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.
