The motto of the American Battle Monuments Commission is, “Time will not dim the glory of their deeds.”
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) was established in 1923 by the United States (US) Congress. It is an independent government agency with the duty of administering, maintaining, and operating permanent US military cemeteries, monuments, and memorials principally outside of the US in 17 foreign countries, the British Dependency of Gibraltar, and the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. There are four memorials in the US.
The ABMC cares for 26 American military cemeteries and 31 federal monuments, memorials, and markers. Over 140,000 American military are interred in these cemeteries. On the cemeteries Wall of the Missing are the names of over 94,000 Missing In Action (MIA) and those lost or buried at sea.
The headstones of those buried in these cemeteries are a Christian cross, a Star of David, or one designating an Unknown which states, “Here Rests In Honored Glory A Comrade In Arms Known But To God.” When the body of a serviceman named on the Wall of the Missing is found and identified, a rosette is placed beside their name on the Wall.
I have visited six of the WWII ABMC cemeteries in Europe and one in the Philippines. Walking through the cemeteries one feels as if you are walking on sacred ground. I would sometimes see a solitary headstone with gold lettering; those are the graves of men awarded the Medal of Honor. Also on the Wall or Tablets of the Missing, a man awarded the Medal of Honor had his name in gold.
One day I had this thought … the thousands of men and women in these graves died before the war ended and never knew who won.
Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, in WWII.
Kewaunee County was typical of every county in the US that experienced WWII. Young men and women left their communities and said their goodbyes to family and friends not knowing when or if they would return. Some families would later receive telegrams that their loved one was killed in action (KIA), missing in action (MIA), or had become a prisoner of war (POW). It was a time communities pulled together to support each other, and some families would mourn.
The US WWII generation had already experienced the Great Depression (1929 – 1939) and then became involved in WWII on December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor, Oahu, the US Territory of Hawaii, was attacked by the Japanese. Four years of US involvement in WWII and the stresses of war would take a toll on communities.
During WWII Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering on the shore of Lake Michigan was one of the shipbuilding locations on the Great Lakes that received a government contract to build military ships. Eighty vessels, cargo ships and tugboats, were built in Kewaunee between 1941 and 1946. [It is at Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering that FP-344, a cargo ship, was built for the US Army. It was launched in April 1944 and survived WWII. By 1967, then a US Navy ship, it was refitted for intelligence gathering and sent to the Pacific. The US Navy renamed FP-344 the USS (United States Ship) Pueblo. The ship was captured by North Korea January 23, 1968, and the action is known as the Pueblo Incident. The USS Pueblo is still in North Korea. The US Navy has never decommissioned the ship.]
I was born and grew up in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, one of many small communities in Kewaunee County. My generation was born after WWII, but I went to school with many of the relatives of those named on the war memorial at the Kewaunee Courthouse. Every name on the memorial represents a life story; the following are six of those stories.
Joseph A. Muhofski, US Navy (USN), Radio Man 3rd Class.
Joe was a 1936 graduate of Kewaunee High School. In the 1940 US Census he was listed as a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with an occupation of radio operator and was living with his parents on Wisconsin Avenue in Kewaunee. He enlisted in the US Navy March 26, 1940.
[The CCC was a voluntary work relief program during the Depression for unemployed men ages 18 – 25. It existed from 1933 – 1942.]
On December 7, 1941, Joe, then assigned to the USS Pennsylvania, was KIA during the surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. He was 23 years old.
Joe’s remains were never found. A memorial marker remembering his service to his country in WWII was placed in Holy Rosary Cemetery in Kewaunee, and his name is also on the tombstone of his parents Joseph and Lucy Muhofski.
The Muhofski family was the first Gold Star family in Kewaunee County in WWII.
[May 28, 1918, US President Woodrow Wilson approved the use of a Gold Star Service Flag that could be hung in homes, businesses, schools, churches, etc., to indicate that a military member had died in service to the country.]
Perry W. Drossart, USN, Aviation Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class.
Perry was born June 3, 1923, in Casco, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin. He enlisted in the US Navy on November 5, 1940. Perry was assigned to the USS Quincy, a New Orleans-class heavy cruiser (CA-39) which was sunk in the Battle of Savo Island. Perry was 19 years old.
[The Battle of Savo Island (August 8 – 9, 1942) was the first major naval battle of the Guadalcanal campaign (August 7, 1942 – February 9, 1943) in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The USS Quincy was one of the ships sunk after being hit by three torpedos; there were 370 men KIA and 167 wounded.
That naval battle was a Japanese victory. But the Guadalcanal campaign, an eventual Allied victory, would mark an important turning point in the Pacific Theater as it would be the first offensive campaign mounted by the Allies against the Japanese in WWII.]
Perry Drossart’s name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the ABMC Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. There is also a memorial marker in Holy Trinity Cemetery in Casco.
Ralph F. Lietz, Jr., US Coast Guard (USCG), Seaman 1st Class.
Ralph was born February 16, 1922. He played football and basketball for four years in high school and was captain of the basketball team his senior year. “Bud,” as his friends called him, graduated from Kewaunee High School in 1940.
In the 1940s US Census Ralph was living with his parents Ralph and Clara Lietz on Rose Street in Kewaunee.
Ralph joined the USCG September 6, 1940. He was assigned to the US Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Escanaba (WPG-77).
[The USCGC Escanaba was originally stationed on the Great Lakes, but with the outbreak of WWII it was redeployed to the Atlantic Ocean and participated in the Battle of the Atlantic. In WWII the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign running from the start of the war in 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.]
The Escanaba’s home port was Boston. The ship was assigned to the Greenland Patrol performing search and rescue and convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic. Serving as an escort for convoy GS-24, sailing from Greenland to Newfoundland, USCGC Escanaba was hit by a German U-boat torpedo or a drifting mine on June 13, 1943, at 0510. The ship sunk in three minutes. Thirteen officers and 92 enlisted crew members were lost.
Ralph Lietz’s name is inscribed on the ABMC East Coast Memorial in New York City, New York. There is a memorial marker in the Kewaunee Riverside Cemetery, and Ralph’s name is on the tombstone of his parents in the cemetery.
Ralph was 21 years old when he was KIA. He was an only child.
Milo J. Bunda, US Army (USA), Technician fifth grade (Tec 5), 127th Infantry, 32nd Division.
Milo was born June 14, 1918, in Kewaunee. He graduated from Kewaunee High School in 1936 where he was a star athlete in basketball and football.
On March 20, 1941, Milo was inducted into the military with other Kewaunee County men. While serving in the Pacific he was hospitalized for a time with malaria which is common in that part of the world.
Milo was KIA on July 26, 1944, in Papua New Guinea located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. He was 26 years old.
For his heroism in battle trying to save his fellow soldiers, Milo Bunda was awarded the Bronze Star.
Milo Bunda is buried in the ABMC Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
Raymond B. Christenson, US Army Air Force (USAAF), First Lieutenant.
Ray was born December 17, 1916, in Casco. In the 1940 US Census his occupation was noted as a teacher in the public school system.
On Friday, November 20, 1942, Ray was married to Eunice Thiry of Algoma, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin, by Justice of the Peace A. J. Westerbeck in Kewaunee.
After joining the military, Ray trained as a bombardier in a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. While flying over Brownsville, Haywood County, Tennessee, on September 17, 1944, he was killed when two B-17s collided in the air. Of his crew he was the only one killed; the other members of his crew parachuted to safety. Out of the nine crew members in the other B-17, eight died. The death of these men was classified as Died Non-Battle (DNB).
[When determining casualties of war, one does not usually think of military deaths in terms of those that happened stateside or outside of a combat area. During WWII in the USAAF alone, over 15,000 men were killed or lost their lives in non-combat circumstances.]
Ray Christenson is buried in Algoma at Evergreen Cemetery. He was 27 years old.
Arnold E. Malvitz, USA, Private, 638th Tank Destroyer Battalion, Company B.
Arnold was born December 3, 1921, in Door County but moved to the town of Luxemburg in Kewaunee County. He was one of six children. At 20 years old his draft card noted he worked on the farm of John Wech, Route 2, in the town of West Kewaunee.
He enlisted in the USA on October 20, 1942.
On April 10, 1943, Arnold married Harriet Siegmund of Door County. They would have a son before he left with his unit for Europe.
Arnold Malvitz was KIA on December 1, 1944, near the German town of Gereonsweiler, northeast of Aachen, Germany. He was two days short of his 23rd birthday.
He had a second son who was born five months after Arnold was KIA.
Arnold Malvitz is buried in the ABMC Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial.
[The Dutch in 1945 originated a unique program at this cemetery. It is the Grave Adoption Program which honors the legacy of their American liberators. Local people adopt the grave of a service member or a name on the Wall of the Missing, visit during the year, and bring flowers. They may also try to contact family members to gather more information or obtain a photograph of the service member.
The Grave Adoption Program continues to this day; there is a list of those waiting to become part of this special commemoration to those who lost their lives liberating the Netherlands.]
Exact figures are unknown, but it is estimated that over 400,000 US military men and women were killed in WWII.
Roughly 320,000 Wisconsin men and women served in the military during WWII. More that 8,000 of the US WWII dead were from Wisconsin.
The Memorial at the Kewaunee Courthouse has 41 names inscribed remembering those killed in WWII.
The 1947 Kewaunee County Atlas lists over 1,400 men and women who served their country during the war.
The US military men and women of Kewaunee County served around the world in WWII. Most of them came home.
Remembering those lives lost in war is a way of honoring their sacrifice.
Thank you to the Kewaunee County Historical Society for the time and effort assisting with the researching of this story and providing photographs of those men mentioned in the story.
I would also like to recognize a past president of the Kewaunee County Historical Society Thomas Schuller (1950 – 2023) who became a member of the Board of Directors in 1989 and served as its president from 2001 – 2023. His love of Kewaunee and its history contributed greatly to what the organization is today.