World War II soldier killed in action returns home for Anamosa funeral

ANAMOSA — Nearly 80 years after he was killed by German soldiers in France, an Iowa soldier has returned home to be honored for his sacrifice.

Raymond U. Schlamp, who lived in Dubuque when he first enlisted in the U.S. Army, was killed in September 1944 after three years serving in Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army. Schlamp, a Private First Class, died after being wounded on the banks of the Moselle River near Dornot, under heavy fire.

He was left behind while his unit retreated, and his remains were not located and identified immediately following the battle.

Last year, DNA advances and new DNA samples from distant relatives helped the Army identify Schlamp’s remains. On Saturday, his living relatives and the community will celebrate his life.

The celebration of life, with full military honors, will be held on Saturday, April 6 at 10 a.m. at Lawrence Community Center, 600 E. Main St. in Anamosa. A private burial will follow at Linwood Cemetery in Dubuque, where his ashes will be interred in his mother’s casket.

“Stories flowed every time we saw his picture. It was just part of our history, we never dreamed anything else would come.” said Renee Mente, Schlamp’s great niece. “We just couldn’t believe it.”

Missing in action

As Patton’s 5th Infantry Division fought its way across France in the summer of 1944, American soldiers dug defensive positions at the edge of a tree grove known as Horseshoe Woods. The area represented the very forward edge of the U.S. advance, eliciting relentless counterattacks from the Germans.

Schlamp was wounded in both legs by a sniper’s machine-gun fire as his company was retreating. Company aid men searched for him the following day, but could not find a trace of him. The War Department declared him dead about a year later.

In 1946, The American Graves Registration Command, a part of the Army Quartermaster Corps, was charged with recovering remains in the European Theater. Grave registration operations after the war failed to identify Schlamp in the following years. Unidentified remains like his were set aside; Schlamp’s remains were declared non-recoverable in 1951.

When Schlamp went missing at the age of 29, the grief of his mother, Mabel Schlamp, was expressed through disbelief. Jean Rekemeyer, who is Raymond’s niece and Mabel’s granddaughter, remembers Mabel’s endless letters to anyone who she thought could help locate Raymond.

“They wanted to find him so bad. She kept saying that maybe he had amnesia and didn’t know where he is,” said Rekemeyer, 93. “It really woke me up to what war was about.”

With his return this week, Rekemeyer received a set of his dog tags. Even to relatives who didn’t know Raymond, she said his final return to Iowa provides meaningful closure.

A poem by Raymond’s sisters about how “he wasn’t gone, just away for a while,” will be read at Saturday’s service.

Rekemeyer said Raymond was quiet but always smiling and optimistic, with kind words to offer in any situation.

“He was very willing to go into the service. I think he was a true soldier,” she said. “I think this is going to be closure.”

Identifying his remains

The identification, processed over the course of the last year, comes thanks to a DNA sample from Renee Mente, Schlamp’s great niece, and a few other cousins.

But when they got the call from the Army asking for their DNA, it almost didn’t happen.

“When we hung up on the guy, we thought it was a farce,” said Gina Smith, Mente’s sister. “Renee went through with it.”

After receiving some assurance of the official nature of the request, Mente, a science teacher in Fort Myers, Florida, said the family has been in awe of the process that has identified many soldiers from World War II, well into the 21st century.

“We thought it was so cool that the Army, after all these years, still cared and actively searched out these soldiers,” she said. “I tell this story to almost everybody I get to know.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.