rail to the 399th Bombardment Group (Heavy) at the Army Air Base, Wendover Field, Utah.

On November 23, 1943, Russell was attached unassigned and joined the 606th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 399th Bombardment Group (Heavy), Wendover Field, Utah.

However a set of orders dated November 28, 1943, transferred the crew to 801st Bombardment Squadron (Heavy).

Per his I.D.P.F., he was at Wendover Field, Utah, during November 25–26, 1943, before returning to Mountain Home.

On February 1, 1944, Sergeant Russell and his crew were detached from the 801st Bomb Squadron and transferred by rail to the 1st Search Attack Group, Langley Field, Virginia. On February 7, he was attached to that group’s 2nd Search Attack Squadron.

On March 4, 1944, Sergeant Russell married Elizabeth “Betty” Ann Culver (1924–2013), a stenographer from Laurel, Delaware, at the base chapel at Langley Field. His bride was from Laurel, Delaware. His best man was a member of his crew, Sergeant Vernon Elroy Teel, Jr. (1921–2007). Journal-Every Evening reported: “The bride wore a navy blue dress with white accessories and carried orchids and baby’s breath.”

Squadron morning reports do not mention any furlough for Sergeant Russell that month, suggesting the couple was not able to go on a honeymoon. However, a morning report noted that effective March 13, 1944, Russell was on separate rations from his unit, which may indicate that the couple had moved into off-base housing together.

On April 9, 1944, Russell was promoted to staff sergeant. The following day, the 2nd Search Attack Squadron and 1st Search Attack Group were disbanded as part of a larger Army Air Forces program to reorganize stateside training units. Russell and other personnel from his squadron were transferred to the new 111th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Search Attack & Staging).

On April 26, 1944, Staff Sergeant Russell and his crew—which no longer included Teel—were transferred to the Army Air Base, Morrison Field, Florida, to go overseas.

Combat in the China Burma India Theater

Overseas, Russell and his crew joined 375th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 308th Bombardment Group (Heavy). The squadron’s morning reports prior to August 1944 went missing before they could be microfilmed, but they had arrived prior to June 13, 1944, when group records record that Lieutenant Rush flew his first combat mission.

Russell’s squadron was based at Chengkung Air Base. Located east of a large lake near Kunming, Yunnan, in south-central China, the base was initially a terminal for cargo aircraft flying “The Hump” to resupply China by air after Japanese advances closed all practical land and sea routes. The two squadrons of the 308th Bombardment Group (Heavy) in March 1943 gave the base an offensive mission. Its B-24s could reach much of the Japanese-occupied portions of eastern China, French Indochina, Thailand, and Burma, as well as the critical sea lanes between the Japanese Home Islands and its resource-rich conquests to the south.

By August 29, 1944, when his crew went on detached service to A.P.O. 430, Russell had been promoted to technical sergeant. They returned to duty on September 2.

Russell was awarded the Air Medal per General Orders No. 70, Headquarters Fourteenth Air Force, dated September 22, 1944.

At 1615 hours on November 20, 1944, Technical Sergeant Russell and his crew took off in B-24J 42-100267 on a two-bomber antishipping mission to the Gulf of Tonkin and South China Sea. The Liberators patrolled as far south as Hainan Island without any sign of Japanese shipping visually or on radar. On the way back, they attacked land targets in Japanese-occupied China. Lieutenant Wind attacked Fort Bayard (Zhanjiang) while Russell’s crew attacked the docks at Kowloon, Hong Kong. Japanese searchlights briefly illuminated Russell’s plane. They released their bombs around 2130 hours. All missed the target, but they managed to escape before enemy antiaircraft batteries opened fire.

During the return flight, the Liberator lost one of its four engines. Just before 0330 hours on November 21, 1944, while on approach to Chengkung, the plane lost another engine. It is unclear if the pilots transmitted a bail out signal, some of the crew including Technical Sergeant Russell thought the aircraft was doomed and bailed out into the moonless night. Despite losing half their engines, the pilots managed to nurse the plane back to the field, where they crash landed it. The mission report stated:

Plane No. 267 crashed upon landing.  No. 1 engine had failed, and as the plane approached for landing No. 3 engine ran out of gas.  The auxiliary hydraulic system could not be used because in the confusion the engineer had bailed out without turning the star valve.  The plane made a belly landing and is fit only for salvage.

The four men who remained aboard the B-24 survived unharmed, as did one of the four men who bailed out. Technical Sergeant Russell and two others were never seen again. The men had bailed out over friendly territory. Chinese soldiers and civilians readily provided aid to downed American airmen, their allies against the Japanese. Investigators concluded that the three men likely landed in Lake Dian (Kunming Lake). Captain Leon Spector wrote: “It is not known whether they had sufficient time to open their parachutes or if they might possibly have landed in a lake and were unable to make shore.”

The day after his disappearance, Technical Sergeant Russell was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross per General Orders No. 90, Headquarters Fourteenth Air Force. He was also posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Russell’s personal effects included two Bibles, 21 foreign coins, his marriage certificate, 12 photographs, and two pairs of Chinese slippers.

---

Private 1st Class William H. Hall (1924–1945)

Early Life & Family

William Henry Hall was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He was the son of George Marshall Hall (1895–1967) and Sarah B. Hall (née Black, 1899–1940). He had two older sisters, an older brother, George Marshall Hall, Jr. (1921–2001), and a younger brother, John Black Hall (1926–1940).

When Hall was 15, his mother died at the family home, at 1303 Lancaster Avenue, on February 11, 1940. The rest of the family was recorded on the census on April 8, 1940, living there. Hall’s father was working as a telephone company lineman, while his oldest sister was a waitress.

Another tragedy struck the family later that year on November 5, 1940, when a teenager shot Hall’s younger brother, John B. Hall, at the Canby Park quarry. The Wilmington Morning News reported on November 19, 1940, that the shooting “was caused by the ‘deliberate recklessness and negligence’ of Robert Miller, 16, a coroner’s jury said last night.” The teenager claimed to have been shooting targets at the quarry and denied seeing hall see John B. Hall. Other witnesses testified that the fatal shooting occurred after two groups at the quarry had fired their weapons dangerously close to one another, though “There was no quarrel, the five boys testified.” During the same incident, another child was struck by an air rifle and another narrowly escaped injury when a round passed through his legs.

Journal-Every Evening reported that “Hall attended Brown Vocational High School[.]” Hall’s enlistment data card described him as having completed three years of high school and listed his occupation as “unskilled machine shop and related occupations.” When he registered for the draft on June 30, 1942, Hall was living at 805 Wilmington Avenue in Elsmere and working for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Wilmington. The registrar described him as standing about six feet tall and weighing 135 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes.

His brother, George M. Hall, Jr., was also an infantryman in the U.S. Army during World War II but was medically discharged.

Military Career

Hall was drafted in early 1943. He was inducted into the U.S. Army in Camden, New Jersey, on February 18, 1943. A family statement for the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission suggested that he went on active duty on February 23, 1943. Most soldiers who entered the Army from Delaware began their careers attached to the 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix, New Jersey. According to the family statement, Private Hall was assigned to the Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kansas, where he was stationed from late February 1943 through June 18, 1944.

Private Hall was most likely one of 84 enlisted men assigned on April 3, 1943, to Troop “I,” 29th Cavalry Regiment, at Fort Riley, Kansas. The 29th Cavalry had been activated there on January 23, 1943. Although the identities of those 84 men are not recorded in the troop morning reports, Hall first appeared on the troop payroll at the end of the month.

A portion of Private Hall’s official military personnel file survived the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire which destroyed the vast majority of U.S. Army personnel files from the World War II era. Surviving documentation includes stateside medical records, insurance paperwork, award paperwork, and correspondence from the War Department to Hall’s father.

On May 1, 1943, Private Hall applied for a $5,000 National Service Lice Insurance policy payable to his father. Several months later, on August 4, 1943, Hall was on a wagon at a stable loading hay when he fell, fracturing his left wrist. He was treated at the Station Hospital, Fort Riley, Kansas, where a physician applied a plaster cast. After his injury healed, Hall was discharged from the hospital and returned to duty on October 15, 1943. He was promoted to private 1st class on October 28, 1943. Hall went on furlough during November 8–23, 1943, presumably returning to Delaware.

With the obsolescence of the horse cavalry, the U.S. Army Cavalry branch’s role had shrunken drastically. The 1st Cavalry Division had converted into an infantry unit and the 2nd Cavalry Division was disbanded. Some mechanized cavalry reconnaissance troops, squadrons, and groups remained active during the war. On May 1, 1944, Private 1st Class Hall transferred to Troop “C,” 128th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized), which had been activated that same day at Fort Riley. On June 13, 1944, Private Hall and 19 other men from his troop transferred to the 70th Infantry Division at Camp Adair, Oregon.

On June 22, 1944, the Wilmington Morning News reported that Private 1st Class Hall and Private 1st Class Donald C. Hammond (1923–1996) of Wilmington

have been transferred from the cavalry to the infantry at their own request, it was announced today by Col. Thomas W. Herren, commandant of the Cavalry School, Fort Riley, Kan. The infantrymen, who entered the service last February and trained with the 128th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, […] have been sent to Camp Adair, Ore., for their infantry training.

On June 20, 1944, Private 1st Class Hall joined Company “G,” 276th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division. His military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) code was recorded as 745, rifleman. An undated physical examination performed soon after described Hall as standing five feet, 9½ inches tall and weighing 140 lbs. It noted that he had a benign heart murmur, full dentures, and eyeglasses. On June 26, 1944, Hall began an 18-day furlough.

They later moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

In late November 1944, the 276th Infantry moved to Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. Private 1st Class Hall and his comrades moved to the Boston Port of Embarkation on December 6, 1944, shipping out that afternoon.

The 276th Infantry Regiment arrived in Marseille, France, on December 15, 1944. Just over a week later, the regiment began moving north by train and truck to Alsace. Hall and the rest of 2nd Battalion went into the line on December 29, 1944, along the Rhine near Soufflenheim, France. On December 31, 1944, the Germans tried to capitalize on their earlier failed offensive through the Ardennes with another offensive in Alsace and Lorraine: Operation Nordwind.

New Year’s Day 1945 found the 276th Infantry as the VI Corps reserve, and the regiment was temporarily attached to the 45th Infantry Division the following day. 1st Battalion was hit hard by a German attack on January 4, 1945, which captured Wingen-sur-Moder, France. While 1st and 3rd Battalions dealt with Wingen, Hall’s 2nd Battalion, which had been attached to the 313th Infantry Regiment of the 79th Infantry Division, captured nearby Lichtenberg, France.

Private 1st Class Hall was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge per General Orders No. 1, Headquarters 276th Infantry, dated January 24, 1945.

Hall was listed as missing in action on March 8, 1945. On April 13, 1945, the War Department changed his status to killed in action as of the date he went missing. According to his burial report, Hall suffered fatal shell fragment wounds. His personnel effects included a black Fitchhorn flute, a pair of eyeglasses with case, a money belt, a tobacco pouch, a Ronson cigarette lighter, a glass ash tray, a key, and two sewing kits.

Journal-Every Evening reported that Hall’s father received confirmation of his death on April 14, 1945. Hall was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Private 1st Class Hall was initially buried at an isolated grave outside Schœneck, France. After the war, his body was disinterred, identified from his dog tags, and reburied at nearby Saint-Avold cemetery on January 21, 1946.

After the war, Private 1st Class Hall’s father requested that his son’s body be interred at an overseas military cemetery. The numerous temporary overseas cemeteries were consolidated to a handful of permanent cemeteries. Even at those cemeteries earmarked to become permanent ones, significant reburials were necessary since many bodies originally buried there were repatriated to the United States. On March 30, 1949, Hall was reburied at Saint-Avold, now known as the Lorraine American Cemetery.

Private 1st Class Hall’s name is honored on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s World War II memorial at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station and at Veteran’s Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.

Why on hold: Release of 1945 morning reports to the National Archives Catalog

---

Private William F. Lynn (1908–1945)

Early Life & Family

William Francis Lynn was born on July 14, 1908, at 209 West 6th Street in Wilmington, Delaware. He was the child of William Francis Lynn (1874–1934) and Mary Frances Lynn (née Duffy, 1878?–1961?). The Wilmington Morning News reported that the Lynn family undertaking business had been founded in Wilmington in 1835, and was one of the oldest continually operating businesses in the state by 1932. Lynn had an older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother.

The Lynn family was recorded at 209 West 6th Street on the 1910 and 1920 censuses, which the Wilmington Morning News reported was also the location of the undertaking firm. On April 15, 1930, the Lynn family was recorded at 207 Linden Court. Lynn’s occupation was recorded as embalmer, presumably at his father’s business.

Lynn married Lucy F. Fucella (1909–1988) in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 11, 1930. The couple had one son, also named William Francis Lynn (1932–2005).

On June 27, 1934, Lynn was driving with his father and four aunts near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, when his father suffered a fatal heart attack.

He worked as an undertaker before entering the service.

Some fields in his enlistment data card may have been garbled when the document was digitized. He was described as having completed three years of high school. He was also listed as separated, without dependents, which may be supported by the fact that when he registered for the draft, Lynn listed his mother rather than his wife as a point of contact.

Lynn’s younger brother, John Patrick Lynn (1923–1968) served in Company “C,” 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Military Career

After he was drafted, Lynn was inducted into the U.S. Army on December 22, 1942. His wife’s statement for the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission indicates that he went on active duty on December 29, 1942, at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Private Lynn was assigned to the Medical Department. His wife stated that her husband was stationed at Fort McClellan, Alabama, from January through April 1943. He then transferred to Fort Meade, Maryland, until September 1943, when he moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She wrote that he remained there until March 1944, when he moved to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. That suggests he went overseas from the New York Port of Embarkation in early 1944. The only unit she listed was the 45th Field Hospital, which was activated around September 1943 and arrived in England in March 1944. The hospital landed in France on June 10, 1944, four days after D-Day, and Belgium in September 1944.

Private Lynn went A.W.O.L. while assigned to the 238th Station Hospital at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. He was apprehended and confined at Fort DuPont, Delaware, where a guard was dispatched to retrieve him on June 11, 1943.

On July 27, 1943, a set of orders came down from Headquarters 3rd Service Command in Baltimore, Maryland, which transferred a large portion of the 238th Station Hospital’s complement to the 239th Station Hospital, also stationed at Fort George G. Meade. On August 1, 1943, Private Lynn and 172 other men joined the 239th from the 238th.

As of September 6, 1943, when he began a nine-day furlough, Private Lynn was a member of the 239th Station Hospital at Fort Bragg. On January 22, 1944, Private Lynn transferred to the 45th Field Hospital, also stationed at Fort Bragg.

A morning report established Private Lynn’s military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) as 861, surgical technician.

Aside from morning reports, very few textual records for the 45th Field Hospital survive in the National Archives. Private Lynn is not mentioned in the hospital’s extant general orders. The only other set of textual records is a 1945 report by Major Max W. Wolf pertaining to the 45th Field Hospital’s First Hospitalization Unit. The report does not reveal the movements of additional hospitalization units nor its members. Morning report indexes suggest the hospital split into two or three hospitalization units in December 1944.

Private Lynn was probably, but not definitely, a member of First Hospitalization Unit, as its location matches the location where he reportedly died. The unit began 1945 in Fallais, Belgium, but moved to Malmédy on January 17. From January 19, 1945, until February 26, 1945, they treated casualties resulting from the American counteroffensive against the German advance known as the Battle of the Bulge. After John P. Lynn was wounded in the head by artillery shell fragments in January 1945, Lynn was able to visit his brother.

First Hospitalization Unit of the 45th Field Hospital moved to Euskirchen, Germany on March 8, 1945, where its members treated casualties from the Battle of Remagen, in which American forces captured the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine. Three days later, the unit moved closer to the Remagen bridgehead, setting up at Bad Neunahr, Germany. The 102st Evacuation Hospital took over for the unit on March 14, 1945, and they staged at nearby Ahrweiler until crossing the Rhine to Niederbieber on March 26, 1945.

Major Wolf wrote in his report:

          On March 26 this unit moved to Neider Beiber, where we set up in tents in support of the 2nd Infantry Division.  We received no casualties and the following day moved to Montabaur.  Here we took over a german [sic] hospital containing about 115 recovered Allied Prisoners of War.  In addition, we also functioned as an evacuation hospital, supporting troops from V-Corps.

According to a March 29, 1945, 45th Field Hospital morning report, Private Lynn died at 0100 hours from a coronary occlusion. He was just 36 years old.

Lucy Lynn remarried on September 21, 1946, in Wilmington to Lloyd S. Malzer.

Why on hold: Incorporating newspaper articles from prewar, and waiting for 1945 morning reports

---

Private Claude B. Wiles (1916–1942)

Early Life & Family

Claude B. Wiles was born on February 5, 1916, in Rock Creek Township or nearby Roaring River, both in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He was the 10th child of farmers Ambrose Wiles, Sr. () and Alice Wiles (née Privette or Prevett). Three older siblings died very young prior to his birth.

Wiles was recorded on the census in January 1920 living with his parents and four older siblings on a farm in Cecil County, Maryland. Census records indicate that Wiles and his family moved to Representative District 8 in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, prior to April 1, 1935. When the Wiles family was recorded there in April 1940, Wiles was unemployed. When he registered for the draft—the card was undated but it was presumably on or about October 16, 1940—Wiles was living in Eastburn Heights, Marshallton, Delaware, and working for the Reading Railroad Marine Department.

Wiles was living in Eastburn Heights when he entered the service. According to his enlistment data card, he was a chauffeur or driver before he joined the military.

Military Career

Wiles volunteered for military service. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in Wilmington, Delaware, on January 27, 1942. Like many soldiers who entered the service in Delaware, Private Wiles was initially stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Many Delawareans spent about a week there before being transferred to other bases to attend basic training. He was not formally assigned to any unit but was attached to the 1229th Reception Center.

Wiles went absent without leave (A.W.O.L.) on February 9, 1942, and apparently made his way back to Delaware. On the afternoon of February 15, 1942, Private Wiles was discovered with a gunshot wound to his head. He was pronounced dead at Wilmington General Hospital. An autopsy concluded that he had died by suicide.

Journal-Every Evening reported that Wiles’s funeral “will take place [at] the Smith Funeral Home, Twenty-fifth and Market Streets, Thursday afternoon [February 19, 1942,] at 3 o’clock. Interment will be in St. James Cemetery, Stanton.”

---

Sergeant William L. Nelson (1918–1943)

Early Life & Family

William Lloyd Nelson was born on the evening of February 22, 1918, near Dover, Delaware. He was the eldest child of John Clarence Nelson (a farmer, 1892–1983) and Carrie Nelson (née Phillips, 1895–1965). He had a younger sister, Dorothy M. Nelson (later Dorothy Davis and eventually Dorothy Davis McCafferty, 1920–2003).

The Nelson family was recorded on the census in January 1920 living on a farm outside Dover. (The census record said they were on the Dover and Hazelville Road, but it was most likely the Dover-Hazlettville Road). Nelson was recorded as Lloyd Nelson on the next census in April 1930. The family was living on a farm along Chesapeake City Road in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, south of Glasgow.

On April 29, 1932, Nelson’s parents purchased a farm along Cedar Lane Road between Jamison Corner and Armstrong Corner, north of Middletown, Delaware. Nelson was recorded living with his parents there at the time of the 1940 census. Later that year, when he registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, Nelson was working for the Hercules Powder Company in Wilmington. The registrar described him as standing five feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 155 lbs., with brown hair and blue eyes. He was Protestant.

Journal-Every Evening stated that Nelson “graduated from the Middletown High School and Beacom Business College and when drafted January, 1941, was employed in the Order Department of the Hercules Powder Company, Wilmington.” On the other hand, the 1940 census and Nelson’s enlistment data card described him as a high school graduate, not a college graduate. Nelson’s wife’s statement for the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission described him as an accounting clerk.

Military Career

Nelson was drafted before the U.S. entered World War II. He was inducted in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 9, 1941. His wife stated that her future husband spent 10 days at Fort Dix, New Jersey, before he was dispatched to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Like many men joining the rapidly-expanding U.S. Army at that time, he was assigned directly to a unit for his initial training. In January 1941, he joined Company “H,” 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. The June 1941 roster, the earliest to include duty codes, listed Private Nelson’s as 521, basic.

During a furlough back home to Delaware, Nelson married Rebecca Pyle at the First United Presbyterian Church in Wilmington on the evening of September 8, 1941.

A January 1942 roster listed a change in Nelson’s duty and military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) codes to 607, mortar gunner or light mortar crewman. The following month, he was promoted to private 1st class. The May 1942 roster indicated that Nelson had been promoted to corporal and reflected a change in his duty and M.O.S. codes to 603, gunner. (This seems to have been a blanket reclassification since no 607s were listed in the company roster for the month.) The June 1942 roster recorded another duty and M.O.S. code change to 653, squad leader. The July 1942 roster listed Nelson’s M.O.S. as 653 but his duty code as 228 (instrument man, surveying). There were no further changes recorded through September 1942, the last month on which duty and M.O.S. were recorded in extant rosters.

Combat in the Mediterranean Theater

Nelson was promoted to sergeant on January 7, 1943. He must have become a section leader at that point.

Journal-Every Evening reported Sergeant Nelson’s death on May 18, 1943.

Sergeant Nelson’s personal effects included a Bible, two prayer books, an Elgin wristwatch, a pair of glasses, a pipe, a French-English dictionary, a swimsuit, and a four-leaf clover.

Sergeant Nelson was initially buried in the II Corps cemetery on August 13, 1943. In 1947, Sergeant Nelson’s widow requested that his body be repatriated to the United States. Nelson’s casket returned to the New York Port of Embarkation aboard the Barney Kirschbaum.

Rebecca Pyle Nelson remarried.

During his career, Sergeant Nelson earned the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze service stars for the Algeria-French Morocco and Tunisian campaigns. (Distinguished unit badge)

---

Aviation Cadet Leroy A. Wilkins (1921–1942)

Early Life & Family

Leroy Alvin Wilkins was born in Milford, Sussex County, Delaware, on the morning of August 3, 1921. He was the second child of Leroy Wilkins (a carpenter and later building manager at Milford High School, 1899–1993) and Nellie Wilkins (née Marvel, 1901–1965). He had an older sister, Doris Wilkins (later Greenly, 1919–2013). Wilkins was nicknamed Nehi, apparently after the soft drink.

Wilkins attended school with Charles D. Holzmueller, Jr. (1920–1942), destined to become Milford’s first serviceman lost during World War II when a U-boat sank his vessel on May 2, 1942. Journal-Every Evening reported:

          Wilkins and Holzmueller graduated from Milford High School in 1939. Both were well known among sports fans in lower Delaware as members of a Milford school basketball team which was undefeated for two seasons. Wilkins was captain of the team in his senior year, and was also captain of the football team during that year. He was also a member of the town’s baseball team.

A June 13, 1939, Journal-Every Evening article stated:

          At a meeting of the Milford High School Alumni Association held yesterday it was decided to present the scholarship fund to Leroy A. Wilkins of this year’s graduating class.

          The association presents a sum of money to a member of the graduating class every year who is worthy and outstanding in school work to assist that scholar towards a higher education.

The paper later reported that “Wilkins attended the University of Delaware for a year where he also was active in athletics.” His enlistment data card stated that he had completed two years of college, and indeed, he would have needed two years of college to enlist as an aviation cadet at the time that he did.

The Wilkins family was recorded on the census in April 1930 living on East Front Street in Milford. On the next census in April 1940, the family was recorded living at 10 East 2nd Street in Milford.

Military Career

On December 18, 1941, just eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Wilkins enlisted as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Forces in Wilmington, Delaware. Given the application process to become an aviation cadet, it is likely that he had already volunteered before the attack.

According to his sister’s statement for State of Delaware Public Archives Commission, Aviation Cadet Wilkins began his training at Maxwell Field, Alabama, where he remained until January 1942. He then moved to Ocala, Florida. In March 1942, he transferred to Greenville Army Flying School, Mississippi. She wrote that in May 1942, he transferred to Craig Field, near Selma, Alabama. On the other hand, The Selma Times-Journal reported that Wilkins had arrived at Craig Field on June 2, 1942. By July 9, 1942, he had accumulated 169 hours and 35 minutes of flight time, including 39 hours and 20 minutes in the North American AT-6A Texan trainer.

At Craig Field, Wilkins joined the Cadet Detachment, 382nd School Squadron.

The Wilmington Morning News reported on July 14, 1942, that the day before, “City stores were closed and the American flag in Plaza Square lowered to half-mast today during the funeral service for Leroy A. Wilkins, Jr.” The paper added:

          The body arrived here yesterday [July 12, 1942], accompanied by Thomas Bennett, a classmate of Wilkins, who also is stationed at Craig Field. A military funeral was held previously at the Army base.

          The Rev. Marion A. Hungerford, pastor of Calvary Methodist Church, conducted the service at the home of the youth’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leroy A. Wilkins, Sr.

His sister’s posthumous brother-in-law was Orlando Greenly.

Wilkins is honored at the University of Delaware’s World War II memorial in Newark, and at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.

Why on hold: Flight records and looking for photo.

---

Private Charles R. Wilson (1921–1943)

Early Life & Family

Charles Raymond Wilson was born in rural Milford Hundred, Kent County, Delaware, on the afternoon of July 16, 1921. He was the third child of Raymond Wilson (a laborer) and Beatrice Wilson (née Carey). It appears that that his oldest sibling was stillborn or died very young.

Wilson was recorded on the census in April 1930 living with his parents and sister on Saint Agnes Street in Frederica, Delaware. His father was a road construction laborer at the time. The next census in April 1940 found Wilson living with his parents and cousin on David Street in Frederica.

Although the 1940 census stated that Wilson had only completed the 8th grade, his enlistment data card from the following year described him as a high school graduate. His occupation was “semiskilled chauffeurs and drivers, bus, taxi, truck, and tractor.” His family’s statement for the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission listed him as a laborer.

Military Career

Wilson volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps in Dover, Delaware, on March 17, 1941. The Wilmington Morning News reported that Wilson was one of six men who enlisted in the U.S. Army “at the Dover office setting a record for one day’s enlistments there.” The paper reported that Wilson and three others, including Charles M. Plummer, also of Frederica, would be joining the 33rd Pursuit Group at Mitchel Field, New York. Little is clear about his military career. A photograph from c. 1942 shows Wilson wearing corporal’s stripes, though he must have subsequently been demoted back to private. His mother wrote that “at time of his death in April 1943 he was station[ed] at Atlantic City.”

He is known to have been a member of the 306th Material Squadron, 91st Air Base Group.

Private Wilson’s last pay voucher indicated that he was attached unassigned to the 715th Training Group. The U.S. Army Finance Department officer who filled out the voucher was assigned to Basic Training Center No. 7, U.S. Army Air Forces [Technical Training Center?], Atlantic City, New Jersey.

On the night of April 24, 1943, Wilson was driving on U.S. Route 13 in Delaware not far from home when he had an accident. The Wilmington Morning News reported: “State police stated that Wilson missed a curve and the car went into Drawyer’s Creek, a short distance north of Odessa.” The crash fractured his skull, leading to a fatal subdermal hematoma. Although rushed to the Delaware Hospital in Wilmington by “the country ambulance,” he “was pronounced dead on arrival there” shortly before midnight.

Wilson’s last pay voucher stated his death was not in the line of duty under Article of War 107. Unfortunately, that does not reveal why, since that article covered absences without leave, use of drugs or alcohol, and disease or injury due to the soldier’s own misconduct.

Wilson was buried at Barratts Chapel Cemetery in Frederica.

---

Private (John) Willard Chandler (1917–1943)

Military Career

After he was drafted, Chandler was inducted into the U.S. Army on April 2, 1941. His enlistment data card was one of approximately 13% that could not be digitized. However, his mother told the State of Delaware Public Archives Commission that her son joined the Army at Trenton, New Jersey. Indeed, selectees typically had their initial induction at Trenton and after a delay of a few days to a few weeks, went on active duty at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After a brief time at the reception center there, many were dispatched to basic training facilities, mostly in the South. Especially in the early 1940s, however, they sometimes were assigned directly to a unit for training.

A unit roster indicates that in May 1942, Private Chandler joined Battery “B,” 169th Field Artillery Battalion, 43rd Infantry Division at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The 169th Field Artillery Battalion was activated there on February 19, 1942, following the breakup of the 103rd Field Artillery Regiment. At the time, all the noncommissioned officers in the unit were federalized guardsmen, as were many of the rest of the enlisted men. However, as time went on, vacancies were mostly replaced by draftees. The battalion was equipped with 105-mm howitzers.

Monthly rosters from June through September 1942 describe Private Chandler’s military occupational specialty (M.O.S.) code as 745, rifleman, suggesting he qualified as one during earlier training. However, since Field Artillery units did not have any riflemen, his duty code during those months was listed as 351. The usual meaning of that code was bookkeeping machine operator. It is unclear what a 351 would have done in the context of a Field Artillery unit. There were men who performed fire control computations, but these were in the headquarters batteries, and at a grade higher than private. Eventually, he probably requalified with an M.O.S. specific to Field Artillery, possibly whatever 351 meant.

Combat in the Pacific Theater

In a historical report, Lieutenant Colonel Wilber E. Bradt wrote:

          On the 11–12 September 1943 the Battalion (less Battery “A”) moved from the New Georgia mainland to Piru Plantation on Ondongo Island and took over positions occupied by Batteries of the 140th Field Artillery Battalion.  The occupation of position was most unusual in that the exchange of Batteries was effected without interfering with the firing.  This was accomplished by substituting the base piece of the 140th Field Artillery Battalion Battery and while the remainder of the Battery of the 140th Field Artillery Battalion continued to fire, the base piece of the Battery of this Battalion was registered on the base point.  The registration completed, the remaining three howitzers of each Battery were exchanged and the firing taken up by this Battalion.  This procedure was employed both on the 11th September 1943, when Battery “B” relieved Battery “A”, 140th Field Artillery Battalion and on the 12th September 1943 when Battery “C”, relieved Battery “C”, 140th Field Artillery Battalion.

Ondongo is actually a peninsula rather than an island.

Private Chandler was killed in action early on September 12, 1943. In an operations report, Lieutenant Colonel Wilber E. Bradt wrote:

          At 0330, 12 September, Battery “B” while engaged in firing a night harassing mission had a premature burst from the #4 howitzer.  The round burst about 50 feet from the muzzle, killed one man, wounded three, and damaged the #3 howitzer.  Shell high explosive, fuze M54 set for percussion action was being fired at the time and it is believed that the round had not been accurately set on safe.  The battery had arrived at the position late in the afternoon and the ammunition had been prepared after dark.

The wounded were three federalized guardsmen from New England: Sergeant Halsey W. Buehler (1921–1967), Sergeant George W. Decoteaux (1917–1976), and Private Anthony DeMaio (1918–1999).

---

Technician 5th Grade Hiram J. McRae (1918–1945)

Hiram Johnson McRae was born in Alabama on March 23, 1918.

His foster mother was Louise McRae (later Louise McRae Crittendon) of Columbus, Georgia, sister Essie Bostic (born Alabama c. 1909, spouse Erelzia Bostic, children Dorthy and Erelzia Jr.) of Newark, New Jersey. He was Protestant according to his dog tags.

He was living in New Castle County, Delaware, when he entered the service. After McRae was drafted, he joined the U.S. Army in Camden, New Jersey, on July 23, 1942. Many selectees were briefly transferred to the Enlisted Reserve Corps on inactive duty for a few weeks to wrap up matters in their civilian lives. Private McRae went on active duty on or about August 5, 1942, when he was attached to Receiving Company “E,” 1229th Reception Center, Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Around August 18, 1942, he was attached unassigned to Company “C,” 8th Engineer Training Battalion, Engineer Replacement Training Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He went absent without leave (A.W.O.L.) from October 5–9, 1942.

On October 24 or 25, 1942, Private McRae was released from attachment to Company “C.”

Payroll records indicate that McRae was paid at Camp Stoneman, California—staging area for the San Francisco Port of Embarkation—on November 2, 1942; November 30, 1942; and December 31, 1942. He went overseas on January 23, 1943.

On February 14, 1943, McRae joined Company “B,” 811th Engineer Aviation Battalion, a segregated unit with black enlisted men and white officers. The 811th had been activated at Langley Field, Virginia, on December 1, 1941. Enlisted cadre transferred into the unit from the 94th Engineer Battalion (Separate), as well as from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The unit went overseas soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, shipping out on January 23, 1942. Their convoy arrived in Melbourne, Australia, on February 26, 1942. The following month, the battalion arrived at Nouméa, New Caledonia, which was under Free French control and would soon become one of the largest Allied bases in the South Pacific. The battalion primary built and maintained airfields. Occasionally they constructed roads and railroads, and transported crated aircraft from the port to assembly areas. Service in the South Pacific, at the end of very long supply lines, required a certain degree of improvisation, as a unit history observed at the conclusion of two years on New Caledonia:

Having fixed the roads, they drove their trucks over them for more than eleven million miles.  The mechanics had their own opinion of those miles.  It was their duty to keep in running order vehicles which had not been new when they were put aboard, and it was nothing unusual to see one trundling about with its third engine and its second speedometer.  No one gave it a second thought, any more than they gave a second thought to using salvaged aircraft armor for patching material, or tailoring a truck motor to fit a grader when the grader’s own motor gave out.

McRae was promoted from private to technician 5th grade on April 8, 1943. Later that year, McRae was hospitalized at the 31st Station Hospital. His condition was severe enough that he was transferred to Detachment of Patients, 31st Station Hospital, effective November 29, 1943. After recovering, he was transferred back to his unit on December 31, 1943, rejoining Company “B” at 1300 hours that afternoon. On February 24, 1944, McRae was temporarily appointed to the grade of corporal. This was not a promotion per se, since both were the same pay grade, although by that time a corporal had the authority of a noncommissioned officer whereas a technician 5th grade did not.

On March 23, 1944, the 811th shipped out for Guadalcanal. A unit history stated that 72% of the unit “were charter members” who had been with the unit since 1941, meaning McRae was among the 28% of personnel who were replacements.

After arriving at Guadalcanal on April 1, 1944, the men of the 811th performed general construction work while assigned to the Thirteenth Air Force. Their projects included building a camp, a flagpole, quarters at a hospital, a bridge, runway maintenance, and a new tower at Carney Field. They also performed work improving the drainage at various installations. Perhaps tongue-in-cheek, the unit history for April 1944 recorded that “None of the projects were particularly noteworthy except one priority 1 AA – RUSH assignment which arrived at noon and instructed us to produce by four that afternoon, one volleyball court for the Commanding General.”

The battalion also built a tennis court and a baseball field, and a battalion garden for the unit’s men to supplement their rations by growing fresh produce for themselves. The unit history noted (A0246 pg. 193):

          The battalion garden fulfilled its promise by providing sweet corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, egg plant and assorted greens to the mess tables.  The corn was excellent, better in fact that much that is sold in markets at home, since this is fresh picked.  The Battalion Surgeon found it expensive.  A skeptic by instinct and training, he had bet five dollars that it would not come up to its name of “Sixty-Day Corn”, only to have a steaming ear set before him on the sixtieth day.

On June 18, 1944, men of the unit responded when a B-25 ditched near the Company “C” camp, helping to rescue the crewmembers half an hour before crash trucks and ambulances arrived.

A hospital admission card indicates McRae was briefly hospitalized for colic in July 1944.

The main body of the 811th shipped out for Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 21, 1944, aboard the U.S.A.T. Cape Meares, arriving there on October 4, 1944. The unit was briefly stationed at Hickam Field before moving to Bellows Field (apparently as a result of a false accusation that the men of the unit had been in involved in “a disturbance in the civilian workers barracks – half mile down the road from our location.”). The move was not reversed, though the unit did work all across Oahu at Kwaloa, Kipapa, Hickam, and Wheeler, as well as Bellows.

Company “B” began training at the Jungle Training Area (Jungle Unit Training Center?) beginning on December 10, 1944. This training included amphibious operations and the use of various weapons, including one just issued to the battalion: the M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, a halftrack equipped with a quadruple .50 machine gun turret. The training, and extra firepower perhaps hinted that their next assignment would be more hazardous. (Unit records appear missing February – April 1945)

It appears that the unit shipped out from Hawaii on or about March 28, 1945, and arrived on Iwo Jima on April 20, 21, or 22, 1945, and was assigned to VII Fighter command. (A0246, pg. 217)

The unit history reported:

          The announcement of peace was received here, as elsewhere on the Island, with a curious quiet.  The first broadcast at 2200 woke the camp out of its slumbers and there was sporadic cheering as area after area got the news.  Nobody slept much after that.  Next day the radios were crowded with listeners.  When the final announcement came through, most hearers heaved a deep sigh and walked off with a rather groggy expression.  There was no work that day and very little the next.  There were ball games, which were well attended, but for the most part everyone sat back and relaxed.  Almost everyone complained of a hollow feeling inside, as though something important had vanished overnight.

Work continued, albeit “on a greatly curtailed schedule.”

Technician 5th Grade McRae suffered a skull fracture in a vehicle accident on Iwo Jima. He died on September 2, 1945, the same day Japanese representatives signed the instrument of surrender in Tokyo Bay. He was initially buried in the 4th Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima on September 3, 1945.

His personnel effects included his wallet, a Lucite pendant, a deck of playing cards, his unemployment compensation and draft registration cards, two rings, two New Zealand florins, three Bibles, 19 cowrie shells, $116.34, and 269 personal letters.

The Army attempted to reach Technician 5th Grade McRae’s sister, and then his foster mother through the American Red Cross. The Red Cross contacted Louise McRae to have her fill out the disposition paperwork. She wrote a notarized letter to the Office of the Quartermaster General dated May 13, 1948:

          After careful consideration I have decided that I would not have my son’s remains returned to the States.

          He was my foster-son, and now that he has been interred overseas, I am satisfied with the arrangements.

          I do not care to complete forms.

Edna Mattox of the American Red Cross wrote the Office of the Quartermaster General Memorial Division on October 13, 1948:

Our Columbus, Georgia, chapter worker advises that Mrs. Louise McRae Crittenden states the serviceman was never legally adopted by her.  The decedent was given to her by a brother who had obtained him from the boy’s mother.  Efforts to locate the boy’s mother have been unsuccessful.

McRae was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii on November 23, 1949.

Although McRae entered the service from Wilmington, Delaware, the Adjutant General’s Office report of death listed his home address as “Wilmington, N. C.” The error may have originally been due to some paperwork using N. C. as an abbreviation for New Castle County, or because Wilmington, North Carolina, is a better known city than Wilmington, Delaware. Regardless, his headstone erroneously lists North Carolina as his state of residence.

Why on hold: Waiting for release of 1945 morning reports to the National Archives Catalog to complete reconstruction of his military history

---

If you have materials that may help me finish any of these articles, please contact me.

Last updated on January 30, 2026