Howard Earl Knipp
Fire Controlman, USS Fletcher (DD-445). From the Solomons to Corregidor, 13 battle stars.
Read his story →World War II · 1941–1945
The Knipp Family Story
A sailor on a Pacific destroyer, a bombardier shot down over Yugoslavia, a Marine on Iwo Jima, a physicist, and the women who held the home front.
If you found this page from the memorial plaque at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, welcome. This site tells the fuller story behind the names on that plaque.
Howard Earl Knipp enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941 and served aboard the destroyer USS Fletcher from December 1942 to the end of the war. LaVerne Pyzyna lost her brother Adam in 1945 and came west to work at Northrop. They met on a blind date in Hollywood on June 10, 1945.
The chapters
1st Lt. Adam Pyzyna
B-17 bombardier, 2nd Bomb Group. Shot down over Yugoslavia on his 26th mission; 45 days behind enemy lines with the partisans.
Read his story →Cpl. Cloyce L. Fruth
U.S. Marine Corps, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. Machine gun section leader awarded the Silver Star on Iwo Jima.
In preparationJulian K. Knipp
Physicist. Radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, and the chair of physics at Tufts University.
Read his story →LaVerne & Elaine
The home front: Chicago, a handkerchief parachute with silver wings, and the defense plants of Los Angeles.
In preparation