2nd Lt. Helen Bertha Anderson was born August 24, 1923, in Winnipeg, Canada, to Otto V. Anderson and Martha Erickson-Anderson, and had two sisters and a brother. At some point, her family immigrated to the United States and settled in Wheaton, Illinois, where she attended Pleasant Hill School. The family moved to 1524 North Sixteenth Avenue, Melrose Park, Illinois, and she attended the Stevenson School in Maywood. She next attended and graduated from Proviso Township High School as a member of the Class of 1941.
She attended Nursing School at Augustana Hospital in Chicago, and became a license nurse in January 1945. She worked at Augustana and then became a nurse at West Lake Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, before enlisting in the US Army Nursing Corps. She was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and assigned to the 6th Command, US Army Nursing Corps. Her Service Number was N-795163. At some point she was assigned to the US Navy as a nurse and sent to the 27th Station Hospital, Okinawa, Japan.
She married Sgt. Berwyn E. Hildebrandt, on August 10, 1945, on Guam Her husband was also a Proviso graduate and the brother of S/Sgt. Warren Hildebrandt, B Co., 192nd Tank Battalion, who had died while a Japanese Prisoner of War.
According to available information, Helen was being flown out of Okinawa on September 29, 1945. The plane she was on crashed as it was taking off and burst into flames when it hit the runway. The dead were removed from the wreckage and an attempt was made to identify the dead. Helen was severely burned and the American Graves Registration Service was able to be identified her because she was wearing a military wristwatch which had serial number on it that was used to prove it had been issued to her.
Her family held a memorial service for Helen at the First Lutheran Church, Melrose Park, on December 30, 1945. Helen was buried, in a shelter half, in the United States Armed Forces Cemetery on Okinawa, in Plot 2, Row 19, Grave 598. Her father was informed where she was buried in a letter. Over the next several months, the OQMG attempted to confirm this information.
The Office of the Quartermaster General, Washington DC, was informed by the Veterans Administration in October 1946, that Helen had been married. On July 7, 1947, a department memo indicated that it had confirmed the information and stated that her husband was Berwyn Hildebrandt which made her husband her next of kin. Her father supplied the Quartermaster Corps Berwyn’s address in Chicago. On January 19, 1948, he was sent a letter giving him options for his wife’s final burial and was asked to fill-out and return an enclosed form to the OQMG
The form was returned on February 10, 1948. On the form, he stated he wanted Helen to remain buried on Okinawa. He was unaware the military was in the process of consolidating the cemeteries and burying the dead from Okinawa in Hawaii. He did indicate that if Helen had to be reburied, she should be buried in an American Military Cemetery. He also requested the flag from her casket.
2nd Lt. Helen B. Anderson was buried, on March 10, 1949, in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, in Section M, Grave 1243, with full military honors. The flag from her casket was sent to her husband along with a letter telling him where she was buried and the location of her grave.
2nd Lt Helen B. Anderson, ASN N-795 163
Section M, Grave 1243
Headstone: Cross
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Territory of Hawaii
Mr. Berwyn E. Hildebrandt
6946 Oakdale Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
Dear Mr. Hildebrandt:
This is to inform you that the remains of your beloved one have been permanently interred, as the recorded above, side by side with comrades who also gave their lives for their country. Customary military funeral services were conducted over the grave at the time of burial.
After the cemetery us under control of the Department of the Army and responsibility for permanent construction, beautification and perpetual maintenance, including of the cemetery, including appropriate marking of the grave, will rest with the Army. The headstone will be inscribe with the name exactly recorded above, the rank or rating where appropriate, organization, State, and date of death. During these operations, which will extend over a period of several months, visits to the cemetery are not encouraged.
You have received, or will receive, a communication for the cemetery superintendent indicating the type of permanent grave marker to be installed as well as the name and other pertinent data to be inscribed thereon.
You may rest assured that this final interment was conducted with fitting dignity and solemnity and that the gravesite will be carefully and conscientiously maintained in perpetuity by the United States Government.
Sincerely yours,
(signed)
H. FELDMAN
Major General
The Quartermaster General
