Lloyd Richard “Dick” Woellhof was born on July 26, 1924, in Clay Center, Clay County, Kansas. He was the son of Jacob Frederick Woellhof and Laura Mildred Hahn Woellhof.

He served in the United States Naval Reserve as an Aviation Radioman Second Class during World War II. Dick was captured on Chichi Jima Island (in the Bonin Islands Group) when his SB2C Helldiver airplane was shot down on July 4, 1944, during World War II. He was based on the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown. On August 5, 1944, he was ordered to be taken to the Chichi Jima rifle range, where he was tied to a tree and used for bayonet practice by the Japanese Army. While Dick was still alive, Lieutenant Colonel Kikuji Ito, who supervised the bayonet practice, beheaded him. After the war, on August 16, 1945, his body was dug up by the Japanese, cremated, and the ashes disposed of, to hide the evidence of his death. General Yoshio Tachibana, the Japanese officer who ordered his death, and Lieutenant Colonel Ito were tried for War Crimes in 1947, executed by hanging, and buried in an unmarked grave on the island of Guam (where the trial was held). He died on August 5, 1944, during the Battle for Guam. He has a cenotaph in Greenwood Cemetery, Clay Center, Clay County, Kansas, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com