Pvt. Walter H. Wollensak was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 7, 1913, to Walter L. Wollensak and Margaret Koebert-Wollensak, and had two sisters and two brothers. His family resided at 1921 South 4th Avenue, Maywood, Illinois, and he graduated from Garfield School and Proviso Township High School in 1930. After high school, he worked at the Western Electric Company, Cicero, Illinois, as an electrician. He registered, on October 16, 1940, when the Selective Service Act took effect and named his mother as his contact person.
Walter was drafted into the US Army on March 21, 1941, and given the serial number 36 011 753, and was sent to Camp Grant, Illinois, near Rockford, for basic training. The reason he trained there was it was one of the bases selected to train medics. He was assigned to the 28th Medical Battalion. While he was training, on October 3, 1941, he was killed in an car accident, four miles north of Rockford, on US 51 when he lost control of his car after passing two cars. His car rolled over several times. The other soldiers in the car survived. After a funeral mass at Saint Eulalia Catholic Church, Pvt. Walter H. Wollensak was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery, River Grove, Illinois.
