Relatives and brothers-in-arms gave a full military burial Friday, July 20, to a soldier who died trying to liberate Europe from Nazis before any of them were born.
In the years since Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz was killed during World War II, generations of Rosenkrantzes have been born. And some have died, including four brothers who survived the war and were later buried at Riverside National Cemetery.
Patriot Guard member Randy Nickel, right, holds the American flag as a hearse arrives carrying the body of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz at Riverside National Cemetery on Friday, July 20.
(Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
An honor guard carries the casket Friday, July 20, of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz, who was killed Sept. 28, 1944, while on a mission to disrupt German defensive lines in the Netherlands during World War II. His remains were not identified until 2017. He was buried at Riverside National Cemetery. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
SoundThe gallery will resume insecondsPhil Rosenkrantz and wife, Judy Rosenkrantz, center, walk behind the casket of his uncle, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz, on Friday, July 20, at Riverside National Cemetery. The soldier ws killed Sept. 28, 1944, in World War II.
(Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Phil Rosenkrantz holds the flag from his uncle’s casket as his wife, Judy Rosenkrantz, left, looks on during services Friday, July 20, for U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz.
(Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
Phil Rosenkrantz receives the flag from his uncle’s casket on Friday, July 20, at Riverside National Cemetery.
(Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
The head stone for U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz at Riverside National Cemetery. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
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But the sergeant died too close to German troops for his remains to be recovered at the time, and it wasn’t until 2017 that DNA testing determined which remains belonged to him.
Army Staff Sgt. David Rosenkrantz, who was killed during World War II, was buried with full military honors<br />Friday, July 20, at Riverside National Cemetery.<br />(Photo courtesy of Department of Defense)
The Los Angeles native rejoined his family Friday.
“Today, we finally got closure,” said his nephew, Phillip Rosenkrantz, who was born five years after his uncle’s death.
Phillip Rosenkrantz, a retired Cal Poly Pomona professor who lives in Placentia, said he’s devoted at least several hours a week to searching for his uncle for the past 20 years, since being inspired by the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”
Others helped with the search as well, including Dutch citizens thankful for the role Rosenkrantz and other American troops played in fighting for their homeland.
A 1934 graduate of David Starr Jordan High School in Watts, Rosenkrantz joined the Army two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, 504 Parachute Infantry Regiment, H Company, and took part in the invasion of Sicily.
During that invasion, he was dropped in the wrong location and wound up surrounded by 200 Italian soldiers, his nephew said.
“After initially being captured by the Italians, David and Corporal Black from Tennessee convinced the Italians to surrender,” he said in an interview. “Well, he accepted their surrender — everyone likes the other story better.”
That includes Los Angeles media, which celebrated the capture with stories at the time.
Rosenkrantz’s platoon occupied a farm in the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden, an Allied plan to break German defensive lines by capturing a highway route. The campaign is the subject of the 1977 film “A Bridge Too Far.”
German tanks and infantry attacked, and as Rosenkrantz rose from his position, he was hit by enemy gunfire and killed Sept. 28, 1944, according to the Defense Department. He was 28.
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For these and other actions, Rosenkrantz was awarded medals including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. They were kept in a place of honor until Friday, said 1st Sgt. Douglas Smith of the 82nd Airborne Division, who presented the medals to Phillip Rosenkrantz.
“The 82nd Airborne Division walks in the boot steps of legends,” Smith said during the ceremony. “Today, one of those legends returns home.”
To honor Rosenkrantz, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered that flags at the State Capitol be flown at half-staff and sent a letter of condolence.
The middle child of 11, David Rosenkrantz was “the apple of his mother’s eye.” And his mother — Phillip Rosenkrantz’s grandmother — wouldn’t allow anyone to discuss his death, which she considered unproven because there was no body.
After 15 years of silence, the family didn’t speak much about its lost relative afterward, either. That left no chance to process it, Phillip said.
“I think a lot of people underestimate the impact of our fallen soldiers on our families for decades after,” he said.
Officiating the ceremony was the Rev. Rudy Topete of Tribe Church in Vista — Rosenkrantz’s great-grandnephew — who thanked God for watching over him when the family couldn’t.
“The last 73 years his soul has been in your heart, but now he’s come to closure,” Topete said in a prayer. “Finally, here we are w friends and family here to commit his body to eternal rest.”
A Dutchman named Ben Overhand, working together with Phillip Rosenkrantz, determined the American soldier’s remains had probably been passed to Canadians, who gave them to Americans after the Netherlands American Cemetery was built. They worked with the Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency to disinter what they thought was Rosenkrantz’s remains in 2017, and DNA testing confirmed it was him.
More than 100 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division remain missing, said Smith, the sergeant who presented Rosenkrantz’s medals.
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Source: OC Register
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