Nashua—Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Meier have received letters from their son, Sgt. Richard J. Meier, in which he writes he was in Manila the day when the Japanese envoys arrived to confer with General MacArthur for the first drawing up of the peace at Nichols Field. He said it will take about 10 years to rebuild Manila. He has traveled all over Luzon and Leyte. Balete Pass was the bloodiest of all the campaigns in that particular area—being under shell fire for six weeks, he said. There is now a monument on the peak of the pass erected to the memory of the men in the 25th Division, many of whom lost their lives there.
This pass has been renamed Dalton Pass in memory of General James L. Dalton, regimental colonel, who was killed by a Jap sniper as he was riding in a jeep. Richard met General Hanford MacNider of Mason City.
Source: Waterloo Daily Courier, October 17, 1945
Richard Jacob Meier was born Jan. 29, 1922 to August and Marie Wedemeyer Meier. He died July 26, 1999 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Nashua, IA.
Source: ancestry.com
