3 MEMBERS OF GUARD UNIT (Sgts. Christenson, Shelton and Wilson) ON CASUALTY LIST
Staff Sgt. Christenson Is Missing; 2 Sergeants Injured.
Further evidence that the Iowa National Guard company from this city has been engaged in the fierce fighting in northern Italy was reported over the weekend in Webster City by relatives receiving war department messages saying that one Guardsman was missing and two others had been wounded.
Staff Sgt. Raymond Christenson, 30, son of M. T. Christenson of this city, was reported missing in action July 1. He was last heard from in a letter written a month ago and received July 3 at which time he wrote he was feeling fine.
Shelton Injured
Relatives of Sgt. Don Shelton, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Shelton of Oceanside, Cal., former residents of this city, have received word that the former Webster City high school athletic star had been wounded and was now in a hospital in Italy. His condition was described as not serious. A letter written by Sergeant Shelton on July 4 was carried last week in the Freeman-Journal. He stated at that time he had completed a visit to Rome, and that the personnel of the company had changed so much that he felt he scarcely knew any of the members.
Third casualty reported last weekend was First Sgt. Eugene D. Wilson, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Wilson of Blairsburg who was wounded July 8.
This was the second time in two months Sergeant Wilson had been wounded as he had received his first injury in Italy two months to the day before being wounded again.
3 Were Killed
Last week, three members of the company were listed as killed: Captain Kenneth Nichols, First Sgt. Charles Meyers and Sgt. Kenneth Cornett.
In the fighting since late May when the allied troops broke out of the Anzio beachhead and started their victory drive northward, several other Guardsmen have been reported wounded, and one—Staff Sgt. Roger Groves—is among the missing.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA – July 24, 1944
Obituary:
Raymond C. Christenson, 79, Brainerd, Minn., a former Webster City resident, died Sunday, Sept. 29, at the Veterans Hospital in St. Cloud, Minn. Funeral services will be held Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 1:30 p.m. at the Halvorson-Johnson Funeral Home in Brainers, where visitation is from 9 a.m. Wednesday until service time. Burial will be in the Dykeman Cemetery in rural Brainerd.
Raymond C. Christenson, son of Morris and Mary Christenson, was born June 28, 1912, in Webster City. He was a retired engineer with the Nissen Packing Company, and was a World War II Army veteran and a P.O.W.
He is survived by two brothers, Larry Christenson, Brainerd, and John Christenson, Kamrar, a sister, Bernice Short, Minneapolis, Minn., and nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers and three sisters.
Mr. Christenson was a member of the American Legion and the V.F.W.
Raymond Chris Christenson, Staff Sgt. U.S. Army - MIA/POW
Raymond Chris Christenson was born June 28, 1912 to Morris and Mary Slawson Christenson. He died Sept. 29, 1991, and is buried in the Dykeman Union Cemetery, Crow Wing County, MN.Sgt. Christenson was reported missing in action July 1, 1944. In Aug. 1944 he was listed as being held prisoner by the nazis.
Sources:
Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA
ancestry.com
