New Ulm Post 132 to see namesake hero buried

NEW ULM — Siefert-Bianchi Post 132 has existed since 1919. Here is story behind the second name in its title.

Capt. Willibald C. Bianchi was killed on Jan. 9, 1945 after U.S. Navy aircraft scored a direct hit on the unmarked Japanese transport ship Enoura Maru while it was docked in Takao on Formosa. The pilot had no knowledge there were 431 Allied prisoners on board.

Bianchi received the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1945 during World War II for his actions as a scout in the Philippines in February 1942.

As a first lieutenant, he fought the Japanese despite dwindling numbers, food, gas, medicine and ammunition. He was shot in the hand and continued to fight with his pistol. He was shot in chest muscles and silenced an enemy position with grenades. He climbed a machine gun atop a tank, and was wounded a third time, and  managed to silence another enemy gun nest.

He recovered and returned to action but was captured by the Japanese during the fall of the Philippines. He was part of the Bataan Death March and endured miserable prisoner of war camps. He was promoted to captain in abstentia.

He had survived the sinking of the Oryoku Maru before the strike on the Enoura Maru. He had been through 33 months of imprisonment by that time.

Bianchi’s remains were found in August 2025 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the Punchbowl) in Hawaii. The remains of 311 bodies had been moved there from a mass grave at  Takao beach in 1946.

The agency that ID’d his remains with forensic science, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, would not exist if it were not the adamant support it receives from The American Legion.

Bianchi returns to his hometown of New Ulm on April 24. A convoy of American Legion Riders plan to escort his remains from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to New Ulm.

On May 2, there will be a graveside service at noon at the New Ulm Cemetery, with a flyover and a 21-gun salute.