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Casualty Info
Home Town Massilion, OH
Casualty Date Dec 07, 1941
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Hawaii
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment National Cemetery of the Alleghenies (VA) - Cecil Township, Pennsylvania
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section 6, Site 896
Military Service Number 2 833 716
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Fireman/1c Walter Schleiter was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma BB37.
In 2015, DPAA disinterred remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission. F1c Schleiter's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Comments/Citation:
Fireman First Class (F1c) Walter Fay Schleiter, United States Navy. Service Number: 2833716
Early Life
Walter Fay Schleiter was born in 1919 in Freedom, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. His father Carl Julius Schleiter, born 1885 in Pennsylvania, died 12 February 1920 in Freedom, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, worked for a granite and marble company. His mother, Ada Alice Fenstermacher was born on 20 March 1891 in Stark County, Ohio and died on 4 September 1970 in Stark County, Ohio. Walter’s parents were married on 29 December 1908 in Stark County, Ohio. Walter was the second of two children in the family; he had an older sister. After her first husband died, Ada remarried Charles Stauffer.
Military
Walter Fay Schleiter enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 13 August 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio. After boot camp and additional follow-on training, he was assigned to the Battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) which was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii when the Japanese attack occurred. He reported aboard Oklahoma on 12 October 1940.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, a fleet of Japanese carriers launched an air strike against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The attack decimated the ships and personnel of the fleet and thrust the United States into World War II. At the onset of the 7 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37), being moored at berth Fox 5 on “Battleship Row.” Just before 8 am, the Oklahoma was among the first of the ships struck in the attack. A torpedo struck on her port side and she capsized quickly. After the Arizona, she was the largest loss of life, at 429 sailors and marines. The Oklahoma was salvaged in 1942, but it was determined she could not be repaired. In May of 1947, she was sold for scrap and while under tow to California, she sank in a storm. Her exact location remains unknown to this day.
Death and Burial
Walter Fay Schleiter was Declared Dead while Missing in Action or Lost at Sea on 7 December 1941 aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal. He was memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial, Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, located inside Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is also memorialized at the USS Oklahoma Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. NEWS RELEASE| June 25, 2018 - USS Oklahoma Sailor Killed During World War II Accounted For, By DPAA Public Affairs
WASHINGTON – Navy Fireman 1st Class Walter F. Schleiter, killed during the attack on the USS Oklahoma in World War II, was accounted for on May 18, 2018.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Schleiter was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Schleiter.
In 2015, DPAA disinterred remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission. Interment services are pending; more details will be released 7-10 days prior to scheduled funeral services. Schleiter's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For more information about DPAA, visit www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa, or call 703-699-1420.
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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Together We Served and on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen person’s name, and read his/her story.
Red Mulvanny - Contributing Author, Stories Behind the Stars
If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please click HERE to email Together We Served directly.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Attack on Pearl Harbor
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
December / 1941
Description The attack on Pearl Harbor, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, the Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and Operation Z during planning, was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
The attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940,[19] disappeared. Clandestine support of the United Kingdom (e.g., the Neutrality Patrol) was replaced by active alliance. Subsequent operations by the U.S. prompted Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy to declare war on the U.S. on December 11, which was reciprocated by the U.S. the same day.
From the 1950s, several writers alleged that parties high in the U.S. and British governments knew of the attack in advance and may have let it happen (or even encouraged it) with the aim of bringing the U.S. into war. However, this advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is rejected by mainstream historians.
There were numerous historical precedents for unannounced military action by Japan. However, the lack of any formal warning, particularly while negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
