Dale Otto Meyer was born on 19 May 1923 in Peru, Illinois, the son of Harry and Olga (Seidlitz) Meyer. He grew up in a working-class family alongside his older brother Harry, born in 1921, and would later be joined by a younger brother, James, born in 1933.
Like many children of his era, Dale’s early years were marked by the common illnesses of the time. He came down with mumps and pertussis in his youngest years and later suffered through the measles and chickenpox as well. Around the age of nine, he also fractured his little finger.
By 1930, the Meyer family had made their home at 2604 Market Street in Peru. Harry Sr. worked as a truck driver for the local ice plant, an honest trade that kept the family going through the difficult years of the Great Depression.
A decade later, the 1940 census found the family settled at 522 West Street, renting their home. Times remained modest—both Harry Sr. and young Harry Jr. worked as laborers, even as Harry Jr. was still attending high school. Dale, now seventeen, was also in school, making his mark at LaSalle-Peru High School where he played on the football team. He graduated in 1940.
As the United States edged closer to war, Dale came of age alongside a generation that would soon be called upon to serve. Though he registered for the draft on 30 June 1942—described as 5 feet 11 inches tall, 170 pounds, with blue eyes and brown hair—he had already taken his step into military life. On 2 April 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in Peoria, Illinois, choosing not to wait to be called.
That decision set him on the demanding path of a military aviator. Later that year, in Santa Ana, California, he underwent a physical examination to qualify as an aviation cadet. By March 1943, at Williams Field in Chandler, Arizona, he had accumulated 135 hours of flying as a student pilot and again passed the rigorous standards required for flight training. Before departing Arizona for further assignment in California—first to Muroc in April and then to Glendale in July—he paused to complete a will, naming his mother as beneficiary. It was a sober acknowledgment of the risks that lay ahead.
Dale was eventually assigned to the 433rd Fighter Squadron of the 475th Fighter Group, a unit operating in the Pacific theater. Promoted to Second Lieutenant and given a new service number, O-743472, he became a fighter pilot flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, one of the most distinctive and capable aircraft of the war.
On 9 November 1943, while flying with a group of fighters on a combat mission over Alexishafen, New Guinea, 2LT Meyer’s aircraft—a P-38H-1-LO—collided with another P-38. Both planes were observed crashing into a swamp off the northeast end of the Alexishafen airstrip. His body was not recovered. He was 20 years old.
For his service, he was posthumously awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and he would have been entitled to the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. 2LT Dale Otto Meyer is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.
Back in Peru, the Meyer family grieved deeply not only for Dale but also for his cousin Delmar Delaney who was killed in action in Germany just four days before Dale. With their oldest son Harry serving in the U.S. Navy, their concern for his safety most likely increased.
Nor was this the first time the family had borne such grief. During World War I, two cousins of Dale’s mother, Edwin Frederick Hortz and Henry F. Hortz, had both been killed in action. Two generations, two wars, and a family that gave more than most.
After Dale’s death, his family received the personal effects he had carried with him—clothing, a snapshot album, a billfold, his logbook, and his papers, including the will he had prepared in 1943. These items offered tangible connections to a life interrupted. A decade later, another shipment of his belongings, long held in storage in Australia, was processed by the Army. Most were deemed too deteriorated to preserve, though two pins were noted among them; whether these were ever returned to his family is unclear.
Dale Otto Meyer lived only 20 years, but he lived them fully as a son, a brother, a student athlete, and ultimately as a fighter pilot who gave his life in service to his country over the jungles of New Guinea. He was one of thousands of young men from small American towns who never came home, leaving behind families who carried their absence for the rest of their lives.
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project www.storiesbehindthestars.org This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? If you noticed anything missing in this profile, you may contact the author. Click on the author’s name located at the bottom of the story page next to the words “added by.”
- SBTSProject/Illinois/LaSalle
- SBTS Historian: Pam Broviak
Sources:
- 1870 U.S. Census, Frederick Hoar, Ancestry.
- 1930 U.S. Census, Harry Meyer, Ancestry.
- 1940 U.S. Census, Harry Meyer, Ancestry.
- “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016,” LaSalle-Peru Township High School, 1940, p. 66, Ancestry.
- “U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947,” Dale Otto Meyer, Ancestry.
- “U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” Dale O. Meyer, Ancestry.
- Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF), Dale O. Meyer, NARA.
- “U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” Edwin Frederick Hortz, Ancestry.
- “U.S., Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” Henry Fay Hortz, Ancestry.
- “Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947,” Edward F. Hortz, Ancestry.
- “Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947,” Pauline Seidlitz, Ancestry.
- “Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947,” Edith Delaney, Ancestry.
- “Illinois, Births and Christenings, 1824-1940,” Olga Seidlitz, FamilySearch.
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56771018/dale-o-meyer
