Racine, Wisconsin Claims to Fame
Military
Harold C. Agerholm
(January 29, 1925–July 7, 1944) Private First Class, USMCR, World War II marine and Medal of Honor recipient or his actions while engaged with Japanese forces on Saipan in the Marianas Islands.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, July 7, 1944. When the enemy launched a fierce, determined counterattack against our positions and overran a neighboring artillery battalion, PFC Agerholm immediately volunteered to assist in the efforts to check the hostile attack and evacuate our wounded. Locating and appropriating an abandoned ambulance jeep, he repeatedly made extremely perilous trips under heavy rifle and mortar fire and single-handedly loaded and evacuated approximately forty-five casualties, working tirelessly and with utter disregard for his own safety during a grueling period of more than three hours. Despite intense, persistent enemy fire, he ran out to aid two men whom he believed to be wounded Marines but was himself mortally wounded by a Japanese sniper while carrying out his hazardous mission. PFC Agerholm's brilliant initiative, great personal valor and self-sacrificing efforts in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.The destroyer USS Agerholm was commissioned and named in his honor.
A middle school and an elementary school in Racine also bear his name.
James Roy Andersen
(May 10, 1904–February 26, 1945) Director of training at Army Air Force Basic Advanced Flying School March 1942-June 1943. Brigadier General Chief of Staff for the Army Air Force, Pacific, who was lost at sea near Kwajalein returning to Honolulu on February 26, 1945. Decorations included the Legion of Merit.
Andersen Air Force Base was named after him.
John Dearborn Walker
The Racine Drummer Boy was a drummer in the 22nd Regiment. He was the youngest person in the Union Army during the Civil War and from Racine. He was only 11 years old when he enlisted.
He was involved in the Battle of Thompson's Station where the 22nd Regiment lost almost all of its men. Those men who were not killed were captured, then exchanged and were later in the first company into Atlanta during General Sherman's March to the Sea.
After the war he was given an official reception by President Abraham Lincoln and offered a scholarship to West Point. He never attended.
John L. Jerstad
Major, United States Army Air Forces, World War II aviator and Medal of Honor recipient for his actions as a B-24 pilot during the raid on Ploiesti, Romania on August 1, 1943.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. On August 1, 1943, he served as pilot of the lead aircraft in his group in a daring low-level attack against enemy oil refineries and installations at Ploesti, Rumania. Although he had completed more than his share of missions and was no longer connected with this group, so high was his conception of duty that he volunteered to lead the formation in the correct belief that his participation would contribute materially to success in this attack. Major Jerstad led the formation into attack with full realization of the extreme hazards involved and despite withering fire from heavy and light antiaircraft guns. Three miles from the target his airplane was hit, badly damaged, and set on fire. Ignoring the fact that he was flying over a field suitable for a forced landing, he kept on the course. After the bombs of his aircraft were released on the target, the fire in his ship became so intense as to make further progress impossible and he crashed into the target area. By his voluntary acceptance of a mission he knew was extremely hazardous, and his assumption of an intrepid course of action at the risk of life over and above the call of duty, Major Jerstad set an example of heroism which will be an inspiration to the U.S. Armed Forces.A middle school and an elementary school in Racine also bear his name.
General Billy Mitchell
Born of American parents in Nice, France, on December 28, 1879, Billy Mitchell, grew up in Milwaukee. He was educated at Racine College and at Columbian University (now George Washington University in Washington, DC); he left Columbian in 1898 before graduating to enlist in the 1st Wisconsin Infantry for service in the Spanish-American war.
He served in Cuba and the Philippines, and in 1901 was attached to the Signal Corps. He served in various duties, attended School of the Line and the Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1907-1909. After duty on the Mexican border, he was attached in 1912 to the general Staff. In 1915 he was assigned to the aviation section of the Signal Corps. He learned to fly the following year, and began his twenty-year's advocacy of the use of military air power.
In June 1917 he was named air officer of the American Expeditionary Forces, and air officer of I Corps, a combat post more to his liking. He was the first American airman to fly over enemy lines, and throughout the war he was regularly in the air. In September 1918 he successfully attempted a mass bombing attack with nearly 1500 planes as part of the attack on St. Mihiel salient.
He outspokenly advocated the creation of a separate air force and continued working on improvements in aircraft and their use. He claimed that the airplane had rendered the battleship obsolete and, over the vociferous protests of the Navy Department, carried his point in 1921 and 1923 by sinking several captured and overage battleships by air.
He died in New York City on February 19, 1936, Mitchell's plea for an independent air force was met to a degree in the creation of GHQ Air Force in March 1935. Subsequent events, including the Japanese air attack on Pearl harbor in December 1941, proved the validity of many of his prophesies, and many of his ideas were adopted by the Army Air Force in World War II.
OUR AIR FORCE, THE KEYSTONE OF NATIONAL DEFENSE (1921), WINGED DEFENSE (1925), SKYWAYS, A BOOK OF MODERN AERONAUTICS (1930)
Racine, WI: The Belle City of the [Great] Lakes. Information for visitors and residents alike. Located between Milwaukee and Chicago on the beautiful shores of the great Lake Michigan, Racine has much to offer.
This Website is brought to you by Wisconsin Internet, Inc. 8332 Corporate Drive, Racine, WI 53406 • (888) 782-1454
