LaVerdos W. Loeltz

World War II

LaVerdos Loeltz was born on February 7, 1916, in Bayard, IA to Joseph and Mary (Thieleke) Loeltz. By 1920, the family had moved to Breda, IA. Mary Loeltz, who had been born in Templeton, died in 1929 and the 1930 census indicates LaVerdos and his sister Helen were living with an aunt and uncle in Omaha, NE. In the 1930’s, LaVerdos moved back to live with his father in Carroll and he graduated from Carroll High School.

LaVerdos registered for the military draft on October 16, 1940, and indicated he was employed by Heider Manufacturing in Carroll. He was inducted into the US Army on October 9, 1941, at Fort Des Moines, IA just three weeks before the Pearl Harbor attack. He was assigned serial number 37109012.

LaVerdos was immediately sent to Fort Sill near Lawton, OK for initial training. Fort Sill was the home of the Field Artillery School. When his training was complete, he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 252nd Coast Artillery Regiment. This unit moved to New Orleans, LA on April 20, 1942, for transit overseas. The regiment sailed from New Orleans on April 26 and arrived at Port of Spain, Trinidad just off the coast of Venezuela in early May. Coastal artillery defenses were set up to counter the wide-ranging activity of German U-boats in the North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea. LaVerdos continued with this duty until April 4, 1944, when his unit returned to the United States landing in New York City on April 9.

The regiment moved to Fort Jackson, SC on April 13, 1944, where it was inactivated. The 3rd Battalion was redesignated as the 530th Field Artillery Battalion and was sent to Camp Chaffee near Fort Smith, AR. There they began training for duty in Europe. On December 27, 1944, LaVerdos was on leave when he married Verdean Winter from Arcadia at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Carroll.

He returned to Camp Chaffee and, on March 1, 1945, he and the 530th Field Artillery Battalion were on their way to Italy as a part of the US 5th Army. The US 5th Army under General Mark Clark had been fighting the Germans on the Italian peninsula since late 1943. The fight to push the Germans north was characterized by heavy enemy resistance, bad weather and mountainous terrain. By the arrival of the 530th Field Artillery Battalion, the front was north of Florence. Fighting remained heavy as the spring of 1945 brought a new offensive by the Allies around and north of Bologna.

The Allied offensive gained momentum during April, 1945, with various units fanning out across northern Italy. The Germans finally surrendered on April 29, 1945, ten days before the German surrender in Germany. After occupation duty, LaVerdos and his unit returned to the United States on October 1, 1945. He was discharged on October 9, 1945, with the rank of Tec5 (corporal equivalent).

LaVerdos returned to Carroll where he was employed as an automotive mechanic until 1965. He and his wife moved to Des Moines where he lived the rest of his life. He died in Des Moines on December 14, 1972 at age 56. He was buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Templeton.