Lieutenant Colonel Walter Ernest Lischeid
- Unit: 1st Marine Air Wing VMF-214 MAG 12
- Service Number: 06626
- Date of Birth: April 28, 1918
- Entered the Military: June 29, 1940
- Date of Death: September 25, 1950
- Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Place of Death: outskirts of Seoul, Korea
- Award(s): Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 gold stars, Air Medal with 3 gold stars, Purple Heart, Navy Presidential Unit Citation with Bronze Star, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars, American Theater Medal, Japanese Occupation Medal, WWII Victory Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korean Presidential Unit Citation
- Cemetery: Courts of the Missing, Court Five, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Section A-25, Site 6723, Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Edgewood Middle School (Mounds View, Minnesota)
2024/2025
Early Life
Walter Ernest Lischeid was born on April 28, 1918 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the only child of Justus and Elsie Lischeid, who emigrated from Kassel, Germany to Ontario, Canada in 1913. Not liking the rural Canadian wilderness, Justus and Elsie moved to Minneapolis in May 1916. Justus became a streetcar conductor, the job he held continuously until his retirement.
Justus Lischeid was a corporal in the artillery branch of Kaiser Wilhelm’s army in Germany around 1909. His proud military service later inspired his only son to join the military as well.
Sometime between 1920 and 1930, Justice and Elsie purchased a house at 2320 East 33rd Street in Minneapolis. Their neighborhood consisted of ethnically German, Swedish, and Norwegian neighbors.
Education
Walter Lischeid attended Corcoran Elementary and South High School in Minneapolis, graduating in 1936. He was a founding member of the Honor Society and participated in football, glee club, opera, and student council. He graduated fifth in his class and received the Minneapolis Star’s Leadership and Service Award.
Needing financial assistance to attend college, Lischeid joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and attended the University of Minnesota. According to his son, Lischeid wanted to be a pilot and the “best of the best,” which is why he chose the U.S. Marine Corps.
While in college, Lischeid competed on the rifle squad, which won the National ROTC Rifle Championship his junior and senior years. He majored in Civil Engineering and graduated in 1940 from the Department of Military Science and Tactics. On June 29, 1940, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Lischeid was fluent in German and had experience translating and interpreting it. He was proud to be a Mason and had a lifelong hobby of woodworking.
A Growing Family
Lischeid married Joan E. Speece on May 2, 1943. No stranger to military life, Joan had grown up in Hawaii, China, and Minneapolis as the daughter of a colonel in World War I and World War II.
Walter and Joan Lischeid welcomed their first daughter, Victoria Ann, on March 25, 1944. They welcomed their first son, Ronald, on February 4, 1948. Their second son, William, followed on August 27, 1949. Tragically, Victoria suffered brain injuries during birth and died on November 10, 1949.
Homefront
Ammunition Manufacturing for World War II
In 1941, the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant (TCOP) opened in Mounds View Township, a then-rural community outside of Minneapolis. The plant employed thousands of workers day and night, producing .30 and .50 caliber cartridges for the war effort. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited TCOP in September 1942.
More than half of TCOP’s 26,000 workers were women, called WOWs (Women Ordnance Workers). There were also a few African American men who served as supervisors, which was rare in 1940s America. Workers were not separated by race. By the end of the war, TCOP had churned out more than four billion rounds.
Ammunition Manufacturing for the Korean War
The plant closed after World War II ended and was renamed the Twin Cities Arsenal (TCA) on April 1, 1946. The plant reopened in August 1950 in response to the Korean War. Senator Hubert Humphrey helped broker the contract with the Defense Department to reopen the plant, which produced 155 millimeter shells and employed 500-600 new employees. TCA was operational until 1958. It later reopened to produce ammunition for the Vietnam War and the First Persian Gulf War.
Other Contributions during the Korean War
Minneapolis’s “homefront effort” was considerably smaller for the Korean War than for World War II. Many Americans were thrilled to enjoy the foods, fashion, and cars that had been limited during World War II rationing; abundant newspaper advertisements for these consumer items are evidence of this. However, there were still ways that Minnesotans stepped up to support the war effort.
Reflecting Minnesota’s deep Catholic and Lutheran roots, numerous chaplains reported for duty in the Korean War. From Minneapolis alone, clergy from Catholic, Russian Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Methodist congregations volunteered for service.
Additionally, the Minnesota National Guard was mobilized from the small cities of Princeton (50 miles from Minneapolis) and Worthington (175 miles from Minneapolis). Nine thousand men from Minnesota and North Dakota served in the 47th Viking Division of the National Guard. They were permanently stationed at Camp Rucker, Alabama, and served a two-year tour of duty.
Military Experience
Service in World War II
After being appointed a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps on June 29, 1940, Walter Lischeid attended Marine Corps Basic Training in Philadelphia. He then completed a Base Defense Weapons Course and Amphibious Warfare School before being assigned to the Second Defense Battalion at Parris Island, South Carolina and San Diego, California.
In January 1942, Lischeid became Commanding Officer of Battery D, L, and E in Tutuila, American Samoa. He was promoted to captain and served in Samoa until 1943, when he returned to the United States for additional training. During this training, Lischeid was promoted to major. He became a flight instructor in April 1944.
In May 1945, Lischeid sailed from San Pedro, California to the Pacific via the USS Wentley. He was the Commanding Officer of Second Marine Aircraft Wing VMF-322, MAG 33, known colloquially as the Fighting Hawks.
Lischeid and his Fighting Hawks were pilots during the Okinawa Campaign until July 1945. According to his military record, he flew “anti-submarine patrols, fighter sweeps, day and night fighter and bomb strikes, reconnaissance and search missions, escort missions, and minesweeper and photographic plane cover.” The Second Marine Aircraft Wing shot down 495 Japanese planes in this campaign.
Lischeid piloted a Corsair F4U-3. By August 1945, he had flown 20 missions around the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Lischeid was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals.
Service between World War II and the Korean War
After the end of World War II, Lischeid became Commanding Officer of VMF-322 MAG 15, stationed on Midway Islands. His wife, Joan, lived with him in the Pacific during this time. They sailed back to San Francisco aboard the USS Butner on February 7, 1947 and settled just outside Washington, D.C.
In August 1947, Lischeid began his tenure working at the Pentagon. Specifically, he worked at the Headquarters of the Marine Corps in the Army-Navy Air Intelligence Division in the Naval Department. According to his son, Lischeid’s role in this department was as a test pilot, helping the military develop better planes post-World War II.
Service during the Korean War
On July 1, 1949, Lischeid was promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred to El Toro, Santa Ana, California, to serve with the First Marine Aircraft Wing. After completing an Arctic Survival Course in Nome, Alaska, he became the Commanding Officer of VMF-214 MAG 12 on July 7, 1950. This squadron was famously known as The Black Sheep.
Lischeid was affectionately called “The Old Man.” Although he was only 32 years old, he had a decade of experience as a Marine and was far older than most men under his command.
On August 3, 1950, Lischeid’s Black Sheep squadron flew from Itami Air Force Base, Japan, and landed on the USS Sicily, an aircraft carrier. The Black Sheep had 24 planes, all of them Vought F4U-4B 4-propellor Corsairs. They were the first Marine air unit to arrive in Korea during the Korean War.
The USS Sicily was stationed south of Pusan. VMF-214 MAG 12 provided ground support for the Battle of Pusan Perimeter. Ground troops often requested these “close air support missions,” during which fighter pilots did strafing runs and used napalm, bombs, and incendiaries to attack North Korean forces on the ground. This allowed the American Marine ground forces to make better progress on land.
The Black Sheep was so successful with this “air-ground team” strategy in Pusan that they were assigned to engage in similar work during the amphibious landing at Inchon.
Air Support at Inchon
From September 15 to October 11, the 1st Marine Division supported Marine ground troops in capturing Wolmido Island, the city of Inchon, and Kimpo Airfield, a strategic airfield that was about seven miles west of Seoul. All these victories led to the ultimate goal: recapturing Seoul from the North Koreans.
Outside of Seoul, Lischeid’s 214 focused on attacking the hills where North Korean (KPA) forces hid. Typically, Lischeid led five Corsairs to break up KPA counterattacks while the ground Marines battled toward Seoul. The pilots used napalm to chase KPA fighters out of their caves, attack the enemy’s fuel supplies, and blow up bridges and railroad tracks.
Lischeid flew ten missions between August 29 and September 20. During this time, the Minneapolis Star reported that Lischeid and his men “destroyed an oil storage dump on the outskirts of Yongdungpo, a Seoul suburb. They scored direct hits on the dump with napalm (jellied gasoline) bombs.”
Lischeid’s Final Mission
On the morning of September 25, 1950, Lischeid set out for one last strafing run to support the 1st Marine Brigade. This was the last day of the 214’s role in the Inchon-Seoul operation before flying to Japan for rest and relaxation (R&R).
Lischeid was scouting southeast Seoul for tanks to destroy when his plane was hit by enemy fire from a nearby ridge. According to the 214’s official records, his “crippled aircraft burst into flames and crashed near Kimpo airfield.”
According to Lischeid’s official death certificate issued aboard the USS Sicily, Lischeid was killed at 8:06 a.m. on September 25, 1950. His remains were never recovered.
Commemoration
Major William M. Lundin, USMC, was flying alongside Lischeid on the day he was killed. Two days later, he wrote a letter to Mrs. Lischeid describing Walter’s death. According to Major Lundin’s firsthand account:
Walt was acting as a Tactical Air Observer and was flying up and down the streets of Seoul looking for some tanks, while the flight he was directing (Major Reusser) flew overhead. His aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and he called Ken Reusser and told him he had an electrical fire in his cockpit, that he was proceeding to Kimpo Airfield and would drop his bomb in the river. He was then at 3000 feet and heading for Kimpo. Ken went ahead to clear the runway. Charlie Garber trailed behind Walt and called him on the radio that he was on fire, but evidently his radio was out of commission due to the electrical fire. As Walt began his let down for a straight in approach, his aircraft became enveloped in flame, and before he could bail out, it crashed three miles from the field. Friendly forces reached the scene immediately. Walt’s death was instantaneous.
Walter Lischeid was survived by his wife, both of his parents, and his two sons, ages one and two. By Christmas of 1950, Lischeid’s widow and sons relocated from California back home to Minneapolis, Minnesota, officially putting military life behind them.
Since no one witnessed Lischeid bailing out of his flaming plane, Justus Lischeid, Walter’s father, always believed that his son had been taken as a Prisoner of War. While he did not have military evidence to support this belief, a father’s hope springs eternal.
Walter Lischeid served honorably in the United States Marine Corps for ten years. Before leaving for Korea, he told his wife that he wanted to put in his 20 years, move back to Minnesota, and open a business flying tourists up to Canada for fishing expeditions.
Later, Mrs. Lischeid came to believe that had her husband survived, he would have applied to be one of NASA’s early astronauts. Many of the early NASA astronauts had career paths similar to Lischeid’s, and his love of country, adventure, and flight could have led him down a similar road.
Lischeid’s family continued to mourn his death for decades. 31 years after his only son’s death, Justus Lischeid applied for a replacement Gold Star lapel pin to honor his late son. In his application, Lischeid wrote, “I am 93 years old, excuse my poor writing. My son would be 63 years old today, it was quite a loss.”
Walter Lischeid’s sons, Ronald and William, have actively worked to keep their father’s memory alive. They have gathered photographs and records of their father’s long service in the Marine Corps and even met with the Department of Defense to learn more about their father’s Missing In Action designation.
In 2008, a representative from the Department of Defense shared the coordinates of their father’s crash location site: 37 34 33 N, 126 49 45 E. A major highway between Seoul and Gimpo Airport has been built over the site, and beyond the highway are rice paddies. The location is two minutes from Gimpo Airport, formerly Kimpo Airfield. Lischeid was a fighter pilot to the end, fighting to guide his impaired aircraft back to the airfield.
Lischeid was the recipient of numerous impressive medals, including a Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two gold stars, the Air Medal with three gold stars, and the Navy Presidential Unit Citation with a Bronze Star.
Lischeid also received the American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars, American Theater Medal, Japanese Occupation Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Korean Presidential Unit Citation.
He is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, and with a memorial stone at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
“2 City Marine Pilots Score in Raids on Reds.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN], September 22, 1950. ProQuest (1858344812).
“13-Million Contract Awarded for Shells.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN], September 27, 1952. ProQuest (1858439699).
“45 State Marine Pilots Blast Japs from Okinawa.” The Minneapolis Morning Tribune [Minneapolis, MN], August 5, 1945. Proquest (1852388001).
California. Orange County. 1950 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
“City Flier Heads Marine Squadron.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN], July 22, 1950. ProQuest (1858321151).
“City Marine Will Take Bride Today.” Star Tribune [Minneapolis, Minnesota], May 2, 1943. Newspapers.com (182719285).
“City Priest Starts Duty in Navy.” The Minneapolis Morning Tribune, September 5, 1952. ProQuest (1858415069).https://www.proquest.com.
“Dead-Eyes!.” Minneapolis Star-Journal [Minneapolis, MN], May 16, 1940. ProQuest (1851881742).
“Department of Military Science and Tactics.” The Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, Minnesota], June 16, 1940. Newspapers.com (187342481).
Elsie Lischeid. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934. https://ancestry.com.
Elsie Lischeid. U.S. Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960. https://ancestry.com.
“Evening of Glamor in St. Louis.” Star Tribune [Minneapolis, Minnesota], February 24, 1950. Newspapers.com (180799286).
“Gen. Collins to Inspect Arsenal Here.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, Minnesota], April 3, 1953. ProQuest (1858548738).
The Gopher, Volume 53. The University of Minnesota, 1940.
“The Guard: Worthington Company is Typical of the 65 Units in Minnesota” The Minneapolis Morning Tribune [Minneapolis, MN], December 17, 1950. Proquest (1858315731).
“High School Graduates Receive Leadership and Service Awards.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN], January 24, 1936. ProQuest (1848514220).
Justus Lischeid. World War I Draft Cards, June 5, 1911. Digital Image. https://ancestry.com.
Lischeid Family Records. 1909-1970. Courtesy of Ronald Lischeid.
Lischeid, Ronlad. Personal interview. February 16, 2025.
Looking west from the Coffman Union footbridge at Washington Avenue and the bridge over the Mississippi River. Photograph. January 21, 1951. Minneapolis and St. Paul Newspaper Negative Collection, Minnesota Historical Society (104826). https://www.mnhs.org/search/collections/record/115cc657-3b02-4ce0-b4ee-a4be8f9c1e4e?return.
Minnesota. Hennepin County. 1920 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
Minnesota. Hennepin County. 1930 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
Minnesota. Hennepin County. 1940 U.S. Census. Digital images. https://ancestry.com.
“Most Vikings Home Attending Drills Again.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN], November 4, 1952. ProQuest (1858446424).
“Nine Pastors in State to Leave with Guard.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN] January 12, 1951. ProQuest (1858380291).
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South High School Yearbook. Minneapolis Public Schools, 1935.
South High School Yearbook. Minneapolis Public Schools, 1936.
“State to Honor Vikings.” Minneapolis Star [Minneapolis, MN], January 16, 1953. ProQuest (1858556921).
Various Advertisements. The Minneapolis Morning Tribune [Minneapolis, MN], September 22, 1950. ProQuest.
“VMF 214 Historical Diary September 1950.” The Korean War Project. Accessed February 24, 2025. https://www.koreanwar2.org/kwp2/usmc/029/m029_cd09_1950_09_777.pdf.
Walter Ernest Lischeid. Application for Headstone or Marker, 1964. https://ancestry.com.
Walter Ernest Lischeid. Birth Record. April 28, 1918. Gale Family Library, Minnesota Historical Society. https://www.mnhs.org/search/people/birth-records/c426d442-759a-469c-b664-5e257880eb95?.
Walter Ernest Lischeid. Individual Deceased Personnel File. National Archives and Records Administration – St. Louis.
Walter Ernest Lischeid. Marine Corps Military Register, 1943. https://ancestry.com.
Walter Ernest Lischeid. Official Military Personnel File, Department of the Navy. National Archives and Records Administration – St. Louis.
Workers at the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant. Photograph. Hennepin County Library. https://www.mnopedia.org/multimedia/workers-twin-cities-ordnance-plant.
Secondary Sources
“2320 E 33rd St, Minneapolis, MN 55406.” Zillow. Accessed February 11, 2025. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2320-E-33rd-St-Minneapolis-MN-55406/1694645_zpid/.
Condon, John P., and Peter B. Mersky. Corsairs to Panthers: U.S. Marine Aviation in Korea. U.S. Marine Corps, 2002. https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/Corsairs%20to%20Panthers%20-%20U.S.%20Marine%20Aviation%20in%20Korea%20%20PCN%2019000319800_1.pdf.
“Joan Lischeid Damman.” Find a Grave. Updated February 12, 2011. Accessed December 15, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65570281/joan_ellen_damann.
“Justus C. Lischeid.” Find a Grave. Updated June 10, 2018. Accessed December 15, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190494533/justus-c.-lischeid.
“LTC Walter Ernest Lischeid.” Find a Grave. Updated June 17, 2011. Accessed December 1, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/71510309/walter-ernest-lischeid.
“LtCol Walter Ernest Lischeid.” Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Accessed December 1, 2024. https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000007WhvUEAS.
“Mrs Elsie Helen Lischeid.” Find a Grave. Accessed December 15, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190494550/elsie_helen_lischeid.
“Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant.” MNopedia. Updated November 6, 2018. Accessed January 11, 2025. www.mnopedia.org/place/twin-cities-army-ammunition-plant.
“Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant: An Inventory of Its Plant Files at the Minnesota Historical Society.” Minnesota Historical Society. Updated 2015. Accessed January 11, 2025. http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00684.xml.
“Walter Ernest Lischeid.” American Battle Monuments Commission. Accessed December 1, 2024. https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/lischeid%3Dwalter.
This profile was researched and created through the Researching Silent Heroes program, sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission.