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LTC Ralph Stutzman
to remember
Stutzman, Ralph, S/SGT.
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Contact Info
Last Address Crystal Springs
Date of Passing Jun 16, 1989
Location of Interment Crystal Springs Mennonite Cemetery - Harper County, Kansas
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Ralph returned to Kansas after the war to resume his caree as an educator. He taught in Langdon, Kansas, was a principal in Attica (his home town), and was a superintendent in Little River, Kansas. In 1949, Ralph and Hetty went to Germany to work for the government and ultimately became a superintendent of Army Dependent Schools (precursor to Department of Defense schools). Their only son was born in 1949 in Heidelberg, German, and they remained in Germany for 11 years with the exception of a year in France (1954-1955). In 1960 they returned to the States when Ralph accepted a professor position at Oklahoma College for Women (now known as University of Arts and Sciences of Oklahoma). Ralph and the family moved to Stevensville, Michigan, in 1964 when he accepted a position teaching at Lake Michigan College. He remained there until he retired in 1974 as the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Ralph and Hetty retired to Harper, Kansas, where Hetty died on 28 March 1975. Ralph remarried to Gladys Kuykendall Brown in 1976 and moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, before finally settling in Sun City, Arizona, where he died of a stroke on 16 June 1989. He is buried next to Hetty in Crystal Springs, Kansas, less than two miles from where he was born.
Ralph loved to write and maintained a journal throughout his tour with the 347th Airdrome Squadron while in the CBI. It provides an almost daily record of the experiences of the Communications Section between November 1944 and September 1945. On 2 September 1945, he broke his arm as his plane landed in Luichow, China. He had left his seat to begin releasing the cargo to save time unloading as the airplane was taxiing to the hanger and fell when the airplane hit a crater in the runway. He was mustered out of the 347th Airdrome Squadron on 8 September 1945 to return to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for discharge. Flying from Luichow to Nanning, China (8 September 1945) and on to Kunming, China (8 September 1945), he was admitted to the hospital in Kunming because his arm had become infected inside his cast. After being released from the hospital on 14 September 1945 he flew over the "Hump" to Chabua, India (14 September 1945). From there he flew to Delhi, India, (18 September 1945) and on to Karachi, India, (18 September 1945) where he boarded the Liberty Ship J. Sterling Morton on 1 October 1945. The Morton left Karachi on 1 October and sailed across the Indian Ocean and into the Straits of Suez and the Red Sea on 5 October 1945. They entered the Suez Canal on 8 October 1945 and docked in Port Said in the Mediterranean Sea (8 October 1945). On 9 October 1945 the Morton departed Port Said and sailed in the Mederterranean Sea, passing Crete (10 October 1945), Sicily (11 October 1945), Malta (11 October 1945), Harbor of Bizert (Tunisia--12 October 1945), and the Rock of Gibraltor (14 October 1945) before entering the Atlantic Ocean (14 October 1945). The J. Sterling Morton arrived at Dock 88 in New York City on 22 October 1945 as the first transport from the CBI to Return to New York. He disembarked on 22 October and went by rail to Camp Kilmer. He departed Camp Kilmer by rail on 23 October and arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 25 October 1945. He remained at Fort Leavenworth until he was discharged on 27 October 1945.
WWII - Asiatic-Pacific Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
21 Named Campaigns were recognized in the Asiatic Pacific Theater with Battle Streamers and Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medals.
