Walter Meinhart Christensen, Jr. was born 31 May 1922 in Ryegate, Golden Valley county, Montana to Walter Meinhart and Gunilda (Peterson) Christensen; he had three siblings; dad was a real estate salesman. Walter was often known by his middle name and graduated from the Billings High school in 1939 before marring Eleanor Kaye Hallam on 17 December 1941; they had one son. He registered for the draft on 30 June 1942 from Washington standing 5’11” tall, weighing 175 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair; he was employed by Boeing Aircraft at the time.

2Lt Walter Meinhart Christensen, Jr. (service number O-758944) was assigned to the 354 Fighter Squadron, 355 Fighter Group when the 355th was activated on 12 November 1942 flying P-47s. They flew their first combat mission on 14 September 1943 in a sweep over Belgium and afterward served primarily as escort bombers attacking industrial areas, marshalling yards, airfields, oil refineries, synthetic oil plants, as well as sweeps and air patrols striking air parks, locomotives, bridges, radio station and armored cars. In April 1944, they converted to P-51s and successfully bombed and strafed German airdomes. It was during one of these sweeps on 28 May 1944 that 2Lt Walter Christensen gave his life; he rests in the Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial, France.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

SOURCES: Find-a-Grave; FamilySearch.org; Ancestry.com; Wikipedia

Walter M Christensen