Edward Piepmeier
Class of 1933

Died June 2, 1943

Army

Edward Nicholas Piepmeier was born to parents Lawrence & Elizabeth on
​6 December 1914 in Covington, where he grew up at the corner of 15th and Scott along with 4 older brothers, a younger sister, and a younger brother.

"Eddie" graduated from St. Joseph elementary on 12th Street in Covington before attending Covington Catholic from 1930 through 1933. He was on the honor roll in his sophomore, junior, and senior years, and during his junior year he was the class vice president in addition to playing forward on the junior class team in the school's basketball league.

Following graduation in Spring of 1933, Ed continued on for one year of college before withdrawing to support his family with a job, working for Becker Chemical in Cincinnati. On October 16, 1940, Ed and his brothers Emanual and Lawrence all headed to the local draft board office and filled out their draft cards. Shortly thereafter, Ed took a job in the engineering department at the Messer Construction Company in Cincinnati.

In August of 1942, Ed's draft number was called and he was inducted into the Army at Fort Thomas in Campbell County. His year of college made him eligible for Officer Candidate Training School, which he attended at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. After being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant field artillery officer, he was sent to Fort Ord near Santa Cruz California to train with the Army's 7th Infantry Regiment, and then shortly thereafter was sent on to Camp Granite near Riverside, California.

Piepmeier had a brief furlough in February of 1943, coincidentally at the same time as his younger brother Lawrence, who had recently graduated as a Staff Sergeant with the Army Air Forces at the Sheppard Field training center in Texas. They were both able to spend time at home together with their family in Covington before being sent back to their posts.

Less than 4 months later, on Wednesday, June 2, 1943, Ed was killed in an accident while conducting Army training maneuvers at Camp Granite. No further details of his death were reported by the Army.

Ed's remains were returned home four days later. On June 9, 1943 his funeral mass was celebrated at St. Joseph Church in Covington, and his body was laid to rest at Old St. Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

John Schrage
Class of 1934

Died December 13, 1943

Army

John Fredrick Schrage, Covington Catholic class of 1934, was the youngest of 4 children to survive infancy to parents John and Mary Schrage. Growing up in Fort Mitchell's Blessed Sacrament parish, John's older brother Robert was in the Covington Catholic class of 1929, our first graduating class, and his brother Joseph graduated in the class of 1932.

John would follow in his brothers' footsteps and started at Cov Cath in the 1930-31 school year. He was an honor student as a freshman, penning the class narrative for the yearbook that year, as well as playing in the school's basketball league as a . In his sophomore year, he was on staff for the school newspaper, The Kentuckian, and he was on staff for the Covington Catholic annual, The Bluegrass, as a senior in addition to taking part in the senior play.

After graduation, he moved to Cincinnati's west side with his recently widowed mother, where he and his brothers opened Schrage Bros. Food, a grocery store that his family continued to operate through the 1990s.

John's draft number was called in 1941, and he was inducted at Fort Thomas in Campbell County on 10 March. After basic training he was stationed Jamaica for nearly a year before returning to the US for Officer Candidate Training School. After that, he was assigned as a second lieutenant in G Company of the 141st Infantry Regiment in the 36th Infantry Division, nicknamed the "First Texas Infantry." His regiment was one of the first groups of American soldiers to step foot on the continent of Europe in World War 2 in the first amphibious assault to occur anywhere in Europe, taking place at Salerno on 9 September 1943. Schrage was among them.

It was 3 months later when the 36th Infantry was fighting their way towards Rome that the Americans would realize they needed to overtake a heavily defended German outpost at San Pietro, an old Italian village located on the slopes of a mountain. The 36th Infantry Regiment pushed towards the village up the side of the mountain from the valleys below in a first battle, but they were unable to overtake the Germans. Following the first battle, Schrage's  battalion was placed on a nearby hilltop and charged with defending the position so the Germans would not gain back any territory and win higher ground along the American regiment's flank. Lietanant Schrage was a platoon leader defending the mountainside and his battalion came under direct and heavy mortar-fire from the Germans in San Pietro.

The constant barrage of mortaring severely wounded John, and destroyed a communication line between American regimental commanders trying to orchestrate the assault. Despite having extensive bodily damage from mortar shrapnel and light arms fire, Schrage would refuse to stop defending the position until soldiers were able to restore the communication line and successfully be evacuated. John Shrage would succumb to his injuries on 13 December 1943, and 6 months later he was posthumously awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in the Battles for San Pietro.

John was buried in a nearby village cemetery, and remains were returned to his family in Greater Cincinnati 1949, at which point he was laid to rest at Mother of God cemetery in Covington.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Robert Nordlohne
Class of 1938

Died March 5, 1944

​Army Air Force
​
Robert Alexander Nordlohne was the son of John, a railroad worker, and his wife Baldwina. He was born on 25 August 1918 in Covington, and was the youngest of 4 children. Robert's family was already well established in the developing Covington Catholic community; his uncle Joseph had graduated from the St. Joseph Commercial School in 1907, and his older brother Joseph "Jack" was a member of the Covington Catholic Class of 1930, the second graduating class from the school once it became established as a 4-year high school.

Robert With sparse information available from the earliest years at Covington Catholic aside from yearbooks, we have little information on Robert's time at Cov Cath, but he is a graduate member of the Class of 1938, and was involved in the school's intramural basketball league, and was on a club football team that would compete at Goebel Park against club teams from area high schools.

Following high school, Nordlohne briefly entered the St. Vincent Scholasicate, a minor seminary in Latrobe, PA that trained young men for the Benedictine priesthood. Deciding against the ordained life, he returned home where he began working as a meatcutter in one of the slaughter houses in Covington. He later took a job as a clerk for Bernard Landwehr, working in Lendwehr's three 5-and-dime stores in Covington.

On 16 October 1940, Robert and his older brother John headed to the local draft board to fill out their draft cards, and on 1 May 1942 he was inducted into the Army, and he shipped off to Keesler Field, Mississippi on 13 May 1942 for training with the Army Air Force.

Nordlohne was a radio gunner with the 556th Squadron, 387th Bombardment Group, based out of Tampa, Florida. In June 1943 the 387th was deployed to England.  Once in England the group was first assigned to the Eighth Air Force, VIII Air Support Command, 3rd Bombardment Wing and stationed at a newly built-airfield near Chipping Ongar, about 20 miles northeast of London. The group flew its first mission, a diversion, on 31 July 1943 and its first bombing mission on 15 August 1943. During the 387th's tenure with the Eighth Air Force the bulk of the group's missions were attacks on Luftwaffe airfields in occupied France and Belgium.

In September 1943 Ninth Air Force headquarters arrived in England to assume the task of providing tactical air support for the invasion of Normandy. The 387th was transferred to that headquarters on 19 October 1943, and assigned to the IX Bomber Command, 98th Bombardment Wing (Medium).

During the winter of 1943/44, the group's bombing strikes were focused largely on the sites where the Germans were building of launching sites for V-weapons, which were unmanned long-range missiles intended to target English cities. Nordlohne's bombardment group also participated in February 1944's "Big Week," an intensive campaign against the German Air Force and aircraft industry, "Big Week" focused hard on hitting airfields at Leeuwarden and Venlo in the Netherlands in order to disrupt the German defensive response to Allied heavy bombing raids in Germany. For his actions in "Big Week," Nordlohne would receive his fourth set of Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters for his Air Medal, indicating duplicate awards of the medal.

Nordlohne served on at least two separate planes, both B-26 Marauder medium bombers. The first was nicknamed "Top Sarge," and the second, "Double-Trouble" was the plane Nordlohne would die in.

On 8 March 1944, the 556th Squadron was departing their air base in England for a bombing mission in France, attacking the German Atlantic Wall defenses as part of the lead-up to the Normandy Invasion. It was a cloudy morning, and as the B-26s were all taking off and gathering into formation, the "Double-Trouble" collided with another B-26, the "Itsy Bitsy." Both planes crashed. In a final act before his death, Robert, a radio-bomber who's job included both radio communications aboard the plane and releasing the plane's bomb payload, would salvo their bombs in the countryside prior to the crash. By dropping the bombs with the safety wires intact and detonators unarmed, Robert was able to help assure there would be no further risk of life to his crewmen and anyone in the nearby countryside as their plane crashed.

Robert and the entire crew of the Double-Trouble perished in the crash. Shortly following his death, Robert was awarded his final metals: his second Distinguished Service Cross, a sixth Oak Leaf Cluster for his Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. Robert's remains would be laid to rest at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial site in Cambridge, England.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die."

Howard Boone
Class of 1939

Died September 13, 1944

Army Air Force

Joseph Howard Boone, “Howard,” was one of two twin boys born to Jesse & Rena Boone in Danville, KY on 7 January 1921. He and his brother were the fourth and fifth of seven children, and shortly after their birth their father, a clerk for the US Post Office's Railway Mail Service, accepted a job in Covington and moved the family north.

Howard grew up near the Licking River in Covington on East 21st Street. Unlike his older brother Ancel and his twin Nick who both attended Covington Latin School, Howard decided to enroll at Covington Catholic beginning in the fall of 1935. After his graduation in the Class Of 1939, he began working for the United States Army Ordnance Department, working out of the Cincinnati District office.

Following closely in the footsteps of his brothers, Howard enlisted in the Army on 18 August 1942 and joined the Army Air Force. His older brother Ancel had already enlisted with the Army Signal Corps, and his twin brother Nick had enlisted into the Naval Air Corps.

After basic training, Howard eventually made his way to the European Theater of World War II where he was stationed with the 885th Bombardment Squadron. The unit was formed to utilize heavy bombers - highly modified B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators - to transport supplies to partisans and carry allied agents into enemy territory. The 885th would engage in nighttime special-operations missions, flying into Occupied France, Fascist Italy, Yugoslavia and other parts of Occupied Europe. Boone was placed on the crew of a B-24G Liberator, a long-range heavy bomber. His plane, #42-78243, the “Dallas Lady,” had an 11-man crew. Staff Sergeant Boone was a radio-gunner and handled both the radio communications with their flight base as well as operation of one of the .50 caliber Browning M2 machine guns along the plane’s fuselage – a waist gunner.

The "Dallas Lady," which had in recent weeks been painted black as camouflage for night missions, took off shortly after 10:00pm on the night 12 September 1944 from Maison Blanche airport in Algiers, Algeria and was reportedly on an unaccompanied top-secret mission to fly across the Mediterranean Sea in order to drop weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to the French Resistance fighters in the vicinity of Crescentino in Northern Italy. According to an unfinished letter being written by Boone, it was his 24th of 50 missions required to complete his tour of duty.

Once across the Mediterranean, the "Dallas Lady" was to fly across the Maritime Alps region and drop its supplies to awaiting French Resistance fighters in Northern Italy who were secretly encamped there in a fight with a German Panzer Division. Due to the mission’s top-secret status, the flight was to be conducted under strict radio-silence to avoid detection by Axis forces. Without radio transmissions and with most of the mission’s details remaining un-documented, it is difficult to clarify the exact chain of events that brought about the crash that night.

What is known is that most of German-Occupied France was ordered under complete nighttime blackout at the time, which would have made visual navigation from the air extremely difficult. At some point the plane lost its correct course in the adverse weather conditions that night, and crashed into the La Corne de Bouc mountain near Fontan, France. The entire crew was lost on the crash. Villagers nearby in Fontan reported that the plane burned for 3 days and smoldered for another 5.

In the time immediately following the crash, French locals would make their way to the site of the crash and were able to salvage dynamite from the wreckage which would eventually make its way into the hands of Resistance Fighters and be used to destroy a German train.

In their own investigation of the crash site, German soldiers in the area located the plane after the fire had burnt itself out, and coming across nothing of value to themselves, the soldiers instead recovered the remains of the fallen crewmen and placed them in the civilian cemetery at Fontan, France.

With the secrecy of the mission and the location of the crash site in Occupied France, the United States Army Air Force was unable to determine what had happened after the plane failed to return on September 13th. Shortly thereafter, the War Department reported the airmen as missing to their next of kin. Then in 1945, after all US prisoners of war had been freed in the months immediately following VE Day, the War Department notified the families of the crewmen aboard the “Dallas Lady” that their loved ones were presumed dead. It wasn’t until almost 4 years later that the US military intelligence finally learned of the crew’s burial in Fontan, France, at which point arrangements were made for their remains to be exhumed and re-interred together in Louisville’s Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in May of 1949.

45 years after the plane crash, the French War Veterans Association and the city of Nice, France commissioned French artist Sacha Sosno to create a memorial in honor of the 11 flight members of the “Dallas Lady”. As part of the monument, over 4000 pieces of the plane’s wreckage which had remained scattered over a section of La Corne du Bouc mountain, was collected and placed at the spot of plane’s impact along with a monument made of Sardinian granite. There are 11 rectangular pillars, one for each of the crewman, that stand on the memorial with the location of each airman’s place of birth engraved into an individual pillar. A granite tablet also stands at the memorial with the following inscription:

"Le 12 Septembre 1944 le B-24 Liberator Dallas Lady s'esrasa sur la montagne de la Corne du Bouc. Nous rendons hommag aux onze, aviateurs Americains venus liberer la France et l'Europe de la tyrannie. A travers ce monument les Francais saluent le peuple des Etats-Unis d'Amerique.

On 12 September 1944 the B-24 Liberator Dallas Lady crashed into La Corne du Bouc mountain. We pay tribute to the eleven American aviators who came to liberate France and Europe from tyranny. Through this monument the French salute the people of the United States of America."

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Roy Allgeyer
Class of 1942

Died October 27, 1944

Army

Thomas Roy Allgeyer, "Roy" was the second of two children born to Joseph and Cecelia Allgeyer in Ludlow, KY. His father, a rail car repairman for Southern Railway, had served in France in the US Army's Transportation Corps during World War I, and from a young age a sense of service and civic duty was instilled into Roy and his older sister Vera.

Roy started at Covington Catholic in the fall of 1938, and was a well-liked student from the start, and was an honor-roll student at Cov Cath and joined sodality as a sophomore. He was also annually one of the Cov Cath's top producers in the school's paper drive. The paper drive was a fundraiser held by the students to collect used paper stock to sell to recylers. Allgeyer was the #4 producer in the entire school as a sophomore, and he helped his class win the paper drive in each of his four years as a Colonel.

At the end of his junior year, Roy was selected as the representative from the Norman-Barnes American Legion Post #70 to travel to Bowling Green for the Bluegrass Boys State competition. Boy's State was a youth competition in civics and politics sponsored by the American Legion of Kentucky intended to develop future leaders around the Commonwealth.

After he graduated from Covington Catholic in Spring of 1942, Roy started college at Xavier University in Cincinnati, immediately beginning classes during the college's summer session. Following the conclusion of his spring semester, he would enlist in the Army on 1 June 1943, and after completing basic traning he was assigned to the Army's 104th Infantry Division. Roy was in the division's 414th Regiment, based out of Camp Adair in Corvallis, OR.

His regiment would participate in the Army's two-month long Oregon Manuevers in the fall of 1943, and then in the California-Arizona Maneuvers in the 5 months that followed. These were both major military exercises conducted stateside with the intent of evaluating the Army's training, logistics, doctrine, and commanders as a test in preparation for the invasion of Europe's Western Front following the initial Normandy Invasion.

Allgeyer arrived in France with the 104th Infantry Division in 7 September 1944. The 414th Regiment was assigned to III Corps of the Ninth United States Army, and assembled in Manche, Normandy as they prepared for combat duty.

In mid-October, III Corps was assigned to the command of the British 21st Army Group and were briefed on how they would be assisting in Operation Pheasant, which was a response to the failure of Operation Market Garden and the need to liberate the Port of Antwerp from German control. Operation Pheasant would push all of the German forces out of North Brabant in the Netherlands and fight southward into Antwerp in Belgium. The operation began on 20 October 1944 and by the end of the first week of battles, the Allied forces had nearly reached the North Brabant's border with Antwerp. On 27 October 1944, the British 21st Army Group, including Roy's outfit, was working to liberate the German-occupied villages of Wernhout and Rijsbergen on the Netherlands' side of the border, and Roy would be killed in the action.

Three years after being temporarily interred in Belgium, on 26 October 1947, the remains of Thomas Roy Allgeyer were returned to the United States along with the remains of approximately 6,200 other American war-dead including those of fellow Covington Catholic graduate George Eugene Finke, Jr. and Roy was laid at his final resting place at St. John's Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, KY.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Charles Schneider
Class of 1940  (Honorary)

​Died November 13, 1944

Army

​Charles Schneider was born on 25 November 1922 to Charles and Amelia Schneider in Bellevue, KY. He grew up in a blue-collar family, and was the the fourth of six children in the family.

He started at Covington Catholic in the 1936-37 school year as a freshman, and attended through his junior year before withdrawing as a 17 year old to take a job that would help provide for his family. Shortly thereafter, he met Marian Campbell, proposed, and the two settled down on Cincinnati's west side after getting married, with Charles working as a machinist at American Tool Works. 

Charles entered the Army in January 1943 and would end up as a Technician 5th Grade serving in the 255th Field Artillery Battalion in the 12th Corps of the General Patton's Third Army. After enlisting in 1942, Schneider was assigned to the 255th and joined the battalion for basic training in Georgia, where remained at Camp Gordin waiting for their orders. The battalion eventually landed at Utah Beach on 12 August 1944, D-Day + 6, and entered the battle zone in France. Schneider's battalion would endure daily fighting for 268 straight days, with Schneider's death occurring on their 93rd day of action.

Schneider's outfit had been ordered to push east through France, providing forward support to the infantry with their light 105 millimeter howitzers as they drove to liberate nearly a dozen French cities and complete multiple bridge assaults while fighting Germany's 5th Panzer Army.

On 13 November 1944 the 255th Field Artillery was involved in the assault to liberate the city of Benestroff in their surge to get to Germany's defensive Siegfried Line. The German tanks and Panzer infantry, with the support of German 88 millimeter defense cannons, mounted a counter-attack and began briefly pushing back the Americans. Charles Schneider was struck in the torso by a large piece of shrapnel from an 88 and was killed on the battlefield.

Sherman's Third Army would eventually succeed in taking Benestroff, with the 255th's assistance in winning the battle, the American victory in the Battle Of The Bulge, and they were among the American forces that would liberate Dachau. Schneider's remains were transported to nearby Lorraine, where he was laid to rest alongside 10,488 other American war-dead in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial.

​"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Gene Finke, Jr.
Class of 1940

Died January 15, 1945

Army

​Eugene George Finke, Jr - "Hink" to family and friends - was born on Friday the 13th of September, 1922 to railroad brakeman Gene Finke and his wife Getrude. He was the second of three sons born to the Finkes on Riedlin Avenue in Covington's Lewisburg neighborhood.

Hink would follow his older brother Ray to Covington Catholic, enrolling as a freshman in the fall of 1936. Following the 1937 Flood in his freshman year, Finke's family would move to Park Hills to join the families of his uncles Henry and Mike on Altavia Avenue.

During his time at Cov Cath, Hink joined sodality and was also very involved in the school's athletic clubs. (Aside from intramural basketball there were no formal sports teams at Cov Cath during his school years.) In addition to school, he would also spend time helping his father with his new meat delivery route. His father and his uncles operated semi-affiliated retail meat delivery routes around northern Kenton County which would eventually evolve into a conjoined effort at the Finke's Meats storefront on Amsterdam Road.

After graduating from Covington Catholic in the spring of 1940, Hink began work full-time for the family and was originally slated to take over his father's share of the business. 30 June 1942 rolled around, and fulfilling his civic duty, he made his way to the courthouse in Covington and filled out his draft card. His number was almost immediately called, and he was inducted into the Army on 24 November 1942. At that point his older brother Ray (CCH '38) was already stationed in Texas with the Army Air Corps.

After shipping off to basic training in December, Finke was stationed with the newly-formed 291st Infantry Regiment in Ft. Leonard Wood, MO. The regiment, as part of the Army's 75th Infantry Division, would take part in the Army's 1944 "Louisiana Maneuvers" which was a major military exercise conducted stateside with the intent of evaluating the Army's training, logistics, doctrine, and commanders as part of the lead up to D-Day. Following the Louisiana Maneuvers, his regiment was stationed at Camp Shanks, NY before being sent to the European Theater in late 1944.

Hink was a sergeant in the 291st Infantry Regiment, and was the platoon leader of a machine gun unit. Once they made their way to the battlefront, Finke's unit was frequently attached to accompany tanks from the 2nd Armored Division. His regiment spent much of the first two weeks of the Battle Of The Bulge with the 2nd Armored near Dinant, Marche, and Hotten, Belgium in the midst of some of the largest tank-versus-tank battles ever fought by the US Army as they pushed back against the Panzer Divisions near the epicenter of the German offensive in the first half of the Battle Of The Bulge.

On 30 January 1945, five days after the final German retreat in the battle, Hink's parents received notification from the War Department that their son had been missing since the 15th of that month. His body was recovered 6 days later and it was determined that he had died in action near Grand Halleux, Belgium on 15 January 1945.

He was temporarily interred in Belgium, and his family would hold his requiem mass at St. John Church on Pike Street in Covington on 7 February 1945. Two and a half years later, on 26 October 1947, the remains of Eugene George Finke, Jr. were returned to the United States along with the remains of approximately 6,200 other American war-dead, and he was laid in his final resting place at St. John's Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, KY.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Carl Brinker
Class of 1942

Died February 28, 1945

Army

Carl Henry Brinker was born 16 May 1924 on Holman Street in Covington. He was the only child born to Charles and Marie Brinker. His father was a chauffeur for a Cincinnati business executive at the Charles Weis Shoe Company, so money never came easily for the family. Carl started working a paper route for a local newspaper carrier at a young age to help the family.

We have limited information about Carl from his time at Covington Catholic, and as a member of the graduating class of 1942, his senior yearbook is absent from the school's archive; but Carl completed his four year career at Cov Cath in May 1942 and graduated along with 29 other young men.

He continued on with his work as a newspaper carrier, and a month after graduation on 30 June 1942 he would fill out his draft card. About a year later, on 20 July 1943, Brinker's draft number was called and he was inducted into the Army.

Carl was a member of the Army's field artillery. Little information has been publicly released about the exact details of his service, but there is some information that can be gleaned from the details that were given surrounding his death. Military hospital records note that he had suffered a shrapnel wound to his head on 18 December 1944 in Burma, and that he died in the 20th General Hospital in Assam, India on 7 February 1945.

The US Army's role in the Burma Campaign was somewhat limited since the campaign was primarily an operation of the British and Indian armies. With the Army's presence being so sparse, there were only two field artillery battalions that saw much action during late-1944 and early-1945. These were the 612th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack) and the 613th Field Artillery Battalion (Pack). Both of these battalions were part of the Mars Task Force, a highly specialized task force established as a long range penetration group intended to invade Japanese-held areas deep in the jungles of northern Burma and clear out all Japanese presence.

The 612th & 613th Field Artillery Battalions were attached to specialized cavalry units that would conduct guerrilla raids of Japanese encampments, fuel dumps, and artillery firing positions. Their field artillery, 75mm pack howitzers, was transported in on mules and would be assembled in hidden locations in the mountainous jungle to provide supporting fire for their guerrilla fighters. The US Army's short-range 75mm howitzers were heavily opposed by the Japanese long range 105mm and 150mm cannons, and the Japanese defense was based largely on heavy and rapid artillery barrages in hopes of locating and destroying the firing positions of the US artillery. Based on Brinker's assignment to a US field artillery unit and his death by a shrapnel wound suffered in Burma, it can be surmised that he was a member of either the 612th or 613th Field Artillery Battalions.

Carl H. Brinker died on 7 February 1945 at the age of 20. His loved ones celebrated a memorial mass on 28 February 1945 at Mother Of God Church in Covington. After being temporarily interred in Asia, his remains were eventually returned to the United States in May 1948 along with those of 2,023 other American war-dead, and he was laid in his final resting place at Mother Of God Cemetery in Covington.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

William Currie
Class of 1931

Died March 15, 1945

Army

William "Bill" Currie, Jr was born 18 April 1913 in Ludlow, the youngest of three children born to Willie and Elizabeth Currie. Along with his older brother Joe and sister Margaret, Bill grew up in the St. James parish and attended the St. James parish school.

Once at Covington Catholic, Currie got himself very involved at school and quickly found himself among the most well-liked students in his class. He was an accomplished student, most notably in science and as a member of the Kelvin Club; he was also a member of the Scribblers literary club. Additionally, Bill was quite an athlete, despite the lack of interscholastic athletics at Covington Catholic. He was among the group of seniors who first introduced basketball to CCH, helping organize the 'class league' intramural basketball league, and captaining one of the two senior basketball teams. His senior yearbook also refers to Currie's "Herculean strength" and calls him "the Samson of the senior class."

After graduating from Covington Catholic, William moved to Lexington with his older sister Margaret and her husband John and took a job in sales - a job he worked until being drafted into the Army in 1943.

Following boot camp, Currie was assigned to the 395th Infantry Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division under the command of Major General Walter E. Lauer. The regiment arrived in England on 10 October 1944 without having seen any prior action in WWII. After a month of briefing and preparation, the regiment moved forward to France, and then on to Aubel, Belgium from which they were ordered to proceed to the front lines of battle. At the front, the 99th Division would reinforce the Allied offensive against Germany's fortified Siegfried Line. After assisting in successfully breaking through the Siegfried Line, Currie's 395th Regiment was ordered to dig in near the town of Höfen to defend the counter-attacks being mounted by the Germans.

In the days following the Allied overtaking of the Siegfried line, the 99th Division was immediately outnumbered 5 to 1 by the Germans, but despite suffering casualties at nearly 20% of their effective force, they managed to inflict casualties on the Germans at a ratio of 18 to 1. In their position at Höfen, the 395th Regiment was stretched harrowingly thin, with each infantryman responsible to cover nearly 100 yards of ground - three to four times larger than anything recommended in Army textbooks. After 6 weeks of what many historians consider to be the most intense and relentless combat in the entire war, the Allied's Ardennes Offensive came to an end, and the Battle of Bulge was a deemed a success for the Allied forces.

After a month of recuperation, the 99th Division received orders for Operation Lumberjack, and was sent forward in early March towards the Rhine River with orders to seize several German towns on the way to the Rhine. After the 395th Regiment suffered heavy losses in the process of capturing the town of Kuckhof, the regiment was sent on to Remagen, where the Allied forces battled the Germans in an 18-day back-and-forth fight for the Lundendorff Bridge across the Rhine. The Allied forces brought infantry and armored divisions to try to overtake the bridge, while the Germans fought with infantry, artillery, tanks, and bombers to defend the bridge. Once the Allied force turned the tide of the battle, the Germans began with concerted efforts to destroy the bridge. Staff Sergeant William Currie was wounded and died on the 15th day of the battle.

After being temporarily interred at the Henri Chapelle Military Cemetery in Eupen, Belgium, Currie's remains were returned to his family in Kentucky in 1947. His requiem mass was held on 10 December 1947 at St. Peter's Church in Lexington, and he was laid in his final resting place at Calvary Cemetery in Lexington.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Joseph Ratermann
Class of 1938

Died June 25, 1945

Army

​Joseph A. Ratermann - "Bud" to his family and friends - was born on 21 January 1921 to Joseph B. and Elizabeth Ratermann. Bud's father was the original owner of Latonia Springs Auto Parts & Service Station, and Bud was the oldest of three sons. His family was known for being hard working, and for being prominent members of Holy Guardian Angel parish in addition to being dedicated patrons of the St. John's Orphan Society, St. Elizabeth Hospital Crusader Club, and Holy Name Society.

By the time he started at Covington Catholic in the fall of 1934, Bud definitely already knew his way around a car engine. So it comes as little surprise that in he joined his father as a company partner in the auto service & parts business after graduating from Covington Catholic.

Ratermann enlisted into the Army in September 1942, went through basic training, and was sent overseas as part of one of the Army's "heavy shop" units. Heavy shop units were attached to other military units and served as mechanics overseeing maintenance and repair of the military's many vehicles, planes and war machines.

Bud eventually found himself assigned to the Army's new 485th Engineer Shop Company which had been constituted in February 1944 and was originally stationed out of Egginton, Derbyshire in England. Eventually reaching the rank of Technician 4th Grade, Ratermann saw service in England, Germany, and France before his death on 25 June 1945.

His family received no details of his death, although the Army's casualty record shows that his death was a non-battlefield incident that had occurred in Chievres, Belgium. The US Army Air Force had stationed their 368th Fighter Group, 361st Fighter Group, and 352d Fighter Group at the Air Force Base at Chievres Air Base, and it was understood that Bud's company was on hand at the base as mechanics.

Bud Ratermann is buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, Netherlands.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Robert Von Luehrte
Class of 1941

Died July 12, 1949

Army Air Force / Air Force

​Robert C. Von Luehrte was born on 28 January 1923 to Harry and Catherine Con Luehrte in Covington, KY. He was the oldest of 5 sons who grew up in their family's home on Willard Street in the MainStrasse neighborhood, and they were members of the St. Patrick parish.

During his time at Covington Catholic, Bob was known for his athletic prowess, despite the fact that there were no interscholastic sports in the school at the time. He was also an excellent student, standing out in Chemistry, in particular.

Shortly after registering for the draft in June 1942, Von Luehrte enlisted in the Army, and entered the Army Air Corps flight cadet program. He graduated from Advanced Flight Training at Marfa Air Field, Texas on 1 October 1943 and was sent on for further training at the Northeastern Training Center for the Army Air Corps at Lockbourne Army Air Base.

Bob was sent to the European Theater as a pilot with the 15 Air Force's 5th Bomb Wing. Stationed in Foggia, Italy, Von Luehrte was the pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress, and during WWII he successfully flew 51 bombing missions over Germany and the Mediterranean. For his actions during the war, including surviving a plane crash, he was awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

In 1945, Von Luehrte returned stateside and married Virginia Wilson, moving with his wife to Dyersburg Air Base in Tennessee where he would train bomber pilots for two years before resigning his commission. He was recommissioned by the US Air Force in 1949 to join the 40th Troop Carrier Squadron, 317th Troop Carrier Group, 1st Air Lift Task Force and fly in support of the Berlin Airlift, one of the first major US operations of the Cold War.

With the Soviet Union blocking the Western Allies' road, rail and canal access to sectors of Berlin under Western control, the Berlin Airlift was an eleven-month operation to fly and drop in food, fuel and other vital supplies to the Western allies cut off in Berlin. Following 6 months of flights for the Airlift, Von Luehrte took off on his final mission on 12 July 1949, transporting a load of coal to drop in Berlin from his C-54 Skymaster. In flight, his airplane experienced engine trouble and lost two of its four engines. Rather than crashing into a populated area, Bob decided to attempt to ditch the aircraft about 35 miles west of Berlin in Soviet-occupied territory. Von Luehrte and both of his crewmen died in the crash.

​A month later, Robert Von Luehrte's body was returned home to Kentucky, and he was laid to rest at Highland Cemetery in Ft. Mitchell on 16 August 1949.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Don Geilen
Class of 1964

Died February 28, 1967

Marine Corps
​
Donatus Joseph Geilen, "Donny" was born on 2 February 1945 to William & Emma Geilen. He was the third of five children born to William & Emma, and he had three older half-siblings born from his mother's first marriage. Named after his paternal grandfather, Donnie's father passed away when he was 9 years old, leaving his mother a widow for the second time.

Donny grew up on 18th Street in Covington's Austinburg neighborhood, and was a member of St. Benedict parish. He started at Covington Catholic in the fall of 1959. In his time at Cov Cath he played intramural sports all four years, covered sports for the school newspaper, and was on the tennis team as a junior and senior.

After his graduation in spring of 1963 he started working at the Central Trust Company (now US Bank) in Covington. A little more than two years later, on 1 September 1965, Donny headed over to Cincinnati with friends Joe Reckers and Gary Cogswell to enlist in the US Marine Corps Reserve. About three weeks later, on 20 September 1965, all three would ship off to Camp Pendleton, California for bootcamp. He spent about 6 months with his friends at Camp Pendleton during and after bootcamp, and then in March 1966, they were each assigned to separate units and shipped out to Vietnam.

Corporal Geilen was assigned to Company A, Battalion Landing Team with the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. His Marine division specialized in conducting amphibious and air landings to insert American fighters into areas targeted in combat operations, and they also aided in supply landings to funnel much-needed equipment, weapons, ammunition and food to the more forward positions among the US military in Vietnam.

As a rifleman in an infantry group, and as a part of the 1/4 Marines, he spent most of his time in-country engaged in both small and large scale counter-insurgency operations. In mid-February 1967 the Battalion Landing Team was boarded onto ships of the Amphibious Ready group and on 16 February 1967, following a heavy pre-assault bombardment, they made a helicopter and amphibious landing in the vicinity of Sa Huynh, Quang Ngain Province to participate in Operation Deckhouse VI. The operation was intended to piggyback on the simultaneous Operation Desoto, and both were search and destroy operations directed against known Viet Cong strongholds in the region. The Viet Cong units concentrated on "delay and harass" tactics to fend off the Marines, relying on intermittent sniper fire and minor ambushes rather than overt battle tactics.

Ten days later, on 26 February 1967, Geilen's Battalion Landing Team reembarked onto their transports and immediately were sent for another amphibious landing in the Duc Pho District as part of the multi-battalion Phase II of Operation Desoto and Operation Deckhouse. On the third day of Phase II, 28 February 1967, Geilen's Marine company was searching through the village complex of An Thach near Duc Pho District and began to receive sporadic sniper fire. During the course of the day, Corporal Geilen was killed by a high velocity gunshot wound from an enemy sniper. He was one month away from being shipped home at the conclusion of his tour of duty.

The following day, 1 March 1967, Mrs. Emma Geilen received word from the War Department that her son, Donatus J. Geilen, had died in Vietnam. Donny's remains were promptly returned home, and on 10 March 1967 his requiem mass was celebrated at St. Benedict Church in Covington before his body was laid to rest at Mother Of God Cemetery in Covington.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

James Ruedebusch
Class of 1965

Died July 30, 1967

Army

James A. Ruedebusch, "Jimmy," was born 27 October 1946 to Leonard and Gertrude Ruedebusch. His family had recently moved to Fort Mitchell into a house adjacent to St. Mary's Cemetery, where his father had taken a job as the cemetery superintendent. The fourth child born to his parents, Jimmy was from a large Catholic family, with three brothers and seven sisters.

Jimmy enrolled at Covington Catholic and began as a freshman in the fall of 1961. He competed in the school's intramural sports programs all four years, and was always a front-runner in the Cov Cath's intramural bowling league. As a high schooler, he took a job at the Fort Mitchell Pharmacy and he continued working there following his graduation in the Covington Catholic Class of 1965.

He was drafted into the Army in September of 1966. Following basic training, he was assigned to Company A of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment. Jimmy's battalion was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division, which had been stationed in Augsburg, Munich since the late 1950s. The US garrison in Germany would rotate soldiers from their stations around West Germany into Berlin as part of the "Berlin Brigade" that guarded West Germany from Russian Communists and monitored Russian activity in East Germany according to the terms agreed upon by Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman and Stalin in 1945's Yalta & Potsdam Agreements.

Sp/4 Ruedebusch arrived in Munich in early 1967 and joined his battalion in their effort in the Cold War. It was only a handful of months later, on 30 July 1967, that Jimmy was involved in a military vehicle accident in Munich and died. There were no further details released by the War Department about his service or his death.

His body was returned to his family in Kentucky, and on 8 August 1967 a requiem mass was celebrated for James A. Ruedebusch at Blessed Sacrament Church before his body was laid to rest in St. Mary's Cemetery where his father worked. In addition to Jimmy's grave, a granite cenotaph was also dedicated to his memory at the base of the flagpole in the cemetery.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Nick Wagman
Class of 1965

Died September 2, 1967

Marine Corps

Nicholas Owen Wagman was born on 31 August 1947 to George & Alice Wagman in Ludlow, Kentucky. His parents divorced when he was a child, and Nick was the oldest of three children, a younger sister and a younger half-sister. The three grew up in the Ludlow attending St. James Church and the parish grade school.

Nick was an altar boy at St. James in grade school. He was athletic, and had a love for baseball, dancing, and music. He was always a hard worker, and he had a fascination with the Marines from a young age. After starting at Covington Catholic in the fall of 1961 he started working a delivery job for a grocer in Ludlow, and although he was a very well-liked honor student at Covington Catholic, Nick opted to spend his time outside of school working and studying rather than taking place in extra-circulars at Cov Cath. He was also known among friends and acquaintances for having an extremely friendly personality, and for his prized red '57 Chevy.

Following his graduation from Covington Catholic in the Class of 1965, he started college at the University of Cincinnati as a liberal arts major, while still spending time considering the Marines and the ongoing plight in Vietnam. On 1 March 1966, not long after having a conversation with his good friend Rodney Dunaway about his desire to help fight Communism, Wagman enlisted in the Marine Corps. Dunaway would follow suit shortly thereafter and enlist in the Air Force.

After completing basic training at Parris Island, Nick was assigned to HQ Battery with the 4th Battalion, 11th Marines of the 1st Marine Division and in September 1966 he was shipped to Vietnam. In 1967, Corporal Wagman's unit was stationed at Battery N, a heavy artillery post about 10 kilometers west of Da Nang Airbase near Highway 545 at the northern foot of Hill 306. The battery was positioned to provide long-range artillery support to American and South Vietnamese military operations, as well as counter-rocket-fire.

Nick's tour of duty was 13 months, and he was scheduled to return home on 1 October 1967. In early August 1967, he had sent a family member a letter stating that the letter would be the last he was sending because the next time they spoke, it would be in person.

Just short of a month after sending the letter the majority of the men from HQ Battalion were sent out on an operation at a small firing base. Wagman and a handful of other Marines from the battalion were left at Battery N, comprising two security squads to guard the battery. On the night of 1 September 1967, Corporal Wagman was serving as Sergeant of the Guard overseeing the overnight security squad. Just after midnight on 2 September 1967, Wagman and two other men on the security squad had left their bunks to check the sentinels around the battery when Viet Cong sappers launched a surprise ambush with mortar fire and satchel charges. Wagman and both of the other Marines were killed in the sudden attack when they were struck by shrapnel from a satchel charge.

His remains were returned to his family in Ludlow two weeks later, and on 16 September 1967 his family held the funeral mass at St. James Church in Ludlow, and Nicholas Owen Wagman was laid to rest at St. Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

Chester Wartman
Class of 1968

​Died May 11, 1969

Marine Corps

Chester James Wartman was born on 31 January 1950 to Louis and Mary Blanche Wartman in Ludlow, KY. Chester was born eighth of sixteen children in the family. His father owned a neon sign company in Covington.

Following in the footsteps of his older brothers, Wartman would enroll at Covington Catholic as a freshman in the fall of 1964. His older brother Joe had graduated the previous spring and had had entered the Marine Corps following graduation, and beginning during his high school years, joining the Marines was a goal of Chester's. By the time he graduated from Cov Cath in the spring of 1968, his plan was to enlist in the Marine Corps, and he would follow through on those plans shortly thereafter.

After basic training Chester was assigned to Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion/5th Marines in the 1st Marine Division. His infantry battalion was originally formed in 1914 at the request of President Woodrow Wilson to send them to Haiti in order to help "restore order" on the island, which was embroiled in an attempted coups by Haiti's Caco rebels. The infantrymen of the 2/5 Marines have since gained a reputation for their reliability in the worst of battle conditions, and have become the most decorated battalion in the entire Marine Corps.

Chester arrived in Vietnam on 18 February 1969 as a rifleman in his company in the midst of Operation Taylor Common, a search and destroy mission near An Hoa Combat Base in a vicinity of the Quảng Nam Province known as "Arizona Area". An Hoa Combat Base was immediately surrounded by an area dense jungle dotted with rice paddies to the south and the west, and had been subject to constant NVA attacks since it was first established in early 1966. When he arrived, his battalion was tired, and dangerously short on supplies. Shortly after his arrival one of his fellow soldiers in his company had written home in a letter telling his parents that he didn't know what would kill him, the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong, or starvation. The soldier even related how the company had resorted to collecting water out of the craters from mortars in order to stay hydrated.

Following the conclusion of Operation Taylor Common in the first week of March 1969, Private Wartman and the 2/5 Marines began a series of ambush patrols and short missions as they made their way deeper into the jungle towards the Quế Sơn basin. After 5 years of heavy fighting, the United States military had withdrawn from the Quế Sơn district in 1967, and in Spring of 1969 the Marine infantry was making its way back into the district for Operation Union II. Some time on 11 May 1969, Hotel Company was engaged in a brief firefight with NVA soldiers. Private Wartman was struck by small arms fire and died in the battle. In the three months leading up to his death, Hotel Company lost over half of the men who were with the company when Wartman had arrived in February.

PFC Wartman's remains were returned home to Kentucky two weeks later, and on 28 May 1969 his requiem mass was celebrated at St. Cecelia Church in Independence, and Chester James Wartman was laid to rest at Mother Of God Cemetery in Covington.

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"

David Stoppelwerth
Class of 1961

Died January 18, 1970

Army

David Henry Stoppelwerth was born in Covington, Kentucky on 13 October 1943, the second of two sons born to Carl Stoppelwerth, in inspector for a advertising and displays company, and Carl's wife Helen. His early years were spent growing up in Covington, where he had attended St. Aloysius Grade School in the Lewisburg neighborhood before his father took a new job during his early teen years and the family moved to Fort Wright.

Unlike his brother Gerald who was seven years older than he, David was able to enroll at Covington Catholic for high school, starting school at Cov Cath in the fall of 1957. Stoppelwerth was not involved in too many extra-circulars in high school, with the exception of the senior class play, but he was a very diligent student with an interest in civics and politics. It was no surprise that after graduating in the Covington Catholic Class of 1961, he went on to college at Western Kentucky University where he graduated first earned an associate degree in electrical engineering in 1963, and then went on to earn a BS in the Class of 1967.

While he was in college David was very involved in WKU's Pi Kappa Alpha chapter, and he found a calling in politics. As a young man, he was involved in the campaigns of State Senator Clyde Middleton, US Congressman Gene Snyder, and Kentucky Governor Louis B. Nunn. He was an avid member of Kentucky Federation of Young Republicans, and in the process of delving into politics, Stoppelwerth found a calling to the military which eventually lead him to enlist in the US Army.

After enlisting in 1968, David was sent to boot camp and infantry training at Fort Dix in New Jersey. His college education made him a preferred bid for Officer Candidate School, which he began on 26 October 1968. Following OCS, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the infantry, and assigned to A Company, 4th Battalion, 23rd Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. His regiment was constituted in May of 1961, just days after the beginning of the US Civil War, and had seen major action in every major military action by the US Army since the Civil War.

When it was deployed to Vietnam in 1966, David's regiment was used as an integral part of the hundreds of search and destroy missions sent to flush out Viet Cong presence in the jungle at the beginnings of land clearing operations that would establish new areas for artillery batteries, air-staging areas, and forward operation bases. The regiment immediately saw action in Operation Junction City, Operation Manhattan, Operation Barking Sands, Operation Atlanta, and Operation Saratoga. They were pulled out of Operation Saratoga at the onslaught of the NVA's 1968 Tet Offensive to help reinforce the most critical points of the US defense in Saigon and Tân Sơn Nhứt.

When 2Lt. Stoppelwerth arrived in Vietnam on 17 October 1969, the US military was beginning to reduce its presence in the country on the orders of President Nixon. His company was one of many attempting to help the South Vietnamese military establish their own bases intended to be independent of American assistance. Enemy-initiated attacks were surging as the North Vietnamese fought to re-take South Vietnam. At that time the 23rd Regiment infantrymen would occupy most of their days and nights on short "platoon ambush" missions around the RVN bases intended to spook out any Viet Cong or NVA men edging into the areas in an attempt to plan attacks on the bases.

On the night of 18 January 1970, David was sent out on platoon ambush along Highway 26 near Tây Ninh with an unusually large number of men - about 28 - under his command. Tây Ninh was about 30 miles northeast of Saigon, and approximately 18 miles east of the Cambodian border. NVA and Viet Cong presence was known to be very high in the vicinity. David was ordered to lead his platoon out a little over a kilometer from their location to an "ambush location" near the Highway 26 where they would conduct their patrol. The platoon had just reached their ambush location at approximately 9:30pm, with David in the front, establishing a small command area, and they were ambushed, with much of the initial enemy fire being concentrated on and around David's location. David was immediately hit, and his radio man called for a medivac.

When the first helicopter arrived at the site from the 12th Evac Hospital in Củ Chi, David gathered himself to stand and expose his body to more enemy fire as he directed his men to load the other injured men onto the medivac helicopter, despite the urging of the platoon corpsman for David to board the helicopter himself due to the severity of his wounds. Stoppelwerth would wait and board the second medivac helicopter with the remaining injured soldiers instead. By the time his helicopter arrived back at the 12th Evac Hospital, 2Lt. Stoppelwerth had already died.

David's remains were returned to his family, and on 27 January 1970, a requiem mass was celebrated for David Henry Stoppelwerth at St. John Church in Covington and his body was laid in its final resting place alongside his father, Carl, who had died of a heart attack 3 years earlier.

For his actions on the night of his death, David was awarded the Bronze Star and the Silver Star, which is the third third-highest military combat decoration that can be awarded to a member of the United States Armed Forces. They were presented to David's mother and his brother 6 months after his death by US Army Major James Hoeh, and General Willard Roper. US Congressman Gene Snyder was also personally attended the presentation. Covington Catholic established a scholarship in David's honor to be given as the school's Senior English Award - David had been known during high school and college as a prolific writer. A book, "Uncle David: A Soldier's Story" was written in 2018 by his nephew, Donald Stoppelwerth, and can be purchased at this web address: https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-David-Soldiers-Donald-Stopplewerth/dp/1795620765

"With A Spirit That Will Not Die"