Obituary Record

Alfons H (Tech 5th Cl U.S. Army) Schulz
Died on 9/15/1944

American Battle Monuments Commission The World War II Honor Roll

Alfons H. Schulz

Technician 5th Class, U.S. Army

37125555

454th Amphibious Truck Company

Entered the Service from: Nebraska

Died: September 15, 1944

Missing in Action or Buried at Sea; Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines

Awards: Purple Heart

#1-Enterprise 7 Dec 1944

T-5 A. H. Schulz Listing Missing In Pacific Area

Marines Count Him Missing Since September 15. Notified Monday

Word was received in Blair late Monday evening by A. Schulz that his son, T/5 Alphons Schulz, has been missing in action in the Pacific war theatre since September 15th.

Schulz, who was thirty years of age, grew to manhood in this vicinity and was a graduate of the Blair High School class of 1931. He had been on overseas duty for fourteen months.

On September 14th, the day before he was counted as missing, he wrote a letter to his father stating that he was about to leave his base and enter a new campaign. At that time he was stationed on Guadalcanal, having been with the Marines during the bloody battle for that place. He also served in the fight for Tulagi. He apparently realized the extreme danger into which he was going but expressed confidence that, regardless of the outcome, the fight was one which was necessary and vital to the United States.

Schulz had been in the armed forces for about 29 months and was stationed in Florida much of the time. While there, he was married and his wife still resides in that southern state.

No details have been received except the bare fact that he is “missing in action” and the father and his many friends are anxiously awaiting some word which might shed a more definite light on his fate.

The Enterprise joins the many friends of the family in expressing sympathy and profound hope that satisfactory news eventually will be received.

#2-Pilot Tribune 7 Dec 1944

Marine Listed as Missing

T/5 Alfons H. Schulz, 33, Was In Pacific Action Nearly 12 Months

T/5 Alfons H. Schulz, 33, stationed with the First Marine Division in the South Pacific, has been missing in action since Sept. 15 according to official notification received by his father A. Schulz of Blair, on Tuesday.

In service nearly 28 months, Marine Schulz had been overseas for nearly a year.

Marine Schulz leaves his wife, a resident of Ft. Pierce, Fla.; his father, A. Schulz of Blair; two brothers, Lt. Eldor of Ft. Niagara, N.Y., and Sgt. Theodore of Ft. Richie, Md.; and two sisters, Olga, a nurse at Bryan Memorial hospital in Lincoln, and Mrs. Alfred Frese of Omaha.

T/5 Schulz in his last letters to his father repeatedly assured members of his family that, although he hoped to live through “the blitz,” he was fully prepared to die. In a letter written on Sept. 14, he said, “I’ll take care….but enemy mortar fire may ill one even before he can get to the beach. A man may be ashore and have dug himself a perfect foxhole, only to have a bomb drop squarely on it.

“It isn’t pleasant to think that one may be buried in the deep or in the jungle, far far away from home. But one shouldn’t worry because of this possibility, because God knows where every fallen soldier sleeps….If I don’t return from the war, please don’t feel sad. I feel that it is a man’s duty to do all he can to live as long as possible.

“The war in the Pacific is a terrible one. I look upon it as a war of extermination. We must destroy the Jap. If we don’t democracy and Christianity cannot live. Before this war ends, more American soldiers will die on the field of battle –only God knows who they will be.” #3-Pilot Tribune 27 Sept 1945

T-5 Schulz Reported Died in 1944

Last Seen On Beach Of Peleiu Island In 1944 In Invasion

A. Schulz of Blair, received a message from the War Department Monday stating that since his son, T-5 Alfons Schulz, had been missing in action for one year, he must be considered dead. The message said, “T-5 Alfons H. Schulz participated in the initial invasion of the Peleiu Island of the Palau-Group. The invasion forces encountered a heavy mortar barrage as they landed, after which Alfon’s body was observed lying motionless on the beach.”

Mr. Schulz last heard from his son on September 15th, 1944, when he received a letter from him a day before the invasion. T-5 Schulz, 31 years of age, was in the service for three years and served for one year in the Pacific Theatre of Operations.

He is a graduate of the Blair High School, the Concordia College at Seward and the University of Nebraska. Following his graduation of these Universities he taught in the public schools at Beemer and Arapahoe, Nebr., for four years, before entering the service.

#4-27 Sept., 1945 - The Enterprise

ALPHONS H. SCHULZ REPORTED DEAD

A year or more ago word reached our townsman, A. Schulz, that his son, Alphons, was missing in action, and since then no more was heard until just recently when the father received word that he was now classified as “killed in action”.

Alfons was in the Pacific area, and was in an attacking troop when the Pelelin Island was attacked. The island was bitterly defended, and it is thought that it was there that he lost his life.

Alfons was a Blair High graduate, and has many friends here as he was a young man of high moral character.

Note: Burial: Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Metro Manila
National Capital Region, Philippines;

Find A Grave Memorial# 56790943

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~

Printed in the Washington County Enterprise on 12/7/1944


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