Dutch Wenzel was a platoon sergeant in the United States Marines. Like Les Dillon, Wenzel had turned down a promotion to gunnery sergeant for the opportunity to participate in the invasion to retake Hawaii from Japan in 1942. He and Dillon were aboard a troopship when the aborted invasion fleet set sail in June, 1942. That invasion was defeated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and so was forced to return to the U.S.

Wenzel and Dillon spent the remainder of the year training for the better planned and better prepared invasion launched in summer of 1943. They were some of the first boots on the northern beaches of Oahu. Wenzel saw plenty of action and suffered a minor wound that required hospitalization. When he returned to duty, he ran into Dillon after some of the fiercest fighting. Both were surprised that the other was alive.

v · d · e Days of Infamy Books Days of Infamy • End of the Beginning 1 of 2 Add photo POV Characters Fletch Armitage • Jane Armitage • Joe Crosetti • Les Dillon • Mitsuo Fuchida • Yasuo Furusawa • Minoru Genda • Jim Peterson • Takeo Shimizu • Jiro Takahashi • Kenzo Takahashi • Oscar van der Kirk Secondary Characters Braxton Bradford • Susie Higgins • Sanji Iwabuchi • Charlie Kaapu • Tomeo Kaku • Cynthia Laanui • Stanley Owana Laanui • Yosh Nakayama • Orson Sharp • Elsie Sundberg • Hiroshi Takahashi • Dutch Wenzel • Isoroku Yamamoto • Tomoyuki Yamashita Geography Hawaii