Hilding Iver Wahl

Ensign Hilding Iver Wahl was born on June 23, 1909, to Oscar and Alma Wahl, who had emigrated to the USA from Sweden. He grew up in Worcester MA, where in 1920 his father was working as a machinist in a spring mill. The second son, he was bracketed by brothers Albert and Alfred.

Ensign Wahl enlisted in the Navy in 1925. He rose through the ranks and was commissioned as an Ensign on May 15, 1943. He was assigned to a destroyer, the USS Abner Read DD-526.

Ensign Wahl was killed in action during the operation to retake the island of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands on August 18, 1943, when his ship struck a mine. The ship was literally blown in two, with the stern separating from the rest of the ship and sinking. 70 other sailors were lost and another 47 were wounded. Hilding Wahl died of injuries received on August 28, 1943. He and the dead whose bodies were recovered were buried on Kodiak Island at the Fort Greely post cemetery. After the war ended, Hilding Wahl was brought home. On September 29, 1948, he was buried at Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly NJ.

On July 17, 2018, the sunken stern of USS Abner Read was discovered off Kiska in 290 feet of water. The site is considered a war grave.

Hilding Wahl was survived by his wife, Frances Gladys Wahl, of 1140 North 24th Street in Camden NJ, and a six year-old stepdaughter from his wife’s prior marriage.