Warren Leo Lodholz was born in Bonne Terre, Missouri in November 1920. He grew up with four older brothers. His father, a German immigrant, worked in the Saint Joseph Lead Company, while his mother stayed home. Lodholz remembered that his father worked long hours and his work was very dangerous because he had to crush rocks. He attended Saint Joseph Elementary School and then to Bonne Terre High School. He was close with his older brother, Homer, who served in the Army during World War 2. Shortly after Lodholz graduated from high school in 1938 and found a job as a bookkeeper at a filling station for seven dollars a month. He then moved to a plumbing company that paid him nine dollars a month. When he earned enough money, he enrolled at Flat River Junior College [Annotator's Note: now known as Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Missouri]. He aspired to be a certified public accountant. He was able to land a secretary job with the Al Gore State Reformatory. While working the switchboard one day, he heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Not long after war was declared, he received his draft notice into the Army. He was put in charge of the other draftees and had to do roll call when they arrived at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri [Annotator's Note: Jefferson Barracks Military Post in Lemay, Missouri]. He stayed there for a week and then sent to Patterson Field [Annotator's Note: Patterson Field, now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Bace in Dayton, Ohio]. During boot camp, Lodholz was pulled from training and told to report to the orderly room because of his unique typing skills. After training, he was assigned to Headquarters Squadron, 19th Air Depot Group. Lodholz's brother told him to take his typewriter to boot camp with him. He did what his brother told him and sure enough, one day, he was typing on his bed when a lieutenant saw him and told him to report to the orderly room. He soon became the clerk after the previous clerk left for OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school]. Lodholz had one weekend pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and he tried to fly home to see his family, but there were complications with his travel, and he ended up not being able to see them before he shipped overseas.

In June 1943, Warren Leo Lodholz was deployed to North Africa by way of a ship from Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. After 11 days, his ship landed in North Africa. One of the destroyers in the convoy spotted and attacked an enemy submarine in "torpedo junction" near Gibraltar. Apparently, they got the submarine because they saw oil slick. There was a strict "lights off" policy on the ships so they would not be found by the enemy. Lodholz remembered that the trip over was miserable. Many of the men were seasick. One guy threw up in his mess kit right in front of Lodholz. Lodholz also described the food on the ship as "slop." Since his commander oversaw the troops on the ship, Lodholz was placed in a cabin stacked with bunks six high. He commented that he wrote to his parents over the course of his deployment and had to use coded language, so they knew where he was. Lodholz's ship landed in North Africa and had to wade through the water ashore packed with all his equipment. He loaded up in a truck to La Sénia airfield near Oran, Algeria in the evening. Then slept in pup tents for 40 days and ate C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] during this time. The water he drank was very chlorinated. Once they took over the airbase, his squadron [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Squadron, 19th Air Depot Group] oversaw the control tower and repaired the planes. To Lodholz it felt like an international airport because they were planes from all different countries coming in and out. Lodholz was assigned as the morning report clerk next to the First Sergeant. His duty was to make all sorts of reports, from medical reports to discipline reports. He also kept the history of the squadron. There is not a lot of information on the internet about the 19th Air Depot Group, but there is a memorial at Patterson Field [Annotator’s Note: Patterson Field, now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio]. His unit was in North Africa from June 1943 to February 1945. Lodholz recalls a scary moment when he and some of his friends were swimming and bathing in the Mediterranean. They saw planes going over them and all a sudden a siren went off. Lodholz immediately got out of the water and hid in a nearby ditch. The plane had dropped a bomb in the water, and he could hear the noise of the shrapnel "zigging" everywhere. Even thought he received great marks as a marksman during his training, it was not recorded on his record. Lodholz was later thankful for this, because as the war progressed, many men in his rank were being transferred to infantry if they were marksmen.

Warren Leo Lodholz was in Nancy, France when the war concluded in Europe in May 1945. His unit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Squadron, 19th Air Depot Group] returned to the United States the following July from Belgium. The Army sent him to Spokane, Washington and promoted him to Tech Sergeant [Annotator's Note: Technical Sergeant; E7], and prepared to ship him off to the Pacific. His unit received several military decorations for their service in North Africa and France. He and his unit had met a lot of opposition as they secured areas in Algeria and France. When they arrived in Nancy, France, they found an old German air base with Bouncing Betty mines [Annotator's Note: German S-mine]. Lodholz was on a train heading home for a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] when he heard the news that the war in Japan was over. After his 30 day furlough, he headed back to Washington. He received orders to go to Lincoln, Nebraska to be discharged. After the war, Warren did not use the G.I. Bill and found work as a secretary for a lead company and climbed his way up to superintendent. He then transferred to the Bonne Terre Farming and Cattle Company as an accountant for 42 years before his retirement in 1983. Lodholz married and had five children. Lodholz is grateful to be here and appreciates his World War 2 experience. Lodholz commented how thick the Locusts were in Algeria that sometimes the planes could not fly. He said the war made him appreciate what a great nation America is compared to other countries. In Algeria he saw how hungry people were and how they lived in shacks. He thinks too many people today have forgotten the purpose of World War 2 and do not appreciate America, and they are messing it up. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s], his family ate the potatoes that his father grew, and today people are getting too many things for nothing. He believes that institutions like The National WWII Museum is important and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. Lodholz left Spokane as a Tech Sergeant and knew he never wanted to serve in the military again.