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First Body Returned
The first county service man to lose
his life in the war was also the first to be returned from overseas
for final burial.
The casketed remains of Boatswain's Mate Wiltrout
will arrive in Warsaw, accompanied by a uniformed navy escort
from the Chicago distribution center of the American Graves Registration
Division. The time of arrival is not now known.
The war dead aboard the Joseph V. Connolly
were from the military cemeteries in Europe, Iceland and Newfoundland.
The transport moved into the muted harbor
at New York after a rendezvous near the entrance with two destroyers
which strew floral pieces on the water after brief religious
ceremonies.
The flag-draped casket of a congressional
medal of honor winner, chosen by the War department as the symbol
of his fellows and whose identity will not be made public, rested
on the boat deck of the transport. A guard of honor stood at
the casket and blue jackets on the destroyers lined the rails
at attention as army and navy installations in the harbor fired
21-gun salutes and war planes roared overhead.
Impressive Memorial Service
Another brief ceremony was held when
the transport docked. The body of the fallen hero was borne from
the ship by pallbearers representing all of the armed services
and was placed on a caisson which was drawn by an armored car
up Fifth avenue to Central park for memorial services.
Thousands lined the streets as the cortege
marched along and church bells tolled. A halt was made at the
Eternal Light in Madison Square, a memorial to the World War
I dead.
At the Central park memorial service, Secretary
of the Army Kenneth C. Royall represented the nation, Gov. Thomas
E. Dewey the state of New York, and Mayor William O'Dwyer the
city of New York. Maj.-Gen. Harry H. Vaughan, military aide to
President Truman, placed a wreath on the coffin and a delegation
from the United Nations was in the speakers' stand.
Bodies of the war dead will be unloaded at
the Brooklyn army base within five days and 10 to 30 days are
expected to elapse before the remains are turned over to next
of kin.
Flags at Half-Mast
Flags in Kosciusko county and throughout
the nation were flown at half-mast to honor the war dead.
Memorial services for Boatswain's Mate Wiltrout
and ten other members of the Warsaw Methodist church who lost
their lives in service were held in June of 1945.
The local sailor, a student of Warsaw high
school, was serving his second enlistment in the navy when the
Pollux disaster occurred. He had served at Norfolk, Va., and
San Diego, Cal., had shipped through the Panama canal and had
been on duty in Hawaii. He returned to the United states at the
completion of his first enlistment but re-enlisted a few months
later. The Pollux was operating in the North Atlantic out of
Norfolk, Va.
Wiltrout was born on a farm south of Warsaw
March 23, 1918. He left Warsaw high school in his junior years
to enlist in the navy on Oct. 21, 1936. He was 24 years old when
he lost his life. Survivors include the mother, a sister, Norma,
and the father, Creed Wiltrout, of St. Paul, Minn.
Also returned aboard the Joseph V. Connolly
was army Sgt. Walter Lockerbie, Jr., son of Walter Lockerbie,
Sr., of 308 Sunset boulevard, Goshen.
Warsaw Daily Times,
Monday Oct. 27, 1947 page 1 & 6 |
