Recently Deceased U.S. Veterans of WW II in PH

By: Bob Boyer

 

The following is my annual tribute to the Northeastern Wisconsin veterans who served in the Philippines. Their obituaries came to my attention since my November, 2014 article.

As a soldier in the 503rd Airborne Division, Ralph J. Watzka shared the precarious honor of parachuting onto Corregidor, “the Rock” in Manila Bay, to help recapture it from the Japanese. Ralph returned to Green Bay to help found a construction company and raise a family.

Harvey L. Hafeman piloted landing crafts, first in the Mediterranean and later at Leyte Gulf and Luzon (presumably Lingayan Gulf), the two major naval battles of the Philippines. He returned home to run the family farm where he and his wife raised their five children.

Francis J. “Mac” McDougal “served his country in the U.S. Navy” in the Philippines. Like so many of his fellow Green Bay residents, Mac “enjoyed working in the yard, especially with his roses and watching sunsets on the Bay.” (Quotations from the Green Bay Press Gazette)

Another Navy man, William “Barnacle Bill” Compton, served as a submariner on the US-374 “Loggerhead” (built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin). Submarines were notably important throughout the war in an island nation such as the Philippines. The “Loggerhead” patrolled the South China Sea. “In later years” he regaled his large family with “old sailor songs” and stories.

Eldred H. Pringle was justifiably “very proud” of being a member of the 11th Airborne Division, 711th Ordinance Maintenance Company, rightly so. This Division helped to liberate over 2000 American and allied prisoners in the town of Los Banos, about an hour’s drive south of Manila. The prisoners were starving to death. Eldred was guest in an honor flight years later.

Donald Edwin Witt of Appleton marked his 21st birthday on August 14, 1945 in the Philippines. Japan surrendered on August 15. He and his fellow GIs were spared from the invasion of the Japanese mainland for which the U.S. troops in the Philippines had been preparing. He happily returned home where “he cherished the time spent with his family.”

Loris Frank, a Navy Lieutenant evidently enjoyed telling about seeing “the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur’s ship,” from which he made his “infamous beach landing” (Leyte Gulf). Back home in Wisconsin he engaged in business, public service, and travel with his wife.

Ardeal J. Davister served aboard the USS Pennsylvania, which fought in the two great naval battles of Leyte Gulf and Lingayan Gulf from October of 1944 through January of 1945. When he returned from the war he delivered milk for Hansen Dairy in Green Bay. He also “operated Davister’s Bar and Food” with his wife Dolores and their seven children.

Leon E. Riemer served on the USS Enterprise, another famous work horse in the Philippines. The Enterprise earned the most Battle Stars (20) of any ship in the Pacific. After the war, Leon obtained his law degree from UW Madison and ran a private practice.

Alvin C. Krueger was “a member of the 431st Bomb Squad,” stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He served throughout the war from New Guinea to the Southern Philippines (Mindanao). In later years he and his wife Kay “loved traveling the world together.”

Bede C. Baeten also followed the New Guinea to the Philippines path as a GI. Bede returned to Green Bay and became a “wood pattern maker.” His hobby was an extension of his work. He made Grandfather clocks “and carved many birds and ducks.”

George Verheyden served as a GI in the Philippines and then during the occupation of Japan. He was one of the guards assigned to the infamous Tojo in Tokyo. After the war he attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1947 he returned to Green Bay, where he ran his father’s Sausage Shop while continuing his interest in art.

Roger F. Olson served in the U.S. Army from 1945-1947, first in the Philippines and then in the occupation of Japan. Upon returning to rural Wisconsin, “he ran the W.B. Schroeder Farm for many years” and worked for a construction company in Krakow, WI.

I am grateful, first to these veterans, and then to the caring writers of their obituaries.

Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or anamericaninmanila. com.