Lt. Lord, Carl Mueller Added to Casualty List

Pilot Reported Killed; Aid Man Lost on Okinawa

Victim of Japs

Another name, that of Carl D. Mueller, Ph. M. 3/C, was added to the list of those from this community who have made the supreme sacrifice in the service of their country.

The son of Mr. and Mrs. William L. Mueller, of 21 South Sixth Avenue, Carl was killed in action on Okinawa, where he was a company aid man with the Third Amphibious corps of the Sixth Marine division, according to a War department message received here Saturday morning. The date on which he was killed was not given in the telegram but it stated that more information would follow.

Was His First Campaign

The last letter from him was dated May 12 and he told his folks that he was fine and urged them not to worry about him. The bitter struggle for Okinawa was Carl’s first campaign and he had been in the thick of the fighting since the initial invasion on Easter Sunday, April 1 — now 68 days ago. Other letters that he sent from the island told nothing of the bloody campaign or of his work as a company aid man.

Carl, who was just 20 last September 19, entered the service in July of 1943, taking his boot training in the navy at Farragut, Ida. He came home for what was to be his last visit here after that training and then went to San Diego, Cal. From there he went to the naval hospital at Oakland, and after two months he was transferred to the convalecent hospital at Santa Cruz.

When a critical need arose for aid men in the Marines, he volunteered for this service and was sent to Camp Pendleton for six months’ training. During July of 1944, his parents made a trip to California and visited with him for two days — their last time together with him. In November of 1944 he left the States for Guadalcanal where he underwent further training in preparation for the Okinawa campaign.

Attended LTHS and JC

Carl had always lived in LaGrange. He attended St. John’s Lutheran School and then went to LTHS where in his senior year, 1941-42, he was a member of the conference-winning heavyweight football team. He completed one year at Junior College in June of 1943, and one month later he entered the service.

Besides his parents he has a brother and a sister in the service. William Mueller Jr., AMM 1/C, is with the Navy Air Transport and is now stationed at Alameda, Cal. His sister, Ens. Frieda Marie Mueller, is assigned to radio-radar work at San Pedro, Cal. Also surviving are five other sisters: Erika Oltroge, whose husband is a pastor of the Willow Springs Lutheran Church; Cordula Bluder, of California; Lillie Ellen Wallman, of Cardinal, Ontario, Canada; Carolyn, a student at Valparaiso University; and Beth, a student at St. John’s Lutheran School.