Earl L. Niehaus
World War II
Earl Niehaus was born on March 23, 1919, on a farm between Templeton and Manning to Henry and Adeline (Stangl) Niehaus. Earl attended school in Templeton as well as Arcadia where the family moved for a time. They later moved back to the Manning area where Earl registered for the military draft on October 16, 1940. He was inducted into the US Army at Fort Crook, NE on June 30, 1941. He was assigned serial number 37071633. At the time of his induction, he was living in Manning and working for Farmers Union.
After induction, he was sent to Fort Leavenworth, KS and then to Camp Grant near Rockford, IL for basic training. Camp Grant was a center for training soldiers for the Army Medical Service and Earl was assigned to the 27th Medical Training Battalion. In the fall of 1941, Earl was sent to Fort McClellan, AL and assigned to the staff of the 9th Station Hospital which was being organized there. Station hospitals were used during World War II to provide general and surgical treatment in locations where General hospitals did not exist. Therefore, they were semi-mobile.
After additional training, the 9th Station Hospital was moved to New York City for shipment overseas. Earl and his unit sailed from New York on January 23, 1942, through the Panama Canal and on to Australia making this the first task force to sail to the South Pacific after Pearl Harbor. This voyage would have taken more than a month.
On March 27, 1942, the 9th Station Hospital moved to the island of New Caledonia east of Australia and north of New Zealand. While the Japanese were threatening this area, the Battle of the Coral Sea and the American invasion of Guadalcanal prevented Japanese expansion that far south. By February, 1943, Guadalcanal was declared secure and American forces began their northward march up the Solomon Islands.
During October, 1943, the 9th Station Hospital moved to Guadalcanal to support the continued fighting in the region. All branches of the military were involved in this area. Guadalcanal was unimproved jungle and hospital cases would have included all types of injuries and illness. On June 3, 1944, Earl was promoted to Tec3 (staff sergeant equivalent) and was in charge of all receiving office personnel in the hospital.
As the war moved on, the need for hospital facilities on Guadalcanal diminished. By October 26, 1944, Earl was back in the United States. While on furlough, he married Jeanne Fox of Templeton at Sacred Heart Church on November 14, 1944. The newlyweds moved to El Paso, TX via Little Rock, AR as Earl’s next assignment was at Fort Bliss. There he was a member of the 1852nd Service Command Unit and he was section chief of the medical examining station. By August, 1945, both the European and Pacific wars had ended. Earl was discharged on October 9, 1945.
The Niehaus’ returned to Iowa where Earl operated a farm produce route for many years. From 1965 through 1969, he served as Postmaster in Templeton. Earl died in Ames, IA on March 27, 1987 at age 68. He was buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Templeton.