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MORNING SUN - More than a quarter of a century ago, Morning Sun soldier John Walker disappeared in a German forest while fighting with his World War II Army buddies.
Now, 28 years after Walker was last seen alive on November 24, 1944, his family is beginning to learn what might have happened to this youthful GI.
The puzzle surrounding Walker is being pieced together by Roger Aldinger, 48, a veteran of the Big War who operates a farm machinery repair shop on Sigourney Rt. 2.
Aldinger has corresponded with Walker's sister, Mrs. Marjorie Kimble, Morning Sun, and has had one personal visit with Mr. Kimble and her husband Trevor at his Sigourney home.
Aldinger will visit the Kimble home here later this fall to show pictures and other documentation of the battle area where he and Walker served. No date has been set for the visit.
Mrs. Kimble explained how the researcher began tracing her brother during an interview at her home, which included a reading of the correspondence between the Sigourney man and Mrs. Kimble.
Walker was 20 and working on the farm of his father, S. N. Walker, when he was drafted in March, 1944. He was home on leave in August before he was shipped to the European front.
The GI apparently was killed Nov. 24, 1944, in the Hurtgen forest during a 2-week long battle near Schonthal, Germany.
Walker's parents were informed in a letter November 25, 1945, from Major Gen. Edward Witsell that no trace of their son could be found, and that the Army had officially declared him dead.
Aldinger, who began research into World War II to locate areas in which he fought, heard of Walker by coincidence. He knew Marion Barnes of Sigourney, former Wapello postmaster, and he recalled seeing an advertisement in a VFW magazine in 1947 inserted by Walker's father asking for information about his son. Aldinger got Mrs. Kimble's name from a telephone book and began writing her.
Walker and Aldinger were a half-mile apart in the forest fighting, Aldinger believes, a conclusion he drew partially as a result of visiting the Schonthal area in 1966 with his wife, Elizabeth, who helps him with research.
Both men were in the 1st Infantry Division -- Walker in the 18th Regiment and Aldinger in the 26th Regiment.
The battle involved eight divisions (120,000 men), Aldinger said, in an area the size of Keokuk county. From Nov. 16 to Dec. 6, there were 44,000 men killed, wounded, or missing.
Walker's name has been found on the Tablets of the Missing memorial in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Holland, but there is no proof that he was killed or was buried there.
The government is to send Mrs. Kimble a color picture of the cemetery and a black and white photo of the portion of the tablet with her brother's name.
Aldinger believes that more information can be brought to light. He is continuing his research, working by letter with a German named Peter, whom he met in 1966 and who lives near Hurtgen forest. Peter was in the German army stationed about five miles from the 1944 battle.
Mrs. Kimble's sister, Viola, Corpus Christie [sic], Tex., will be in Morning Sun this fall when Aldinger visits here. Only other person in the immediate family is a brother, Robert, Ft. Worth, Tex.
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