Lawrence L. Wolterman

World War II

Lawrence Wolterman was born on April 19, 1908, near Breda, IA to Peter and Elizabeth (Woerdehoff) Wolterman. Peter Wolterman had been born in Germany and came to the United States as a boy. Lawrence attended school in Breda and worked with his father on the family farm. On January 20, 1931, Lawrence was married to Florence Goecke at St. Bernard Church in Breda. The couple later farmed in Fonda and Dedham.

Lawrence registered for the military draft on October 16, 1940, and he indicated he was employed by a WPA Project in Templeton. By this time, Lawrence was the father of six children. Initial draft rules at that time exempted Lawrence from being called up.

By 1944, the course of the war had changed and Lawrence was inducted into the US Navy at Des Moines on March 10, 1944. He was assigned serial number 860 22 48. He was sent to the US Navy Training Center Farragut near Coeur d’Alene, ID for boot training arriving there on March 13.

Lawrence’s initial training was complete on May 17, 1944, and he was promoted to S2c (seaman second class). He was then transferred to Cook and Baker school at Iowa State College (now University). This training was complete on September 9, 1944, and Lawrence was promoted to S1c (Baker). He was then transferred to Camp Bradford near Virginia Beach, VA.

Camp Bradford was a new base designed to train sailors for amphibious landings, especially for crews of LST’s (landing ship tank). Training there continued through the end of 1944 and into 1945. On April 1, 1945, Lawrence was promoted to Bkr3c (baker petty officer third class) and sent to Great Lakes Training Center near Chicago, IL for assignment.

After furlough in Templeton, Lawrence was assigned to the crew of LST 1146. This ship was 320 feet in length and capable of transporting up to 30 tanks and 200 troops to the beach. The crew boarded this ship at Seneca, IL where it had been built. They sailed down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers and through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean leaving the United States on June 1, 1945. The ship went on to Eniwetok and was back at Pearl Harbor on August 1, 1945, when Lawrence was promoted to Bkr2c. The next few days saw the atomic attacks on Japan ending the war. LST 1146 went on to serve at Guam and Saipan in the Mariana Islands. On October 13, 1945, the ship was at Tanapag Harbor, Saipan when Lawrence was ordered back to the United States arriving on December 1, 1945.

Lawrence was processed through Minneapolis, MN and discharged at Great Lakes on December 9, 1945, as a Bkr2c (E-5 equivalent). He returned to Templeton and was employed by the L.J. Greteman Produce Co. and later by Ocken Construction. Lawrence died in Carroll on March 20, 1992 at age 83. He was buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Templeton.