Dutch Wenzel

Dutch Wenzel was a platoon sergeant in the United States Marines. Like Les Dillon, Wenzel had turned down a promotion to gunnery sergeant for the opportunity to participate in the invasion to retake Hawaii from Japan in 1942. He and Dillon were aboard a carriership when the aborted invasion fleet set sail in June, 1942. That invasion was defeated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and so was forced to return to the U.S.

Wenzel and Dillon spent the remainder of the year training for the better planned and better prepared invasion launched in summer of 1943. They were some of the first boots on the northern beaches of Oahu. Wenzel saw plenty of action. When he ran into Dillon after some of the fiercest fighting, both were surprised that the other was alive.