OUELLETTE, Wilfred George

1926 - 1945  (18 years)

• Name	OUELLETTE, Wilfred George
  Birth	22 Apr 1926	Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA   [1, 2, 3]
  Gender	Male
  1930 US Federal Census	10 Apr 1930	Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA
  	Page 24 of 40
  		OUELLETTE, Wilfred & Family - 1930 US Federal Census Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts (Page 24 of 40)
  1940 US Federal Census	11 Apr 1940	Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA
  	E18-116 Page 2 of 30
  		OUELLETTE, Wilfred & Family - 1940 US Federal Census Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, E18-116 (Page 2 of 30) (At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.)
  Military	WORLD WAR II - 5th Marine Division
  		MILITARY - WORLD WAR II - 5th Marine Division Veteran Marines of all descriptions, Came from coast to coast; To form a new division, Camp Pendleton their host. From the greatest of the old campaigners; To the youngest of the fresh recruits, The Marine Corps 5th Division was born, And soon it started growing roots. They volunteered as always, You...and You...and You! They knew the 5th…
  Military	Mar 1945	Iwo Jima, Japan
  	Eulogy by Lt Roland B. Gittelsohn, ChC, USNR at the dedication of the 5th Marine Division Cemetery, Iwo Jima - March 1945 "This is the grimmest, and surely the holiest, task we have faced since D-day. Here before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends. Men who until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained with us. Men who were on the same ships with us, and went over the side with us as we prepared to hit the beaches of this island. Men who fought with us and feared with us. Somewhere in this plot of ground there may lie the man who could have discovered the cure for cancer. Under one of these Christian crosses, or beneath a Jewish Star of David, there may rest now a man who was destined to be a great prophet to find the way, perhaps, for all to live in plenty, with poverty and hardship for none. Now they lie silently in this sacred soil, and we gather to consecrate this earth to their, memory. It is not easy to do so. Some of us have buried our closest friends here. We saw these men killed before our very eyes. Any one of us might have died in their places; Indeed, some of us are alive and breathing at this very moment only because the men who lie here beneath us had the courage and the strength to give their lives, for ours. To speak in memory of such men as these is not easy. Of them too it can be said with utter truth: The world will little note nor long remember what we say here. It can never forget what they did here. No, our power of speech can add nothing more to what these men and the other dead of our Division have already done. All that we can even hope to do is follow their example. To show the same selfless courage in peace that they did in war. To swear that by the grace of God and the stubborn strength and power of human will, their sons and ours shall never suffer these pains again. These men have done their job well. They have paid the ghastly price for freedom. If that freedom be once again lost, as it was after the last war, the unforgivable blame will be ours, not theirs. So it is we the living who are to be dedicated and consecrated. We dedicate ourselves, first, to live together in peace the way we fought and are buried in this war. Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding, and other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich and poor together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many men from each group are admitted or allowed. Among these men there is no discrimination, no prejudices, no hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest Democracy. Any man among us the living who fails to understand that will thereby betray those who lie here dead. Whoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and of the bloody sacrifice it commemorates an empty, hollow mockery. To this, then, as our solemn, sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves: to the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of white men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the Democracy for which all of them here have paid the price. To one thing more do we consecrate ourselves in memory of those who sleep beneath these white crosses and stars. We shall not foolishly suppose, as did the last generation of Americas fighting men, that victory on the battlefield will automatically guarantee the triumph of Democracy at home.. This war, with all its frightful heartache and suffering, is but the beginning of our generations struggle for Democracy. When the last battle has been won, there will be those at home, as there were the last time, who will want us to turn our backs in selfish isolation on the rest of organized humanity, and thus to sabotage the very peace for which we fight. We promise you who lie here: We will not do that! We will join hands with Britain, China, Ria, in peace, even as we have in war, to build the kind of peace for which you died. When the last shot has been fired, there will still be those whose eyes are turned backward, not forward, who will be satisfied with those wide extremes of poverty and wealth in which the seeds of another war can breed. We promise you, our departed comrades: This too we will not permit. This war has been fought by the common man; its fruits of peace must be enjoyed by the common man. We promise, by all that is sacred and holy, that your sons, the sons of miners and millers, the sons of farmers and workers, will inherit from your death the right to a living that is decent and secure. When the final cross has been placed in the last cemetery, once again there will be those to whom profit is more important than peace, who will insist with the voice of sweet reasonableness and appeasement that it is better to trade with the enemies of mankind than, by crushing them, to lose their profit. To you who sleep here silently, we give you our promise: We will not listen! We will not forget that some of you were burnt with oil that came from American wells, that many of you were killed by shells fashioned from American steel; we promise that when once again men seek profit at your expense, we shall remember how you looked when we placed you reverently, lovingly, in the ground. Thus do we memorialize those who, having ceased living with us, now live within us. Thus do we consecrate ourselves, the living, to carry on the struggle they began. Too much blood has gone into this soil for us to let it lie barren. Too much pain and heartache have fertilized the earth on which we stand. We here solemnly swear: This shall not be in vain! Out of this, from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn, this will come we promise the birth of a new freedom from the sons of men everywhere. AMEN." Rabbi Gittelsohn was assigned to HQ, 5th MarDiv as the Jewish divisional Chaplain. He ministered to Marines and Sailors of all faiths. He was the first Jewish Chaplain ever to serve with the Marine Corps. from http://www.recordsofwar.com/iwo/dead/dead.htm
  Death	8 Mar 1945	Iwo Jima, Japan   [2, 3, 4]
  	My uncle (Wilfred G. Ouellette) died taking this island. He was only 18 years old and was part of the 5th division. I am humbled by the price these young men paid for our liberty. To this day our family has very little info on Wilfred and his experiences. All we heard is that he died on March the 8th going cave to cave. - Steve Gawrys http://www.iwojima.com/today.htm/comment-page-7/
  Newspaper Article	29 May 1945	Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA   [5]
  	Two Killed in Action; One Wounded Paratrooper and Marine Die Hero Deaths Lowell - Two Lowell men, a paratrooper and a marine, who were previously reported missing in action, have been killed, and an infantryman has been seriously wounded, according to war department and marine corps telegrams received here overnight. They are killed. Killed Pfc. Wilfred G. Ouellette, Jr., USMC, 57 Llewellyn street. Pvt. John C. Lebednick, 27 Durant Street Wounded Corp Joseph D. Ray, 728 Merrimack Street Killed in action during the fighting on Iwo Jima was 18-year old Pfc. Wilfred G. Ouellette, Jr., only son of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Ouellette, 57 Llewellyn street. He was attached to the Fifth Marine division and Iwo Jima was his first combat duty. Enlisted at 17 Enlisting in the Marne Corps shortly after turning 17, Pfc. Ouellette trained at Paris Island and went overeas a year ago. He attended St. Michael's and Varnum Schools. Just before enlisting he fractured an ankle, but he was so intent upon becoming a marine that he surmounted the accident and was accepted some months later. A letter, written April 8 by Rev. John Eker, a Catholic marine corps chaplain, and released in Washington May 15, stated that the young marine had been a constant communicant and had been buried with the Catholic ceremony. Besides his parents, Wilfred G. and Vivian (James) Oouellette, he is survived by two sisters, Gail Ann and Carol Elizabeth Ouellette. A pro-burial mass will be celebrated at St. Michael's church Saturday morning at 9 o'clock. Lowell Sun 29 May 1945 Front Page
  Newspaper Article	25 Oct 1948	Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA   [3]
  	Lowell Sun
  		OUELLETTE, Wilfred G., Jr. - Return of Body Lowell Sun, Lowell, Massachusetts 25 Oct 1948
  Burial	Abt Nov 1948	Pine Grove Cemetery, Brookline, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA   [2, 3]
  		OUELLETTE, Wilfred G, Jr. - Grave Application Pine Grove Cemetery, Brookline, Hillsbourgh, New Hampshire, USA
  		OUELLETTE, Wilfred and Family Grave
  		OUELLETTE, Wilfred G, Military Grave
  Person ID	I02913	Schuler
  Last Modified	23 Jan 2019

  
  

  Father	OUELLETTE, Wilfred Joseph,   b. 27 Nov 1899, Nashua, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA d. 1955, Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA (Age 55 years)
  Mother	JAMES, Vivian Ruth,   b. 07 Jul 1906   d. 13 Feb 1988, Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA (Age 81 years)
  Marriage	Abt 10 Oct 1925  [6]
  Family ID	F01066	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 22 Apr 1926 - Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA 1930 US Federal Census - Page 24 of 40 - 10 Apr 1930 - Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA 1940 US Federal Census - E18-116 Page 2 of 30 - 11 Apr 1940 - Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA Military - Eulogy by Lt Roland B. Gittelsohn, ChC, USNR at the dedication of the 5th Marine Division Cemetery, Iwo Jima - March 1945 "This is the grimmest, and surely the holiest, task we have faced since D-day. Here before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends. Men who until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained with us. Men who were on the same ships with us, and went over the side with us as we prepared to hit the beaches of this island. Men who fought with us and feared with us. Somewhere in this plot of ground there may lie the man who could have discovered the cure for cancer. Under one of these Christian crosses, or beneath a Jewish Star of David, there may rest now a man who was destined to be a great prophet to find the way, perhaps, for all to live in plenty, with poverty and hardship for none. Now they lie silently in this sacred soil, and we gather to consecrate this earth to their, memory. It is not easy to do so. Some of us have buried our closest friends here. We saw these men killed before our very eyes. Any one of us might have died in their places; Indeed, some of us are alive and breathing at this very moment only because the men who lie here beneath us had the courage and the strength to give their lives, for ours. To speak in memory of such men as these is not easy. Of them too it can be said with utter truth: The world will little note nor long remember what we say here. It can never forget what they did here. No, our power of speech can add nothing more to what these men and the other dead of our Division have already done. All that we can even hope to do is follow their example. To show the same selfless courage in peace that they did in war. To swear that by the grace of God and the stubborn strength and power of human will, their sons and ours shall never suffer these pains again. These men have done their job well. They have paid the ghastly price for freedom. If that freedom be once again lost, as it was after the last war, the unforgivable blame will be ours, not theirs. So it is we the living who are to be dedicated and consecrated. We dedicate ourselves, first, to live together in peace the way we fought and are buried in this war. Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding, and other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and whites, rich and poor together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many men from each group are admitted or allowed. Among these men there is no discrimination, no prejudices, no hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest Democracy. Any man among us the living who fails to understand that will thereby betray those who lie here dead. Whoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and of the bloody sacrifice it commemorates an empty, hollow mockery. To this, then, as our solemn, sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves: to the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of white men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the Democracy for which all of them here have paid the price. To one thing more do we consecrate ourselves in memory of those who sleep beneath these white crosses and stars. We shall not foolishly suppose, as did the last generation of Americas fighting men, that victory on the battlefield will automatically guarantee the triumph of Democracy at home.. This war, with all its frightful heartache and suffering, is but the beginning of our generations struggle for Democracy. When the last battle has been won, there will be those at home, as there were the last time, who will want us to turn our backs in selfish isolation on the rest of organized humanity, and thus to sabotage the very peace for which we fight. We promise you who lie here: We will not do that! We will join hands with Britain, China, Ria, in peace, even as we have in war, to build the kind of peace for which you died. When the last shot has been fired, there will still be those whose eyes are turned backward, not forward, who will be satisfied with those wide extremes of poverty and wealth in which the seeds of another war can breed. We promise you, our departed comrades: This too we will not permit. This war has been fought by the common man; its fruits of peace must be enjoyed by the common man. We promise, by all that is sacred and holy, that your sons, the sons of miners and millers, the sons of farmers and workers, will inherit from your death the right to a living that is decent and secure. When the final cross has been placed in the last cemetery, once again there will be those to whom profit is more important than peace, who will insist with the voice of sweet reasonableness and appeasement that it is better to trade with the enemies of mankind than, by crushing them, to lose their profit. To you who sleep here silently, we give you our promise: We will not listen! We will not forget that some of you were burnt with oil that came from American wells, that many of you were killed by shells fashioned from American steel; we promise that when once again men seek profit at your expense, we shall remember how you looked when we placed you reverently, lovingly, in the ground. Thus do we memorialize those who, having ceased living with us, now live within us. Thus do we consecrate ourselves, the living, to carry on the struggle they began. Too much blood has gone into this soil for us to let it lie barren. Too much pain and heartache have fertilized the earth on which we stand. We here solemnly swear: This shall not be in vain! Out of this, from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn, this will come we promise the birth of a new freedom from the sons of men everywhere. AMEN." Rabbi Gittelsohn was assigned to HQ, 5th MarDiv as the Jewish divisional Chaplain. He ministered to Marines and Sailors of all faiths. He was the first Jewish Chaplain ever to serve with the Marine Corps. from http://www.recordsofwar.com/iwo/dead/dead.htm - Mar 1945 - Iwo Jima, Japan Death - 8 Mar 1945 - Iwo Jima, Japan Newspaper Article - Two Killed in Action; One Wounded Paratrooper and Marine Die Hero Deaths Lowell - Two Lowell men, a paratrooper and a marine, who were previously reported missing in action, have been killed, and an infantryman has been seriously wounded, according to war department and marine corps telegrams received here overnight. They are killed. Killed Pfc. Wilfred G. Ouellette, Jr., USMC, 57 Llewellyn street. Pvt. John C. Lebednick, 27 Durant Street Wounded Corp Joseph D. Ray, 728 Merrimack Street Killed in action during the fighting on Iwo Jima was 18-year old Pfc. Wilfred G. Ouellette, Jr., only son of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Ouellette, 57 Llewellyn street. He was attached to the Fifth Marine division and Iwo Jima was his first combat duty. Enlisted at 17 Enlisting in the Marne Corps shortly after turning 17, Pfc. Ouellette trained at Paris Island and went overeas a year ago. He attended St. Michael's and Varnum Schools. Just before enlisting he fractured an ankle, but he was so intent upon becoming a marine that he surmounted the accident and was accepted some months later. A letter, written April 8 by Rev. John Eker, a Catholic marine corps chaplain, and released in Washington May 15, stated that the young marine had been a constant communicant and had been buried with the Catholic ceremony. Besides his parents, Wilfred G. and Vivian (James) Oouellette, he is survived by two sisters, Gail Ann and Carol Elizabeth Ouellette. A pro-burial mass will be celebrated at St. Michael's church Saturday morning at 9 o'clock. Lowell Sun 29 May 1945 Front Page - 29 May 1945 - Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA Newspaper Article - Lowell Sun - 25 Oct 1948 - Lowell, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA Burial - Abt Nov 1948 - Pine Grove Cemetery, Brookline, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos		OUELLETTE Family Reunion 1941 Brookline, Hillsbourgh, New Hampshire, USA (At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.)
  		MILITARY - WORLD WAR II - Veteran

  
  

• Sources

  [S3922814026] Center for Lowell History, (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Births O 1926. [S3922814044] Michael Schuler, Cemetery Photography - Personal Collection, Pine Grove Cemetery, Brookline, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA. [S3922814029] FindAGrave.com, (Find A Grave, Inc.), http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=116436184. [S3922814026] Center for Lowell History, (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Deaths 0 1945. [S20] NEWSPAPER, Personal Collection , 29 May 1945, Lowell Sun, 29 May 1945, Front Page. [S3922814026] Center for Lowell History, (University of Massachusetts Lowell), Marriage Intentions 1925.