Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 3, September 1995 Page: 129

Supreme Sacrifice: Colorado County's World War /I Dead

Mediterranean when he lost his life; however, if that were true, he probably would have
been classified as killed in action rather than as a non-battle death.43
Foster was survived by his parents and an uncle, D. E. Foster of Columbus.
After the war, his family brought Foster's body back for burial in Bay City, next to his
younger sister, Lucille Isabelle Foster, who had died in 1920. A funeral service was held
on June 23, 1949 in Garwood Methodist Church with Rev. Calvin Froehner officiating.
Alma Dale Pinchback played piano. The pallbearers were Garwood servicemen Sgt.
Clyde Muesse, S/Sgt. Carl Smith, T-Sgt. Melvin Schilling, T-Sgt. Robert Schiurring, Sgt.
Melvin Rees and Capt. Ted Danklefs. He is memorialized by a simple gravestone in Bay
City and a more expository marker at the Garwood church."
PFC Arthur W. Weiss
August 17, 1916 - November 17, 1943
Arthur W. Weiss, the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joe Weiss, who was born
August 17, 1916 in Sublime, Texas, was the third Colorado County man killed in the
fighting for Italy. A private first class in the 141st Infantry, Weiss was killed in action
on the Italian front on November 17, 1943. He was survived by a sister, Mrs. Edgar
Taabe; a brother, PFC John Weiss, who was then serving in the Pacific; and an uncle,
J. F. W. Koehn. After his death, his sister received a captured German flag, which Weiss
had mailed to her only six days before his death. In 1949, his remains were returned to
the United States for burial, at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at San Antonio.45
Seaman 2nd Class John Henry Stahl
Died November 24, 1943
The Americans, under the direction of Admiral Chester Nimitz, opened the
offensive that became known as the Central Pacific Campaign in the fall of 1943. The
offensive consisted of a series of marine assaults on tiny, heavily-defended atolls. The
Gilbert Islands were the first attacked. The campaign opened with twin assaults on
Tarawa and Makin on November 20, 1943. Although marine losses were heavy for the
tiny areas (991 dead on Tarawa's 261 acres alone), the biggest loss was the escort
carrier Liscome Bay, part of Nimitz's supporting fleet to the invasions.
John Henry Stahl, the son of Lee Stahl and a resident of Rock Island,
attended Columbus High School, but enlisted in the military in February 1942, some four
months before he was scheduled to graduate. He was shipped out of Bermerton,
Washington on Liscome Bay, one of the many smaller, mass-produced carriers that were
hastily built to fill the gap created by the loss of the four fleet carriers in the Pacific in
1942, prior to the launching of the new Essex class carriers that would later dominate
43 Eagle Lake Headlight, December 17, 1943. The writer's father, Curtis Fling, who was a close
friend of Foster's before the war, often related how suddenly Foster's death came. Fling stated that "Bill
[Foster] barely got off the ship" in North Africa before he was killed.
44 Eagle Lake Headlight, June 24, 1949. Local church members relate that often they have had to
advise young Methodist preachers that despite the markers, no one is buried on the church grounds.
45 Weimar Mercury, December 10, 1943, January 7, 1944, April 8, 1949.

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