SERGO, MIKE E.
The body of Pfc. Mike Sergo came home from the wars last night, arriving in Wautoma on the 8:40 train with a military escort.
Pfc. Sergo (Mike to his friends) was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Sergo of Lohrville. Mike would have been pleased last night if he could have seen his veteran friends as they marched through the streets of Wautoma and his home town as they escorted his body home for final and full military rites.
You see, Mike died in the invasion of Guam. He got his when United States forces were taking back one of this country’s strong Pacific fortresses that had fallen into the hands of the enemy, early in the war.
Mike was buried out there in the temporary military cemetery on that tropical jungle island.
Mr. and Mrs. Sergo wanted Mike’s body back here and so the American Graves Registration division arranged to bring it home.
Thirty members of the Amvets post at Redgranite and 11 members of the Wautoma Legion post were at the train. The Legion had its Color Guard, Firing Squad and Pallbearers. The pallbearers in full uniform and white gloves carefully lifted the casket carrying the soldier hero’s body into the hearse.
Slowly the procession of 41 veterans and hearse moved away from the depot down past the county jail to Main Street and then east through the business district. Only a few people were on Wautoma’s streets then to watch the military procession.
On May 13, 1945 Mr. and Mrs. Sergo received the Navy Cross, one of the nation’s highest military honors, in recognition of Mike’s service to his country. Mike had also won the Purple Heart award and the Asiatic Pacific medal.
On Saturday at 2 p.m., final military funeral rites will be held from St. Mark’s Church, Redgranite, and burial will be made in St. Mark’s Cemetery.
When the firing squad sends its volleys over Mike’s grave Saturday and final taps sounds, something like this might fittingly be put over Mike’s grave:
“Here rests the body of Pfc. Mike Emil Sergo, a soldier hero, who was killed in action July 29, 1944 during the invasion of Guam.