from New York killed at Pearl Harbor

Walter J. Zuschlag, age 23, from Nassau County Farmindale, New York .

Parents: Chas Zuschlag

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: On December 7, 1941, Japanese military forces conducted a surprise attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as well as surrounding U.S. military installations, including Hickam Field and Schofield Army Barracks. While U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was Japan’s primary target, enemy planes also had orders to attack the airfields on Oahu. Located next to Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field was in the direct path of Japanese planes. Japanese dive bombers and fighters attacked Hickam Field, destroying planes there. They then turned on the base facilities. The Japanese destroyed the Hawaiian Air Depot’s engineering building and hangers at Hickam Field, attempted to take out the underground fuel tanks, and attacked the barracks. Fighter planes also made strafing attacks on personnel caught out in the open. In the meantime, the men at Hickam cobbled together a makeshift ground defense: men broke into weapons lockers and retrieved machine guns and Springfield rifles and began firing at low-flying planes. Some climbed into planes and began firing their machine guns from the ground. Others tried to get planes into the air. The first plane finally took off from Hickam Field at 11:27 a.m. but by then though, the attack was over. Ninety-one men died at Hickam Field that day. Staff Sergeant Walter A. Zuschlag entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from New York and served in the 23rd Materiel Squadron, 17th Airbase Group. He was stationed at Hickam Field at the time of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, and he was killed in the incident. Investigations of Hickam field following the attack failed to locate a set of remains that could be identified as those of S Sgt Zuschlag, and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Staff Sergeant Zuschlag is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.