LT. SYLVAN CHOZEN SUPPLIES CLOTHES TO YANKS ON OKINAWA
Herb Paul, Des Moines Register staff writer in the Pacific, has recently met Lt. Sylvan Chozen of Spirit Lake on Okinawa and tells of Lt. Chozen’s work with the quartermaster depot of the 96th division, in a recent story coming from Okinawa.
Paul wrote as follows: “The Doughboys fighting in the rain and mud at the front must have a clean pair of socks every day. Shoes last an average of 10 days. He must have clean shirts and underwear. Lost clothing must be replaced.
Seventy thousand shirts are issued to a division. A million and a half pair of socks are needed to keep the doughboy’s feet dry.
In the quartermaster depot of the 96th division, I met Lt. Sylvan Chozen of Jackson, Minn., and Spirit Lake, Iowa, who runs the Chozen department stores in these two cities with his father, Ben Chozen.
In charge of allocating supplies to various divisions, he terms the quartermaster’s job the biggest business in the Pacific.”
Source: Spirit Lake Beacon, May 31, 1945
***Further Research:
Sylvan Chozen was born June 22, 1915 to Ben and Eva Moore Chozen. He died Mar. 2, 1995 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Spirit Lake, IA.
Source: ancestry.com
