Memorial To Eastern Iowa’s Company C

Posted on Sep 04, 2009 by Dave Rasdal.

Company C, 133rd Regiment, 34th Division, during World War II hailed from Eastern Iowa. The men came from Cedar Rapids, Central City, Vinton, Williamsburg, Walker, Hopkinton, Garrison, Prairieburg, Oelwein, Waubeek, Coggon, Marion, Manchester and Elberon.

Bob Woodford of Cedar Rapids, a private first class, wanted to remember his buddies so  he bought memorial bricks for them at the Veterans Memorial Park in Cedar Rapids (See today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette.) The bricks were installed last May, before Memorial Day.

Company C, a National Guard unit inducted in February, 1941, was one of the first to be shipped off to Europe after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.  While more than 300 people from around the country would eventually serve in the company, it was unique to Iowa in the beginning when these 105 men served. And some of those soldiers, even though they were early to see action, were also fighting at war’s end nearly 3 1/2 years later.

Here is the list of the men commemorated on these memorial bricks:

Captain: Vincent Dvorak

First Lieutenants: John Elliott, Ray Murdock

Second Lieutenants; Louis Sanders, Wayne Walton

First Sergeant: Roy Larkin

Staff Sergeant: Emil Pnovsky

Sergeants: Paul Alsin, M. Cervantes, James Dulin, Arthur Elliott, Arthur Horne, Jack Kasebeer, Benjamin Kirk, John Krejci, William Konen, Albert McDonough, Howard McNulty, George Sanders, Kenneth Saul, Ernest Scott, David Silver, Theodore Wichman, Ted Williams, LeRoy Wolfe

Corporals: Ollie Armstrong, Cecil Bown, C.J. Farrington, Edward Fry, Kenneth Gaddy, Wesley Gallup, Donald Hayes, B.C. Krabacher, Perry Paullin, George Teply, Milo Webb, Ray Wells, Charles Wright

Privates First Class: Charles Augustson, Earl Berry, Lynn Blair, Paul Blessing, Paul Boots, John Buchanan, Max Campbell, Claude Cole, Marvel Conn, Theodore Dahle, Raymond Day, Dick Donegan, Robert Erlacher, Franc Flannagan, James Flanagan, Robert Fry, Dale Griggs, Cliff Hagerman, Roy Holub, Sam Hotchkiss, Charles Ivory, Robert Julis, Kenneth Kepler, Jack Kindig, E.P. Lawerence, V.R. Livermore, Harry Loseau, Arlie Lyons, Clifford Miner, Edward Miner, James Naughton, Walter Nesley, Earl Penrod, Carmen Reynolds, James Rose, T.N. Shannahan, Reinhold Simmer, Jerry Snoble, Joseph Sturm, William Thompson, Garland Walters, Robert Woodford, Stanley Yukl

Privates: Vaughn Bischof, Wilbur Boots, Joel Cahill, Willard Clark, Allen Coombs, Edgar Curtright, Merle Eppers, G. Gesmacher, Harold Hartley, Wilson Jones, Lumir Kazimour, Joe Kenneally, Dennis Minnis, Vincent Nolan, Carl Oakley, Claude O’Donnell, Harold Owens, Jerome Pugh, Earl Rubey, Paul Turner, Enos Tyler