Willis A. Olson

Willis A. Olson entered the Army on Feb. 18, 1943.

He was trained as a surgical technician and sent to Iran in the Persian Gulf Command, to join the 21st Station Hospital in Khorramishah. He was later attached to the 119th Field Hospital in Ahwaz as a chaplain's assistant.

He says: "I played a little pump organ and did the general work of a chaplain''s assistant. Due to a shortage of chaplains, Chaplain Charlton D. Hutton assigned me to much of the same work a regular chaplain does--holding Protestant services at various locations with the troops in southern Iran. He later became an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church and served churches in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

He was discharged on Jan. 28, 1946.

Source: Hometown Heroes: The St. Louis County World War II Project. 232.

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