Floyd Hesse, 'absolutely fearless' WWII soldier

The farmer from Plummer, Minn., had many medals for his service in the Philippines and New Guinea.

By BEN COHEN, Star Tribune

Last update: February 12, 2008 - 9:34 PM

Floyd Hesse, a highly decorated combat veteran, never forgot all the boys who didn't return from the battlefields of World War II.

Hesse, 91, a farmer from Plummer, Minn., paid his respects at memorial events in the Philippines, Washington, D.C., and St. Paul. At the June dedication of the Minnesota World War II Veterans Memorial in St. Paul, he almost looked like he could yet take a hill in battle. He worked his farm until recent months.

Hesse died of cancer Feb. 1 in Fargo.

His uniform was laden with ribbons and medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest for bravery in combat.

Hesse, a sergeant, had fought in New Guinea, leading a heavy machine-gun platoon, and guarded Hill 400 in Luzon, the Philippines.

On March 12, 1945, Hesse stopped a Japanese assault all by himself. "My dad told all his men, 'Stay down or you're dead,'" said his daughter Nancy Jo Mattison of Amissville, Va.

Armed with a Thompson submachine gun and grenades, he sneaked between the enemy soldiers, tossing grenades. Out of grenades, he returned to get more, then kept fighting.

Mattison said her father once told her he preferred to fight alone because it was much quieter.

"The guy was absolutely fearless," said Hesse's former battalion commander Arndt Mueller, an Ortonville, Minn., native, now of Naples, Fla. "I'd ask him if everything was OK, and he'd point to the sky, to the Lord."

During the war, Hesse was awarded a Bronze Star. He got a Purple Heart after shrapnel hit his neck, eye and ear, making him hard of hearing for life.

Hesse grew up in Plummer, leaving school after the eighth grade to support his family.

His wife of 60 years, Fern, died in 2006. His son Scott died in 1966. His daughter Vickie died in 2003.

In addition to Nancy Jo, he is survived by daughters, Diane Grinde of Elk River and Bonnie Wichterman of Baldwin, N.D.; sisters, Helen Simpson of Plummer, Eva Lauritz of Seattle, Marian Pearson of Richland, Wash., Harriet Norman of Plummer, and Doris Malwitz of Plummer; brothers, Melvin of Plummer, and Ivan of Red Lake Falls, Minn.; 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Services are being planned.

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