Our village has had many heroes in its midst over the long course of our history. They’ve worn many hats, from teachers, pastors, and mothers. Others have made themselves shields between tyranny and all that is good, and have sacrificed themselves in doing so. Of all the Mokenians who perished in this manner, most of them died preserving the Union in the Civil War, but not to be forgotten, World War II claimed some of our own as well. Some were mere boys, having been taken from our midst in the prime of their lives, in fierce battles far from their Illinois homes. Once such resident of our village, 2nd Lieutenant Oliver P. Lauffer, made the air over Nazi Germany his battlefield until he laid his life upon the altar of freedom in 1943.
Born December 13th, 1921 to George and Florence Lauffer, Ollie, as his friends knew him, was a born and bred Mokenian, his great-grandfather having settled in the area where the village would later stand in 1846. Growing up with his siblings at the southern corner of Parker Street and Wolf Road, Ollie’s childhood was normal and solid, yet in the same breath, also turbulent. His parents went through a particularly nasty divorce that shook the village when he was a lad, and his stepfather, Alburn Steele, was killed in a bizarre motorcycle accident outside what is now Orland Park in 1931. Ollie attended school in Mokena, and like a fair number of his classmates, went to high school in Joliet.
Ollie Lauffer, seen here as a senior in the class of 1940 at Joliet Township High School.
The December 7th, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entry of the United States into World War II was not only a seminal moment in American history, but also the watershed event in Ollie’s existence. Not long after the start of 1942, the 20-year-old Mokenian enlisted in the Army Air Corps, where he volunteered to fight the Nazis from the clouds. On March 23rd, 1942, St. Mary’s Hall on Wolf Road played host to a going away party held for Ollie Lauffer. Looking back on that night from today, it’s easy to imagine the strong emotions and heartfelt goodbyes that must have flowed.
Ollie started his training in California at Santa Ana Army Air Base, and after finishing advanced flying school at Christmastime 1942, he earned a second lieutenant’s commission and his wings at Kirtland Field, near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lauffer would become part of a bomber crew, manning the position of bombardier among his plane’s pilot, navigator, gunners, and others. His work was grim; it consisted of manually using a bombsight in the nose of a B17 Flying Fortress to rain deadly cargo on Hitler’s Germany, delivering a powerful punch to the Nazis on their home soil.
From March 1943, Ollie was stationed in England with the 326th Bomber Squadron of the 92nd Bomber Group, within striking distance of the Reich’s heart. While in Great Britain, Ollie remembered his mother, Florence Steele, back in Mokena, and found time to write. In one letter from that summer, he mentioned that he and his buddies were able to pick up German radio broadcasts where they recognized the Jersey Bounce. His words were also filled with the homesickness of a Mokena boy far from home who was hoping for an end to the war, penning “it can’t come too soon for me.”
Bombardier Lt. Oliver P. Lauffer, a battle tested veteran of the skies of Europe.
Those who knew Ollie said that he completed five raids across skies filled with enemy fighters and raked by murderous Nazi flak. He saw harrowing action over northern Germany, taking part in missions to attack the port cities of Hamburg and Kiel. On Wednesday morning, August 4th, 1943, Florence Steele received a telegram she’d been dreading for over a year. It read that Ollie had been missing for over a week, he and his plane having disappeared over the German coast on July 26th. A day later, a letter came to Mrs. Steele from one Wayne Plymale, telling her that he had been a buddy of Ollie’s since their arrival in England, mentioning that their bond has grown closer since they’d been under fire in the Reich’s skies. While he re-informed Florence of her son’s status, the bulk of the letter was spent reassuring an anxiety-ridden mother of her child’s safety, stating that he was probably a prisoner of war, and that she’d likely hear from him through the Red Cross within a month or so.
Written with the noblest of intentions by a brother in arms, the letter was a gentle lie, one meant to spare Ollie’s mother undue anguish. Subsequent investigation into the July 26th incident would reveal that while he and his fellow crewmembers were returning from a raid over Hanover, Germany, a Nazi fighter had rammed their massive bomber. With its tail torn to shreds, the American plane was last seen plunging into the murky depths of the North Sea near Norderney Island.
In February 1944, with the World War II still raging, two Army officers visited Mokena to present Mrs. Steele with the Air Medal, a decoration awarded to Ollie for bravery in the course of his duties. The William Martin Post 725 of the VFW sponsored a ceremony for the handing-over of the award in the auditorium of the Mokena Public School on Carpenter Street, where Ollie romped in more peaceful times. Glen Peterson, the VFW’s commander, extolled his bravery and virtues, before Rev. William Riemann of St. John’s Church spoke to a somber audience. Afterward, the medal was put on display for townspeople to admire.
In the aftermath of Lieutenant Oliver Lauffer’s untimely death in war, pain and heartbreak were felt in Mokena. In the years thereafter, a little monument of gray marble was erected in his memory. Tucked into a serene corner of St. John’s Cemetery, lichen now grows over his name, etched into the cold stone. The motif of a Purple Heart is still plainly visible; giving mute testimony to Ollie Lauffer’s supreme bravery in the face of tyranny.
