Paul Nicklas Mayer, World War II CasualtyPorter County Data on World War II Casualties . . . .
Paul Nicklas Mayer
Private First Class, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Date of Birth: December 3, 1920
Date of Death: January 6, 1944
Burial: St. Paul Cemetery, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana
Cause of Death: Killed in Action
Date of Enlistment: June 4, 1942
Hometown: Valparaiso
Newspaper Notices:
Paul Mayer War Victim
The first Porter county man to enlist in the marines after the Japanese sneak
attack in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, has been reported killed in action.
He is Paul Mayer, 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Mayer, 359 Campbell street. A
telegram was received this noon by the parents from Lieut. Gen. A. A. Vandegrift,
of the U. S. Marines, Washington, D. C., giving them the ill tidings.
Young Mayer was among the first to the call after Pearl Harbor and his
enlistment at Gary, where he was employed in the steel mills, was the occasion
for newspaper writeups.
He took his basic training at San Diego, Calif. After being sent to the South
Pacific, he participated in the Guadalcanal campaign and contracted malaria
fever. He was sent to Australia for hospitalization. For a long time the family
did not hear directly from him, but was apprized in letters received from a
nurse that he was well but very busy.
He had never been home on a furlough since he enlisted more than two years ago.
The heroic Marine was born in South Dakota on Dec. 3, 1920, and had lived in
Valparaiso since 1929 when the family came here.
Surviving besides the parents are five sisters, Mrs. Josephine Kinne, Boston,
Mass.; Mary Elizabeth Mayer, Los Angeles, Calif.; Ruth, Helen and Katherine, at
home, and one , Thomas, at home.
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Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana;
February 18, 1944; Volume 17, Page 1, Column 2
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List of
Porter County World War II Casualties
Information abstracted and transcribed by Steven R. Shook