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By Charlene H. Jordan
Carl Oscar Edward Carlson, born June 18, 1922, was a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne, killed in action March 24, 1945, within weeks of the end of World War II on May 8, 1945.
The 17th Airborne Division, “The Golden Talons,” was an airborne infantry division of the United States Army with the motto “Thunder from Heaven.” Operation Plunder had begun in the evening of March 23. By 10 a.m. on the 24th, the first Allied airborne units began to land on the eastern bank of the Rhine River.
Carl Carlson was the son of Swedish emigrants and an older brother of Eric Carlson who became mayor of Elgin. His father, Oscar Carlson, was born in Vetlanda in Småland, and his mother, Maria Jacobson, in Trollhättan, Västergötland.
Carl Carlson was buried in the Lund Cemetery Sept. 21, 1948.
Rudolph Leroy Eklund, a Private in the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, Battery F, died in Burma, Mahaica-Berbice, Guyana, Jan. 5, 1944. He was in the Lost Battalion captured by the Japanese on the island of Java in March 1942. It was called the Lost Battalion because their fate wasn’t known until September 1944. Born July 15, 1919, he was the son of Andrew P. Eklund and Hulda Christine Peterson Eklund and was one of nine children. He is buried in the Lund Cemetery (Memorial ID 52038693).
Mat tson grandson Woodrow Wilson Lehman was born June 29, 1914, near the Kylberg Community north of Elgin. Lehman was one of the lost submariners of World War II. He was an electrician’s Mate, First Class, who went down in the submarine, the USS Grunion, July 30, 1942, with a crew of 70. The submarine was near the entrance to Kiska Harbor, Alaska, in the Bering Sea, and was probably sunk by the armed Japanese freighter Kano Maru. He was awarded a Purple Heart.
Henning Lundgren was born at Kimbro May 22, 1890. He was adopted as an infant by Claus Linus Johnson and his wife, Anna Charlotta Samuelson, later known as Marrying Anna. He was the son of Emil Lundgren and Ida Maria Johnson and the grandson of Jakob Birat. Edwin, Robert and Carl Lundgren were Henning’s half-brothers. He was only six months old when his mother died. He lived at Type after the death of his adoptive father in 1908. Evelyn Marie Carlson said that her mother told her that
Some of those killed in action in World Wars I and II
Henning felt he would not be coming back because he would be killed. He was remembered as having said: “I might as well go stand by the barn and you can shoot me.”
Inducted into the Army Feb. 28, 1918, he was killed on sentry duty in the Meuse-Argonne region, France, Sept. 25, 1918. It was the day before the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, north and northwest of Verdun.
Pedro G. Vega was a casualty of World War II in North Africa. His family lived in Williamson County between Structure and Lawrence Chapel. Vega died May 7, 1943, between Kasserine Pass and Tripoli in Libya. Less than a week later, May 13, the Germans surrendered Rommel’s Afrika Korps.
On June 18, 1948, Vega was buried in Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio (Section O, Site 120) according to the National Cemetery Administration on Ancestry.com.
Two of Pedro’s brothers, Staff Sergeant Edward G. Vega and Lance Corporal Arthur G. Vega, also died, but not in combat. They were at home on leave from Carswell Air Force Base and Camp Pendleton, when they were gunned down under questionable circumstances in Taylor. A police officer shot each of them twice because he said they assaulted him. They died on Main Street and Walnut Street, south of the tracks. That part of the street was called the Line. The area was later bulldozed by Laura Bush’s team when her husband was Governor.
Charlene Hanson Jordan wrote the above narrative as the latest in a weekly column based on new research.
Elgin-area stories along with photographs/supplemental history, as well as articles about local Swedes and Germans appear in her Patreon website effective July 3, 2023, patreon.com/Charlene-HansonJordan.
Her latest book, “NOTES & RECOLLECTIONS, Post Oak Island & Elgin, Texas,” is available at the Elgin Depot Museum where exhibits, photographs, and books on local history are also available. The museum is open on Fridays & Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. Watch for notices.
“Notes & Recollections” may be purchased from the Niswanders at the Elgin Farmers Market, Veterans Memorial Park.
The book is also available at the Elgin Courier office, 105 N. Main Street, Elgin, 512-285-3333, during business hours all week or from Charlene directly at charlenehansonjordan@ yahoo.com or 512-856-2562.
