Eighty years ago this past October, Gen. Douglas MacArthur wrote: “Their names will be enshrined in our country’s glory forever.”
Those words were in a letter the famed World War II commander wrote Oct. 25, 1945, to Caroline “Carrie” Bianchi. The letter closes: “In your son’s death, I have lost a gallant comrade and mourn with you.” Her son was Willibald “Bill” Bianchi, a 1940 graduate of South Dakota State College and one of only two SDSU graduates to have received the revered Congressional Medal of Honor.
The award was made by MacArthur in 1942, making Bianchi just the third recipient of the medal in World War II.
Bianchi and his unit, the 45th Infantry Regiment, had been assigned to the Philippines in April 1941 to train Filipino troops for anticipated Japanese aggression. For Bianchi, that came to a head Feb. 3, 1942, during the Battle of Bataan. He volunteered to help another unit take out a Japanese machine gun nest.
In that attack, he was wounded three times: Initially, by fragments of a grenade he had tossed, then in the right arm by two machine gun bullets. That caused him to drop his rifle and use a pistol against the enemy. He then crawled behind a tank, mounted it and manned its antiaircraft machine gun.
During that frenzy, he was knocked off by a mortar or a grenade and hospitalized.
Out of the fire...
Bianchi, a native of New Ulm, Minnesota, didn’t have much time to recover. Outnumbered and underequipped, American forces surrendered April 9, 1942. With more than 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers, it was the largest American army in history to surrender.
Nearly three years of living hell followed for Bianchi and his comrades. Unlike many, Bianchi survived the notorious, 60-mile Bataan Death March. Unlike many, he survived two years in Japanese prisoner of war camps. As the war’s end and Japan’s defeat was approaching, POWs were loaded onto unmarked “Hell Ships.”
The first ship Bianchi boarded was struck Dec. 14, 1944, by a U.S. bomber. The ship ran aground in Subic Bay. On Dec. 28, prisoners were loaded into the Enoura Maru, which would take harbor off Formosa (now Taiwan). On Jan. 9, 1945, Bianchi was tending to sick prisoners when a round of dive bombers struck, unaware American POWs were on board.
Bianchi was among 295 servicemen killed by the friendly fire attack. “His death was instant,” a fellow POW wrote in a letter to Mrs. Bianchi.
A marker was placed for Bianchi at the National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu. His remains were never identified.
The rest of the story
At least, that is how the story would have ended if it was written before Aug. 11, 2025. It was on that day, more than 80 years after his death, that the remains of Bianchi were positively identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, whose mission is to bring the missing back to their families.
The unmarried Bianchi had no children, so his family was comprised of just four sisters and a mother. (His father died in a hunting accident when Bill was 16.)
Today the family is 17 nieces and nephews who are in their 60s and 70s. Among them is Sue Marti, of New Ulm and formerly of Brookings. “The family was surprised and shocked and excited all at the same time,” she said of the message from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which the family received Sept. 4.
WILLIBALD ‘BILL’ BIANCHI — THE EARLY YEARS
Willibald Charles Bianchi, son of Joseph and Caroline “Carrie” (Eibner) Bianchi, was born March 12, 1915, in New Ulm, Minnesota. He was their second child and the only son. Bianchi had an older sister, Josephine, and three younger sisters, Magdalene, Jermayn and Mary Louise.
He grew up on a 73-acre poultry farm south of New Ulm, where he helped his father with many chores including milking cows and tending to chickens and turkeys. After his father died in a hunting accident on their farm, Bianchi left school to run the farm. He later completed his high school studies at the University of Minnesota farm school in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
At age 21, Bianchi enrolled at South Dakota State University and majored in agriculture. He was in Newman Club his junior and senior year, played on the football team and boxing club his first two years and was in Ag Club all four years.
Bianchi worked his way through college by cleaning and sweeping out the college print shop and classrooms and doing furnace work. As a senior, he was an ROTC cadet major. His fellow students started calling him “Medals” because he wore his ROTC uniform a lot, even when he went home on weekends, partly because he could not afford much clothing, but also because he liked soldiering. He was so proud of his ROTC decorations.*
Upon graduation from SDSU in 1940, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He requested foreign service in order to see action at the earliest possible date.
*Taken from “On Veterans Day, ... WWII heroism of Lt Bianchi,” Minneapolis Tribune (Gail Tollin/Associated Press) Nov. 12, 1979, and republished at www.minnesotamedalofhonormemorial.org.
Honored at Pentagon Ceremony
The following days were even more exciting. The third Friday in September is National POW/MIA Recognition Day, recognized by presidential proclamation since 1979.
Marti said the agency offered to foot the cost for two of Bianchi’s relatives to be at the Sept. 19 ceremony on the Pentagon's River Parade Field. A request to expand that to four was granted. So, at 7 a.m. Sept. 18, Sue Marti, her sisters, Mary Marti Borstad and Carolyn Marti Smith, and brother Steve Marti flew out of the Minneapolis airport for Washington, D.C.
The sunny afternoon service only lasted an hour, but the Bianchi family treasured every minute of it as well as the reception that followed.
Keynote speaker was U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was joined by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George. Hegseth emphasized that the Department of Defense is committed to recovering all of the nearly 38,000 Americans across the world who are unaccounted for and estimated to be recoverable.
"It's our mission to return them to American soil and provide a final resting place here at home for the heroes who fought for their country. It is our commitment to you that we will work unceasingly to bring our warriors home, and we will never forget their service and sacrifice," Hegseth said.
A moving experience
While one would expect to hear such words at a POW/MIA recognition ceremony, Sue Marti said they don’t ring hollow. “This group is pretty amazing as far as their commitment is to bring people back,” she said.
Hegseth added, “Using painstaking historical research, exhaustive, on-the-ground excavations, and the most advanced forensic science techniques, the (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) is steadfast in its accounting for missing Americans, no matter how far away." His talk then turned to Bianchi. The Bianchi family had met with Hegseth in his office prior to the ceremony.
After briefly telling Bianchi’s story, Hegseth added, “Thanks to (the agency's) steadfast work, Capt. Bianchi will be coming home to his family in New Ulm, Minnesota, (and) we'll finally be able to give him the burial he deserves 80 years later." He then recognized members of Bianchi's family who attended the ceremony.
“It was a very moving experience for all of us,” Sue Marti said. The family also received a VIP tour of the Pentagon thanks to a contact who was working there as a contractor.
DNA, research and painstaking commitment
While it may seem like identifying Bianchi was a sudden effort, it was actually the culmination of an, at least, seven-year effort. Scott Torpey, a cousin who lives in Arizona, provided DNA to the Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency in 2018, as did Torpey’s mother, Mary Louise (Mickey). At the time, she was Bianchi’s only living sister. She died in 2020.
In 2023, the agency began a project to identify the remains of 431 Unknowns that are associated with those lost on the Enoura Maru. The first step of the Enoura Maru Project began with an effort to collect DNA samples, which was necessary for the agency to propose the disinterment.
In a 2023 press release, Carrie LeGarde, a forensic anthropologist and the project lead, said, “An important part of the project is that we (take) the DNA from the bones. Then that needs to be compared to a sample to figure out who it is, so the DNA we get from living biological relatives is really important.”
Once enough family reference samples were collected and Defense Department approval was received, the agency began to disinter the remains. Challenges grew as most of the remains were buried at sea, cremated during the Enoura Maru’s voyage, or commingled with other remains.
“The remains were mixed up, so part of what we need to do is figure out which bones belong together and represent one individual. This project is going to be a big challenge,” La Garde said two years earlier.
One more ceremony awaits
While September’s announcement and ceremony brought excitement and a sense of closure, it doesn’t write the final chapter of Bianchi’s story. His remains haven’t been turned over to the family yet. After that happens, the family plans a service at the Soldiers’ Rest in the New Ulm cemetery, where there already is a marker.
There are two markers for Bianchi on the SDSU campus — a bronze relief on display in the west staircase of the University Student Union and a plaque in Medal of Honor Park just north of DePuy Military Hall.
The Brown County Museum in New Ulm holds Bianchi’s Congressional Medal of Honor as well as other medals and memorabilia, including a letter that Carrie Bianchi wrote in reply to Gen. MacArther.
It reads, in part, “As a mother, I am proud to be able to give to this generation and to our beloved America the most precious gift that life makes possible, my only son.”
Written by Dave Graves, University Marketing and Communications
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