PFC Donald Standly Hultman

Donald Standly Hultman was born in Meeker County about 50 miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota on April 11, 1922. His father, Oscar, managed the pool hall at Dassel, population about 800, and his mother, Ruth Olson Hultman, was a homemaker. 

The 1940 Census said the son had completed two years of high school and was working as a truck driver for a reforestation project. Judging by his pay — $360 in 1939 — he likely was employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The CCC, a Depression-era federal jobs program, paid $30 a month and reforestation was a mainstay of its work in Minnesota.

Donald traveled to Minneapolis and enlisted in the Marines on Oct. 10, 1940. He traveled with two other men from Meeker County, population about 19,000 and due west of Minneapolis.  The other men were Russell Duane Wittenberg — who was accepted — and Clifford Ailie, who was rejected because he was color blind.

Hultman and Wittenberg were assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona, and both were killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. Mr. Hultman was a private first class and Mr. Wittenberg a private.

Mr. Hultman’s body was not recovered after the attack. There’s a cenotaph in his memory at Dassel Community Cemetery. Mr. Wittenberg’s body was recovered and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl in Honolulu.

The third friend, Mr. Ailie, was drafted into the Army after the war started. He served until August 1945.

Sources: the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Fayette (Iowa) County Leader; The Courier of Waterloo, Iowa; the Dassel-Cokato (Minnesota) Enterprise Dispatch; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America records; Census; Marine Corps muster rolls; Iowa birth record; U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Form. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.