Ohlsen receives medal after sustaining injury in WWII

Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of stories about past and present Jackson County residents who earned the Purple Heart Medal, which is awarded to military personnel wounded or killed in the line of duty.

The names of those profiled in these stories will be placed on a special monument for Purple Heart Medal recipients to be built later this year in Holton’s Linscott Park.

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Almost a year after his older brother disappeared at sea, Whiting native F. William “Bill” Ohlsen entered the military to serve his country during World War II.

Ohlsen, the son of Fred and Ruby Richelsen Ohlsen and a 1943 graduate of Whiting Rural High School, was wounded in battle less than two years after enlisting, earning a Purple Heart Medal while on Army duty in the Philippines during the last days of the war.

He became the second of the Ohlsen sons to earn the medal after his brother, Francis W. Ohlsen, was posthumously honored. Francis was a crewman on the USS Muskeget, a weather ship that was sunk while on weather patrol in the northern Atlantic Ocean in September of 1942.

Bill Ohlsen entered the Army in July of 1943 at Fort Leavenworth, trained as a rifleman and was later assigned to the 132nd Infantry Regiment, which participated in the retaking of the Philippine Islands in the South Pacific from Japanese forces. His regiment was among those participating in the Solomon Islands campaign, it was reported.

On April 15, 1945, Ohlsen was hit by bullets in the inner right thigh and left shoulder, according to military records. He was taken to an Army field hospital on the Philippine island of Cebu for immediate treatment, then transferred to a station hospital on the island of Leyte for further treatment two days later.

A month after that, Ohlsen was transferred to a convalescent hospital on Leyte and remained there for about six weeks, according to military records. On Dec. 7, 1945, he received an honorable discharge from the Army, holding the rank of private first class.

Ohlsen returned home to Jackson County to farm with his father and brothers, moving in 1959 to Seneca, where he resided the rest of his life. He owned and operated a number of businesses, including a gas station and café, a Montgomery Ward catalog store, a refrigeration and air conditioning business and a shoe repair store.

He married Myra Murphy on July 9, 1961, at Seneca, and they raised two sons and a daughter. He died Sept. 18, 1981, and is buried in Seneca City Cemetery.