Louis J. Veesenmeyer S2/c – Louis was born in 5 February 1920. He grew up in Chicago with 6 brothers and 4 sisters. The depression years were especially hard for a family with 11 children. During the war, Louis and four of his brothers joined the armed services. Elmer/Navy, Ray/Coast Guard, George/Army, Louis/Navy, Jackie/Navy. The oldest William tried to join but was too old at 38 and youngest Eddie was still too young at 16 when the war ended.

Louis married Geraldine Nelson on May 13, 1944 and left for Great Lakes Training Center two weeks later. After boot camp and seaman training, he joined the crew of the USS Hugh W. Hadley (DD-774). The new Sumner Class destroyer was commissioned in December of 1944 and left San Diego for the Pacific War in January 1945.

They proceeded to Ulithi where they joined a convoy of troop ships and transports headed for Okinawa. This would become the final major battle of WWII. It was a Japanese home island and would be needed as a staging area for the U.S. invasion of Japan. It became the costliest battle of the Pacific War for the Navy. Kamikazes and conventional air attacks sunk 36 ships, damaged 368 and killed 4,907 sailors. Louis Veesenmeyer was the among those killed.

On 11 May 1945, the USS Hadley was ordered out to Radar Picket station #15 about 50 miles northwest of Okinawa. This had been one of the deadliest patrol areas because it was in direct line of attack from Japan. Their primary mission was to provide early warning of enemy planes to the fleet anchored at Okinawa. The secondary mission was to shoot down enemy planes before they reached higher value ship in the anchorage. They were attacked by five raids totaling 56 planes that morning. They shot down 23 planes – a naval record for a single engagement – and were hit by three kamikazes and two bombs. Thirty Hadley crewmember were killed and 161 Purple Hearts were awarded. Veesenmeyer was among the men who kept a 40mm gun firing as a kamikaze crashed into their position. All the men on that gun mount were killed. They received recognition for “outstanding performance of duty.” Veesenmeyer was listed as buried at sea. In truth none of the men were found. They were all blown out sea. Louis J. Veesenmyer is interred on the memorial at Punch Bowl, Hawaii.

SOURCES:

Family albums
www.USSHadley.net
Ancestry.com
NARA
Navsource.org
Fold3.com
Kamikaze Destroyer (book by Jeffrey R. Veesenmeyer)

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see ++www.storiesbehindthestars.org++). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. **Can you help write these stories? **Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Louis J. Veesenmeyer S2/c, KIA USS Hadley DD-774