UW-Stout Veterans: World War II
World War I World War II Korean War Vietnam conflict
Melvin Anderson
Melvin “Pic” Anderson was admitted to the Stout Institute on September 13, 1939. He was a graduate of Union Grove High School. He was one of the first students to undergo flight training that was sponsored by Stout. Flight training consisted of 72 hours of basic ground instruction and 35 to 50 hours in the air. He left Stout during his junior year to enter the service and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States marine reserve in 1943. He served fourteen months overseas in the Marine Air Corps. He died July 8, 1945 in a hospital in Norman, Oklahoma as the result of injuries sustained in an air crash four days earlier. In 1994 his wife, Eula, established a scholarship in his name.
Robert Bruce Antrim
Robert Bruce Antrim joined the Stout Institute as an assistant librarian in 1928. Before his arrival at Stout, he received a degree from DePaw University in Indiana and served in several library positions. (Antrim was not related to Kit Antrim, the athletic instructor for whom Antrim Hall was named.) Bruce was a popular staff member on campus. In August, 1942, just three months prior to his 42nd birthday, Bruce was called into the armed forces. Stout gave Antrim a leave of absence for the duration prior to his reporting to basic training in Arkansas. He was later attached to the Chaplin’s Corp before being sent to Alaska. Shortly after his arrival, Antrim became ill and died April 5, 1943.
John Richard Aumueller
John Richard Aumueller was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin on May 20, 1917. He graduated from the local high school in 1935 and enrolled at Stout the following year. He attended Stout for two years before entering the military. On March 8, 1941 he left Menomonie for Camp Grant, Illinois. He later went to Fort Bliss, Texas for training in anti-aircraft artillery. He received subsequent training on other bases in the eastern United States. He later returned to Texas where he died of heat stroke in the army hospital at Camp Hulen.
Gerald Bernard Carswell
Gerald Bernard Carswell enrolled at the Stout Institute on September 13, 1938. He was a graduate of Eau Claire High School. Early in World War II Carswell enlisted in the army air corps. He served as a top turret gunner with a liberator squadron of the 15th army air force in Italy. He was awarded the second bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for the Air Medal for “meritorious achievement” while participating in sustained long-range bombing attacks on the Balkans, Austria, and Northern Italy. On April 2, 1944, shortly after completing his 24th combat mission, his plane was reported missing. Although he was only a student at Stout for one semester, a special presentation of a third Oak Leaf Cluster to his father by the American Legion was held in the Stout auditorium.
James Homer Day
James Homer Day was born February 3, 1922 in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. He graduated from Redwood Falls High School in 1941 and enrolled at the Stout Institute in the fall of the same year. He was one of many students to find his education interrupted by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. (It is interesting to note that one of his closest friends at Stout was Kiyoshi Minami of Hawaii, who also had his way of life altered by the bombing.) Day only attended Stout for one semester. In 1942 he joined the army. He was killed on June 6, 1944 during the invasion of France.
Neal Jones Goodrich
Neal Jones Goodrich was born in Durand, Wisconsin, February 12, 1910. He graduated from the local high school and enrolled at Superior, the junior college of Pasadena, and the University of Minnesota. In 1929 he enrolled for one year at Stout where he was one of the founding members of the “Enharmonic Orchestra". In 1943 he was forced to close his furniture and undertaker business in Pine City, Minnesota when he was drafted in November of that year. He was killed on March 25, 1945 in Germany where he was serving with a medical detachment of the First Army.
Gerald L. Govin
Gerald L. Govin graduated from the Menomonie High School in 1941 and entered the Stout Institute in the fall of that year. During the two years he attended Stout, Govin was active in several activities such as the Symphonic Singers. Govin enlisted in the army in 1943 and began training at Fort Hood, Texas. As a member of the 381st infantry he served in the Leyte campaign in the Philippines. He was 22 years old when he was killed in the Battle for Okinawa on April 26, 1945.
James Thacker Illingworth
James Thacker Illingworth, a resident of Racine, Wisconsin, entered Stout on September 10, 1940. He was a very active Stout student participating in Alpha Psi Omega (Manual Arts Players), K.F.S., and other student organizations. He was also a resident of Lynwood Hall. His family had a long affiliation with the Stout Institute. His father was a graduate as well as his wife, Leola Reynolds Illingworth. He left Stout following the spring semester of 1943. Most of his training was on bases in Texas. He was killed in action on December 10, 1944.
Kenneth Raymond Johnson
Kenneth Raymond Johnson enrolled at Stout on September 12, 1940. He grew up in Red Wing, Minnesota and graduated from the high school there in 1937. He attended the Winona State Teachers College as well as the Stout Institute. He enlisted in the naval air corps in June of 1941 and was trained as a pilot on a liberator. His plane was reported missing following a bombing mission off of Guadalcanal. He was officially declared dead in 1946.
Reed Warran Jones
Reed Warran Jones came to Stout from Groton, New York. During his two years on campus he was a member of K.F.S. He was forced to withdraw following an automobile accident involving his father in 1941. Very little else is known about him other than also appearing as one of the gold star dead in the February 23, 1945 Stoutonia.
Robert Keith
Robert Keith was born at Columbus, Ohio and later moved to Menomonie when his father, Floyd, accepted a job at the Stout Institute. Keith spent three years attending Stout where he was active in the Symphonic Singers, K.F.S., and Manual Arts Players. He left the school after his junior year and entered the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. On April 25th, 1941 he received his wings and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He was killed on September 19 that same year when his P-38 aircraft collided with another during war games above Natchitoches, Louisiana. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Menomonie.
Hjalmer Le Roy Molner
Hjalmer Le Roy Molner, a resident of Menomonie, entered Stout on September 13, 1939. He attended the Stout Institute for one year before enlisting in the service in August of 1940. He served for 14 months at the start of the war as a radio operator and airplane side gunner. He later returned to the States as a teacher and then took flight training and became a pilot; assigned to the European theater. He was declared missing in action on April 7, 1945 and reported dead a year later by the War Department.
Richard Kenneth Notebaart
Richard Kenneth Notebaart came to Stout as a freshman in 1939 from North St. Paul, Minnesota. While he was at the Stout Institute he was active in Phi Omega Beta and the football team. He was one of the first students on campus to complete flight training and to solo. He entered the service in 1942 and by November of that year was a member of the 444th bomb squad in England. He spent four years in the army air corps, three of them overseas. He served in Sardinia, Corsica, and Southern France. He died shortly after the end of the war in Europe when his plane crashed over Stenach, Germany.
Evert Ostrom
Evert Ostrom was admitted to Stout in September of 1933. He was from Clear Lake, Wisconsin. A resident of Lynwood Hall, Ostrom was active on campus as a member of Alpha Psi Omega, the Manual Arts Players, and K.F.S. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Stout Institute on June 3, 1938. Following graduation he held a number of jobs including a manual arts instructor in Kewaunee, Wisconsin. He went to Chicago in 1942 as an instructor for the navy and joined that service shortly afterwards. He died of pneumonia at the naval hospital in Norman, Oklahoma. He is buried at Holy Rosary cemetery in Kewaunne.
Charles Roesler Pleier
Charles Roesler Pleier enrolled at Stout on September 9, 1941. He was a high school graduate from Wausau, Wisconsin. He was at the Stout Institute for two years before becoming one of a group of soldiers who were assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Illinois. Pleier was later assigned to Camp Carson, Colorado. Pleier was killed in an accident on October 19, 1944 in Belgium.
Edward Sheldon Rock
Edward Sheldon Rock entered Stout on September 21, 1942 on his eighteenth birthday. He was a resident, of Hudson, Wisconsin. During the one semester he spent at the Stout Institute he was a resident of Lynwood Hall and a member of the Stout band. Edward entered the air corps in February, 1943 and received his flight training at San Antonio, Texas. He was commissioned in April, 1044 as a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter pilot. He was killed in Italy on January 21, 1945 when his plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and crashed.
Robert Louis Roland
Robert Louis (Cottie) Roland enrolled at the Stout Institute on September 14, 1936. He was a local resident graduating from Menomonie High School. As a student at Stout, Roland was a member of K.F.S. and one of the managers of the football team. He graduated on August 2, 1940 with a Degree of Bachelor of Science. Roland joined the service in the summer of 1941. He was trained as a bombardier in Texas and was sent overseas in September, 1943. He was reported missing in action over Montidier, France, following a bombing mission on March 25, 1944. Five months later the missing in action was changed to killed in action. A memorial service was held for him that August in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Menomonie.
Lyle John Schultz
Lyle John Schultz enrolled at the Stout Institute on September 13, 1939. He lived on a dairy farm near Knapp, Wisconsin and was a graduate of Menomonie High School. He left the Stout Institute (with a good scholastic record) after completing two years to join the army. He was a member of a reconnaissance unit in the Third army. He was reported wounded in action in Germany on December 23, 1944. He died the following day.
Valgene Elmer Schultz
Valgene Elmer Schultz enrolled at the Stout Institute on September 21, 1942. He was a Menomonie resident who graduated from the local high school. After one semester at Stout he entered the armed forces in December 9, 1942. As a member of the Air Corps he was trained as a radio operator and gunner at bases in Florida and Texas. He went overseas in August of 1944. He flew 22 missions from a base in Italy over Germany and occupied countries before being shot down and killed on November 15, 1944.
George Andrew Shultis
George Andrew Shultis enrolled at the Stout Institute on September 10, 1943. He was a graduate of Reedsburg High School. During his two years on campus he was a member of the football team. Shultis left campus on June 26, 1943 to join the army. PFC Shultis served in the infantry and was reported missing in action in Belgium on January 29, 1945. A short time later his status was changed to killed in action.
Edward Francis Stanfel
Edward Francis Stanfel enrolled at the Stout Institute in September of 1938. He was a graduate of the local high school in Calumet, Michigan. He entered the armed forces after completing three years at Stout. Stanfel spent an interesting career in the military (as attested to in letters he sent to the STOUTONIA) serving in North Africa and the Middle East. His service came to an end on November 17, 1943 when he died following a brief illness.
William A. Strese
William A. Strese began his education at the Stout Institute on September 14, 1936. He was born in Durand, Wisconsin and graduated from the local high school. He attended Stout as well as Eau Claire Teachers College for two years before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1940. He was trained as a dive bomber pilot in several bases in the United States before shipping to the Philippine Islands on November 1, 1941. He participated in the battle for the Philippines shortly after the outbreak of World War II and was taken prisoner when the islands fell to the Japanese. He died on December 15, 1944 when a transport taking him and several other prisoners to Japan was sunk by American Navy bombers.
Alfred L. Thiede
Alfred L. Thiede, a resident of Fairmount, Minnesota, first enrolled at the Stout Institute in 1925. He spent several summer sessions at Stout before receiving a Bachelor of Science degree on July 29, 1932. Thiede spent several years as an instructor at the State Teachers College, Mankato Minnesota before becoming a lieutenant at the Naval Air Technical Training Center, Norman Oklahoma. There he worked in aircraft maintenance. He was later assigned to Jacksonville, Florida. He died on November 9, 1944 when his plane crashed while on a mission off the coast of Florida.
Wilbur Henry Tschopp
Wilbur Henry Tschopp was born in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin on October 29, 1918. He graduated from high school there in 1939 and enrolled at the Stout Institute the following fall. Tschopp left Stout after one year. He enlisted in the army air corps on January 16, 1942 and was a corporal at the time of his death.
Earl Morris Thompson
Earl Morris Thompson enrolled at the Stout Institute as a freshman in September of 1940. He was a graduate of Colfax, Wisconsin High School. He attended Stout for one year before entering the army on March 15, 1943. He was trained in Camp Pittsburgh, California before shipping overseas on September 8, 1943. He was a member of the 37th Infantry Division and served at New Caledonia, Bougainville, and Guadalcanal. He was killed in action in February, 1945 during the fighting on the Philippine islands.
Patrick Griffon Welch
Patrick Griffon Welch enrolled at Stout in September of 1941. He was a resident of Menomonie and graduated from the local high school. He left the Stout Institute after one year to join the Army Air Corps where he was assigned to the Eighth Bomber Command in England. In 1943 he was awarded the Air Medal for meritorious service in shooting down an enemy plane in a bombing attack over Germany. On December 11, 1943, on his 17th combat mission, Welch’s Flying Fortress was shot down during a bombing raid.
Warren St. John Wiesler
Warren St. John Wiesler entered Stout in the fall of 1941. His family was from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He attended the Stout Institute for one year before joining the Army Air Corps on January 6, 1943. He received a commission as a bombardier navigator at the Victorville Army Air Field in California in February, 1944. In August he was sent overseas for more training before being assigned to an airbase in England. His B-24 Liberator bomber was shot down over Germany on October 9, 1944 and he was killed in action.
Frank Eugene Winterling
Frank Eugene Winterling entered the Stout Institute as a freshman in the fall of 1938. He grew up in Downing and graduated from Boyceville High School before attending River Falls Teachers College for two years. He attended Stout for one year and subsequently joined the Marine Corps. He was killed in action on Guadalcanal Island, October 14, 1942.