Bio: Vanderwyst, Maurice (Navy Commendation - 1943)

Contact: Stan

Surnames: Vanderwyst, Zeroz

----Sources: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 02/04/1943

Vanderwyst, Maurice (Navy Commendation - 1943)

Maurice Vanderwyst, son of Mrs. Kate Vanderwyst of Unity, Wisconsin, is one of 22 enlisted Navy men who have been awarded letters of commendation for "devotion to duty and courage," the Navy announced Friday.

The 22 seamen earned the commendation, the Navy reported the Associated Press, when a submarine torpedoed and sank a United States merchant vessel on which they were serving as a gun crew. Leo V. Zeroz, Kenosha, was the only other Wisconsin man among the 22.

Seaman Vanderwyst was home on furlough last July after the loss of his ship, returning to Brooklyn on July 21 for assignment to another vessel. In spite of his experience, he told relatives he was still delighted with Navy life. The ship was sunk off the Canadian coast on July 3 and Vanderwyst was later picked up by a destroyer’s crew.

Formerly and iron moulder, at New Holstein, he entered the Navy last March, 1942, and quickly attained a first class seaman’s rating.