2 WEBSTER CITY SOLDIERS HURT IN WAR ACTION
News of two more Webster City war casualties has been received here by H. G. Caquelin and Mr. and Mrs. Fred Keast.
Mr. and Mrs. Keast have been notified that their son, Sgt. Earl Keast, has been awarded the purple heart for wounds received recently in Germany.
The sergeant has written his parents also that he had met Lyman Mertz, another Webster City soldier while he was in a hospital for treatment. Mertz is attached to a medical corps unit working at the hospital.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - Dec. 13, 1944
Lyman E. Mertz Made Officer in Field Promotion
Lyman E. Mertz has received a battlefield promotion from the rank of technician third grade to second lieutenant, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Mertz, 2800 Chambers street, have been advised.
Lt. Mertz is now serving with the First army in Germany assigned to a medical collective unit, a group which picks up casualties from the battlefronts. During the Battle of the Belgian Bulge, the entire hospital unit of which he is a member was captured by the Germans, and later rescued by American troops.
Entering service in May, 1942, he went overseas in April, 1944. Ever since his induction, he has served in the medical corps.
Prior to the war, the lieutenant was employed at Wincharger corporation, where his father and his brother, Donald, are now employed. Lt. Mertz is a 32d degree Mason.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, March 20, 1945 (photo included)
Lyman Mertz was born Feb. 7, 1915 to Ralph Lewis and Hazel Ione Howell Mertz. He died Nov. 17, 1976 in Denver, CO.
Lyman served with the U.S. Army in World War II with the 47th Field Hospital, 452nd Medical Collecting Corp, Medical Det. 358th Infantry Regiment.
Source: ancestry.com
