World War II medals given to the Kalispell family

John T. Mulder had just graduated from Oregon State College when he joined the US Army in 1942. The basketball player from the small town of Raymond, Washington, became a lieutenant in the 405th Infantry Regiment and platoon commander for his mortar division of the company. Then he went to Germany.

Mulder, walking past Jack, disappeared behind enemy lines during an offensive near the German town of Beeck on November 24, 1944 – five days after the birth of his son Mark in Portland, Oregon.

Mark Mulder, 76, who lives in Kalispell, has spent decades learning about his father, who was pronounced dead a year after his disappearance. He knows that his father died in that battle at the age of 24. But like tens of thousands of American soldiers who fought in World War II, no one is sure where Jack Mulder’s remains are buried.

On Tuesday, Mark Mulder completed a chapter on his “mission” to record his father’s legacy.

During a small, long-belated ceremony at the Army National Guard’s Kalispell Recruiting Center, Governor Greg Gianforte presented the Mulder family with eight of Jack’s buttons, badges, and war medals, including a bronze star for heroism and a purple heart for his ultimate sacrifice. The family also received a Gold Star medallion from the state of Montana for the loss of a relative in the war.

Gianforte said Mulder “fought back Nazis who want to spread evil around the world”.

THE COLOMBIAN The newspaper reported a case of Mulder’s bravery in 2011 when his name was added to the Clark County Veterans War Memorial in Vancouver, Washington.

“When US troops were pinned by a machine gun, Lt. Mulder tried to order mortar fire on the German position. But American tanks had rolled over the phone line and cut Mulder’s connection to his mortar squad,” the newspaper reported. “So Mulder ran back about 100 meters to the tanks and had one of the gun crews blow up the German machine gun.”

A comrade later wrote to Mulder’s widow, Sybil, “One thing you can always know, and your son can be proud of, is that there has never been a better soldier or better officer than Jack Mulder.”

Mark Mulder, a Marine Corps veteran whose eyes briefly poured in tears during Tuesday’s ceremony, has toured Europe, visited U.S. military facilities, and pored over old photos, letters, diary entries, and official records to tell his father’s story learn and find its remains.

“It’s a search,” he said. “It’s something I really enjoy doing.”

But Mulder said he wasn’t really concerned about his father’s medals until about two and a half years ago when he phoned an officer with the Army’s Past Conflicts Repatriation Department at Fort Knox.

“She said, ‘Do you have your father’s medals?’ and I said, ‘No, but I’d like that,’ ”Mulder recalled.

He said former Governor Steve Bullock would present the medals before the Covid-19 pandemic thwarted those plans. He wasn’t sure why the medals hadn’t been delivered to his family long ago.

“War is a mess,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, MULDER continues to work with the Army Repatriation Department and Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency in hopes of finding his father’s remains.

He relies on details like his father’s height – Mark is six feet tall, just like Jack was – as well as dental records and diaries from other soldiers in his father’s unit. He said he found an entry suggesting his father was buried in a trench near the battlefield that cost his life.

If Jack Mulder is ever found, Mark intends to have him properly buried at the American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the Netherlands.

It is a place that Mark has visited many times, where his father was honored by the Dutch year after year. And he said several of his father’s comrades were buried here, including his commanding officer and a lieutenant with whom he shared a tent on the French peninsula of Cherbourg.

“I just feel like he’s one of the people he’s served with,” he said.

Assistant Editor Chad Sokol can be reached at 406-758-4439 or [email protected].