SSgt John Wilhelm Mikkelsen
(1910 - 1979)
Profile
SSgt John W Mikkelsen was one of the Danish nationals serving in the USAAF. He was born in Denmark in 1910 but emigrated to the USA in 1923.
John Wilhelm Mikkelsen—originally Jørgen Vilhelm Mikkelsen—was born on 24 September 1910 in Nyborg, Denmark, to bookbinder Christian Johannes Mikkelsen and Elvira Rosalinde Mikkelsen (née Hansen).[1]
Nyborg, Denmark, on 24 September 1910. The family moved to Odense, where was schooled for the first seven years.[2]
Mikkelsen’s family emigrated to the United States in 1922-1923. Mikkelsen arrived New York with his mother and siblings as passengers onboard the SS United States on 24 April 1923.[3] He lived with his family in Glencoe, Illinois from April 1922 to December 1929. He finished his education at schools in Glencoe and later Lake Forest. He moved to first Portland and then to McMinnville, Oregon, where he lived from January 1932.[4] He married Letha May Stephenson but she died in October 1936.[5] He remarried Lenora Jane Hendry on 24 April 1942.[6] Mikkelsen was employed as a truck driver by Buchanan-Cellers from 1942 and until retirement in 1972.[7]
Mikkelsen enlisted in the US Army as a private (39332727) in Portland, Oregon, on 21 May 1943. He was not yet a citizen at the time.[8] He was naturalised as a US citizen a year later, on 15 May 1944.[9]
He was promoted to Staff Sergeant in the US Army Air Corps,[10] before being released from service on 30 October 1945.[11] Mikkelsen was admitted to hospital from August to October 1945. This record suggests that he was assigned to a bombardment unit at the time.[12]
Mikkelsen died on McMinnville, Oregon, on 3 May 1979.[13]
Endnotes
[1] DNA: Parish register, Nyborg sogn.
[2] Ancestry: Oregon, U.S., Alien and Japanese American Registration Forms, 1942-1947.
[3] Ancestry: New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957.
[4] Ancestry: Oregon, U.S., Alien and Japanese American Registration Forms, 1942-1947.
[5] Ancestry: Oregon, U.S., State Deaths, 1864-1971.
[6] Ancestry: Washington, Marriage Records, 1854-2013.
[7] Obituary for John W. Mikkelsen, Statesman Journal, 5 May 1979, p. 25.
[8] Ancestry: U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.
[9] Ancestry: Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991.
[10] Ancestry: U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current.
[11] Ancestry: U.S. Veterans' Gravesites, ca.1775-2006.
[12] Ancestry: U.S. WWII Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954.
[13] Ancestry: Oregon, Death Index, 1898-2008.