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Casualty Info
Home Town Crookston, MN
Last Address 5301 Lockley Ave Oakland, CA
Casualty Date May 05, 1945
Cause KIA-Died of Wounds
Reason Burns
Location Pacific
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery - Portland, Oregon
Funeral services for Fireman 1/C Gerald James Stole, who was posthumously awarded the Silver Star medal and the Purple Heart for heroism that cost his life in the battle for Okinawa, will be held Saturday at 10:30 A. M. in the chapel of the Pearson Funeral Home, 301 N. E. Knott Street.
The officiating clergyman will be Rev. Joseph Berg of the Central Lutheran Church. Military honors will be provided by veterans' groups. Interment will be in the veterans' plot of Lincoln Memorial Park.
The young man was born October 7, 1924 at Crookston, Minn., came to Portland with his parents and attended Boise and Whitaker Schools, graduating from Benson Polytechnic in 1942. He enlisted in the Navy in the summer of 1942.
He was assigned to duty in the Pacific in the summer of 1943, first on the battleship California and later on the destroyer Aaron Ward, and participated in the Naval engagements at the Marshall Islands, Saipan and Guam.
During the battle for Okinawa, the Ward was attacked by 20 enemy suicide planes and the ship received several torpedo hits. Fireman Stole escaped from the damaged portion of the ship, but in returning to the engine room to attempt the rescue of an officer suffered burns that caused his death two days later aboard a hospital ship.
He leaves the parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Stole, and a brother, Robert, all of Portland, and a brother, Donald, of Tillamook.