July 25, 2016: The St. Lucas Veterans Memorial prominently honors two people: Father Aloysius H. Schmitt, who died at Pearl Harbor, and Pfc. James A. Kruse, an Army medic who died in Vietnam in 1969.
The U.S. Department of Defense has identified the remains of the Rev. Aloysius Schmitt of St. Lucas, Iowa, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports. (Story on Register’s and World-Herald’s websites.) Schmitt was a chaplain on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941 and, according to the article, saved the lives of 12 sailors before the Oklahoma capsized in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Schmitt’s remains will be interred at Loras College on Oct. 8.
I’m putting this in the blog because I made my first visit to St. Lucas, in Fayette County, this summer, and photographed the veterans memorial.