Wallace Orrin Brainerd, World War II CasualtyPorter County Data on World War II Casualties . . . .
Wallace Orrin Brainerd
Private, 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division
Date of Birth: November 11, 1912
Date of Death: November 29, 1944
Burial: Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery (Plot A, Row 8, Grave 33), Henri-Chapelle,
Belgium
Cause of Death: Killed in Action (Battle of the Bulge, Belgium)
Awards: Purple Heart
Hometown: Valparaiso (Long Lake area)
Newspaper Notices:
Killed in Action on Nazi Front
American action in Germany has claimed another Porter county man as a casualty
with the announcement today that Pvt. Wallace O. Brainerd, 32, son of Wm.
Brainerd, of Long Lake, had been killed in action on November 29 somewhere in
that area.
Brainerd is the ninth Porter county man to be reported dead in the campaign on
the western front.
Attached to an infantry division, Pvt. Brainerd went overseas in September,
first to England and then to France, Holland and finally Germany, where he was
killed.
He was a member of the 26th Infantry, Company 7, but later joined the veteran
First Division, which is in the center of the current German drive.
HE received his trining at Camp Walters, Texas, finishing in August of this
year.
Pvt. Brainerd attended Flint Lake school and graduated from the 8th grade in
1927. Later he attended Liberty Center high school and graduated in 1932. While
in high school he was a member of the basketball team.
Surviving are his widow, Belle; a step-son and step-daughter, living at 6925
South Emerald avenue, Chicago; his father, W. M. Brainerd, of Northwoods, Long
Lake; his step-mother, and one brother, Robert P. Brainerd, radar man, 2nd
class, Coast Guard, attached to a destroyer escort convoying supplies. The
latter's wife and son reside at Chesterton. He is believed to be in the United
States at present.
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Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana;
December 23, 1944; Volume 18, Page 1, Column 8
THE HOME FRONT
Pvt. Wallace I. Brainerd, 32, former Long lake resident, who was killed in
action in Germany on Nov. 29, 1944, has been awarded posthumously the Purple
Heart. A letter accompanying the award has been received by the soldier's widow,
Mrs. Belle B. Brainerd, 6925 Emerald Ave., Chicago, from Henry Stimson,
Secretary of War.
A letter was also received from 1st Lieut. James E. Roe, Pvt. Brainerd's
commanding officer, in which he states that although military regulations
prohibited him from disclosing details of Pvt. Brainerd's death he could assure
members of his family that he died as a soldier in a manner he would wish. His
presence in the line was always an inspiration to his comrades, Lieut. Roe said.
A Protestant chaplain officiated at a military funeral and he is buried in a
Belgian cemetery. Pvt. Brainerd is the son of Wallace H. Brainerd, of Long lake.
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Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana; March
30, 1945; Volume 18, Page 2, Column 5
Return to
List of
Porter County World War II Casualties
Information abstracted and transcribed by Steven R. Shook