Our Neighbors in the Service
Sheldon, Iowa—Aviation Cadet Walter Ernest Schmidt, son of Mrs. William Schmidt, will be graduated soon from the army air force advanced flying school at Yuma, Arizona. He will be commissioned a second lieutenant. He completed his primary and basic training at Sequoia field, Visalia, California and Merced Army Flying School, Merced, California.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, March 15, 1943
SHELDON FLIER DIES IN CRASH
Lt. Walter Schmidt Victim of Practice Flight Accident
Sheldon, Ia.—Special: Lt. Walter Schmidt, 24, son of Mrs. Anna Schmidt, was killed in an airplane crash while on a practice flight near Carson City, Nev., according to word received here by his mother.
Lt. Schmidt was training as an army air corp pilot at the Reno, Nev., air base. The accident occurred at about 7:10 a.m., his mother was informed. He entered the army in June, 1942, taking his basic training at Santa Ana, Cal.
He received his wings June 10, 1943, at Yuma, Ariz., from where he went to Long Beach, Cal., where he was a ferry pilot. He was stationed at Reno since last October.
He played fullback on the Sheldon high school football team, and was on the six-man football team of Sheldon junior college in 1939. He was graduated from Sheldon high school in 1937.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Friday in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church here, with Rev. A. E. Geutzlaff officiating. Burial will be in the Sheldon cemetery.
Survivors besides his mother are the widow and a 6-week-old daughter, of Long Beach, Cal.; a brother, William Schmidt, in the army air corps in Texas; his grandmother and four sisters.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, January 8, 1945
