Sponsored by:

Navy Federal Credit Union
David
D.
Kliewer
POW (WWII)

Born:

Birney

, 

Montana

Home:

Wheaton

, 

Illinois

David Kliewer received the Silver Star for sinking a Japanese submarine during the actions at Wake Island at the beginning of the war. He was later captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW. With the exception of the mini-subs at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, this may have been the first Japanese submarine sank by American forces in the war. Kliewer applied to Harvard Medical School while still a POW and was accepted. He had a distinguished career as a physician and became an outspoken critic of war.

Awards Received

  • Prisoner of War Medal

    Service:

    United States Marine Corps

    Rank:

    Second Lieutenant

    Division:

    Prisoner of War (Japan)

    Action Date:

    December 23, 1941 – September 1945
    NARA Database: Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created, 1942 – 1947

    Second Lieutenant David D. Kliewer (MCSN: 0-6387), United States Marine Corps, was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Wake Island on 23 December 1941, and was held as a Prisoner of War until returned to U.S. Military control at the end of the war.

  • Silver Star

    Service:

    United States Marine Corps

    Rank:

    Second Lieutenant

    Batallion:

    Marine Fighting Squadron 211 (VMF-211)

    Action Date:

    December 15, 1941
    Commander in Chief, Pacific: Serial 2835

    The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Second Lieutenant David D. Kliewer (MCSN: 0-6386), United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity Pilot of a Fighter Plane in Marine Fighting Squadron TWO HUNDRED ELEVEN (VMF-211) during an attack against and enemy Japanese submarine in the vicinity of Wake Island, on 15 December 1941. Conducting a lone patrol mission near the island in an aircraft armed only with four fifty caliber machine guns and two one hundred pound fragmentation bombs, Second Lieutenant Kliewer sighted a fully surfaced enemy submarine and, despite the extreme danger of attempting an attack, promptly maneuvered to a striking position. Fiercely aggressive, he plunged relentlessly on his target and, releasing his bombs at perilously low altitude, scored two direct hits on the hull of the undersea craft which caused it to sink rapidly. With his plane riddled by fragments from the explosion as he effected a sharp pull-out from his dive, he succeeded in maintaining control of the crippled craft and, by his superb flying ability and dauntless perseverance, brought his ship back to the base. By his daring initiative, unwavering zeal and bold tactics in the face of tremendous odds, Second Lieutenant Kliewer accounted for the destruction of an important hostile vessel, and his heroic conduct throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and the United States Naval Service.