PFC Ansel Gregory Wanzitz

courtesy of Kelsey Weaver

PFC Ansel Gregory Wanzitz was born in Rock Creek, Utah in the Uintah and Ouray Reservation on 6 Mar 1920. He was the oldest child of 5 and only son born to Gregory and Mary Woods (Ankerpont) Wanzitz. The family were Native Americans of the Ute tribe. His father was the son of Wanzitz (Antelope) who was a sub-chief of the tribe when the reservation was established in 1861. Gregory's occupation is recorded as stockman. He died in 1926 of pulmonary tuberculosis and Mary re-married. He then lived with his step and adoptive father near Bridgeland, Utah, also on the reservation. Ansel attended the Uintah basin schools and was also working as a farmer and stockman when he was drafted.

Ansel was drafted in June 1942. He was given his initial military training at Camp Carson, Colorado before being sent to England and assigned to G Company 116th Infantry to serve as a rifleman. Once there he trained with the unit in preparation for the amphibious landing in support of the liberation of occupied France. PFC Wanzitz took part in that and fought with unit through the D-Day landing to the liberation of Saint-Lo and was with his unit at Vire, France when he was struck in the chest and killed in action. 

PFC Wanzitz was repatriated in 1949 and re-interred in Roosevelt Memorial Park in Roosevelt, Utah.