Obit: Schade, Captain Lester A. #5 (1917 - 1945)

Transcriber: Robert Lipprandt
bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Blahnik, Bowen, Gosse, Schade, Scholtz

----Source: The Maurina-Schilling Funeral Home (Abbotsford, Colby, Dorchester, Owen, WI) 5/04/2019

Schade, Captain Lester A. (30 MAY 1917 - 9 JAN 1945)

Marine Corps Captain Lester A. Schade, of Abbotsford, Wisconsin was killed on January 9, 1945, while being held as a POW during World War II. His death was the result of an attack on the unmarked Japanese transport ship “Enoura Maru” – referred to as a hellship – by American carrier planes in Takao Harbor, Formosa -present day Taiwan.

Captain Schade, “I” Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines had become a prisoner of war following the fall of the Philippines in April 1942. He survived the “Bataan Death March” and imprisonment at Cabanatuan Prison Camp No. 1. Capt. Schade was listed as “Lost at Sea” until January 1947 when a mass grave near Takao City was exhumed. Later these remains were transferred to Hawaii and interred in Unknown Grave No. 423 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Subsequently in 2017, the remains were disinterred and in August 2018 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced their identification as Lester A. Schade. Also instrumental in this process was a nonprofit organization, WFI Research Group, which has focused its efforts on identifying remains of missing service members.

Lester A. Schade was born May 30, 1917 in the town of Holton, Marathon County, Wisconsin. He graduated from Dorchester High School in 1935. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin (1939) he entered the Officers Training School in Philadelphia, PA. In June 1940, he left for the Philippine Islands.

Capt. Schade’s parents, Richard and Margaret Schade are interred in the Abbotsford Cemetery and adjacent to their headstone is a marker for Lester inscribed ‘Our Dear Son – Lost at Sea’. Lester had two brothers, Ernest and Clarence who are no longer living. Surviving are the children of Ernest and Marguerite, Wayne R. (Diane), Patricia A. (Dennis Bowen) and Elaine M. (Ronald Gosse). In addition several great-nieces and nephews and great-grand nieces and nephews of Lester reside in Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin. Clarence and Marion (Scholtz) had no children. Also surviving is 1st cousin once removed, John J. Blahnik (Sharon) of Washburn, Wisconsin who provided valuable assistance in the discernment and re-interment process for Lester.

A re-interment service will take place at 1 pm., Saturday, May 11, 2019 at the Abbotsford Cemetery with Full Military Honors, facilitated by the U.S. Marine Corps and Maurina-Schilling Funeral Home.

The Lester Schade extended family would like to thank DPAA personnel and the WFI Research Group of former Marines for dedication, persistence and resourcefulness in their mission of bringing closure to families who have missing military loved ones. Thanks to the Marine Corps for Leaving No Man Behind.

For expanded descriptions of events see: DPAA (www.dpaa.mil) , tabs Resources, Fact Sheet on Prison Camp 1, or News Releases 3/25/18; the WFI Research Group (www.wfirg.com) tabs Recovered MIAs, Hellships or Memorial Day 2015; and Missing Marines (www.missingmarines.com)   tabs Returned, 2018, Captain Schade.