Comments/Citation:
Hans Christian Thygesen Christiansen was born November 6, 1918 in Black Hawk County, Iowa. His parents, Peder and Ellen Christiansen, were immigrants from Denmark. Within a few years of Hans’ birth, the family moved to Woodland, California where they grew rice. A younger sister, Joy Peggy (Christiansen) Paulson, was born in California.
Christiansen attended school in Woodland. He then graduated from Sacramento Junior College. With the onset of WWII, Christiansen enlisted in the U. S. Army Air Forces assigned service number, O-406482. He was trained to pilot the P-40 Warhawk.
Assigned to the 44th Pursuit Squadron, Christiansen was stationed at Bellows Field on the island of Oahu, Hawaii for P-40 gunnery training. In a letter to his parents, Hans stated that he expected to soon be deployed to Singapore.
On December 7, 1941, the empire of Japan attacked Bellows Field. Christiansen and other pilots rushed to their planes parked along the runway. As Christiansen climbed into the cockpit of his P-40, he was fatally wounded in the back by enemy fire. Christiansen was just 21 years old.
2LT Hans Christian Thygesen Christiansen was interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. He was awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal.
Camp Christiansen, a California State Guard Camp located near Perkins, California, was named in honor of 2LT Christiansen in 1941.
References
"Three 44th Pursuit Squadron pilots among heroes at Pearl Harbor". Kadena Air Base. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
"Guard Camp Named For Hawaii Hero". The San Franciso Examiner – December 14, 1941. p. 2.
"7 DECEMBER 1941: THE AIR FORCE STORY". U. S. Dept of Defense. p. 129. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
"Hans C Christiansen". The Hall of Valor Project. Retrieved July 21, 2021.
"Hans C Christiansen". Find A Grave. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
Stories Behind the Stars
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.
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