Julius J. Siefring

Julius Siefring in uniform War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: Company D, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division Service Location: Camp Atterbury, Indiana; Camp Wolters, Texas (basic training); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; New Guinea; Luzon, Mindanao Island, Mindoro and Leyte Island (Philippines) Rank: Staff Sergeant Place of Birth: OH

Julius J. Siefring, a staff sergeant serving with the 24th Infantry Division, took part in several island landings in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Among them was Leyte Island in the Philippines, where he watched from a distance as U.S. planes bombed and strafed the island before his unit received the go-ahead to invade. Siefring witnessed unimaginable horrors: soldiers under fire jumping from the landing craft only to be weighed down by their heavy packs, some of them drowning before they could reach land; while on land others scratched at trees, the stress finally breaking them. Siefring gave medical aid to those he could, and in the process, he probably saved at least one man's life.