BISSEN, Howard M., Pfc. 1947-1968

BISSON, ELLIOTT, SMITH, ELGAS

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 2/20/2011 at 16:29:16

#1:

Rites Set
For Area
Viet Victim

STACYVILLE, IOWA - Funeral services for Pfc. Howard M. Bissen, 20, of Stacyville, who died in action in Vietnam, have been set for Saturday here. Services will be 10 a.m. Saturday at Visitation Catholic Church at Stacyville, with burial in St. John's Cemetery at Johnsburg.

The rosary will be recited for him 8 p.m. Thursday and 3 and 8 p.m. Friday at the church.

Two busloads of Army personnel are expected to arrive in Stacyville Friday evening and will provide full military rites Saturday.

Pfc. Bissen died January 8, 1968, of gunshot wounds received in Vietnam. His father said the Army told him his son died while assisting a wounded soldier.

Pfc. Bissen was born in Stacyville on March 2, 1947, the second son of Fred and Myrna Bissen. He attended grade school at St. John's School in Johnsburg and was a 1965 graduate of Visitation High School in Stacyville. He assisted his father in farming until he entered the Army June 26.

He received basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and advanced infantry combat training at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He arrived home on a 30-day leave November 3. He left for Vietnam December 5, and was stationed at Chu Lai, an air base on the coastline of Vietnam. He was a member of Company B, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal division.

He was reported missing January 16, but Thursday his parents were notified of his death.

The body was flown from San Francisco to Waterloo Tuesday. Members of American Legion Hale Penney Fuller Post 569 of Stacyville escorted the body from the Waterloo airport to Stacyville.

He is survived by his parents; four brothers: Jim, 24; Dale, 17; Russell, 12, and Larry Joe, 7, all at home; seven sisters: Mrs. Edward Kreidermacher of Minnelska, Minnesota; June, a student in Waterloo, and Shirley, 14; Eloise, 14; Emily, 10; Rosalie, 9, and Mary, 5, all at home, and his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Mary I. Elliott of Adams.

Hatton Funeral Home of Stacyville is in charge of arrangements.

[Waterloo Courier, January 24, 1968]

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#2:
(Biographical sketch of his father, Fred Bissen)

FRED BISSEN FAMILY

Fred Bissen was born on February 14, 1920, on the family farm northwest of Stacyville, Iowa. He was the son of Mathias Bissen and Margaret (Smith) Bissen. The family included fred and his five sisters. Belonging to St. John's Catholic church at Johnsburg, Minnesota, they were educated at St. John's parochial school. Fred also attended Adams High School for a year.

On August 21, 1940 a car accident took the lives of both his parents, and at 20, Fred had to take over running the family farm.

On June 23, 1942 Fred married Myrna Elliot, daughter of Perry A. AElliot and Isabel (Elgas) Elliot, whoc also lived in the Stacyville area.

Fred and Myrna were blessed with 12 children: James (married Rebecca Ronne), October 4, 1969, Joyce (married Edward Kriedermacher on August 26 1967), Howard, who died in Vietnam on January 8, 1968, June (married Walter Wynkoop on Dec. 29, 1967), Dale (married Sandra Kiefer, Nov. 7, 1970), Shirley (married Peter Lukasiewicz, July 11, 1987), Eloise, who is single, Russell Bissen (married Mary Ellen Bahr, April 3, 1976, Rosalie (married Robert Kipling, June 16, 1984), Lawerence (Larry) (married Barbara Adams, June 19, 1983) and Mary Bissen, who is single.

[Written by Fred and Myrna Bissen - 1989]

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#3:

Photo of Howard, from MITCHELL COUNTY HISTORY, 1989.

Mitchell Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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