It’s been 80 years since Don Tietz fought in World War II, but the Cottage Grove resident has never forgotten a key lesson he learned serving on the front lines.
“If they start bombing, you better start looking for foxholes,” Tietz said Thursday. “You always have to look around to see where there was a foxhole, so you could get in them because you didn’t have time to dig one.”
Tietz, 104, was honored at his house by Allina Health Hospice care team members. Hospice workers held a “pinning ceremony” for Tietz and presented him with an American flag lapel pin, a certificate, and a red, white and blue blanket. Allina Health Hospice music therapist Julia Albers sang “God Bless America” and played the “Beer Barrel Polka,” one of Tietz’s favorite polkas, during the ceremony.
Tietz entered hospice a few weeks ago after he was hospitalized at United Hospital in St. Paul for eight days. He went in for “shortness of breath” and ended up contracting pneumonia, said Deb Hartung, his oldest daughter.
Tietz, who worked as a mechanic at Chrysler dealerships in the east metro until he retired in 1982, didn’t start sharing stories about his service during World War II until about five years ago, said Doreen Juckel, his youngest daughter.
“It’s just something, you know, he didn’t want to talk about too much,” Juckel said. “We got bits and pieces, but today I learned a little bit more from him that I didn’t know. It’s good to hear that stuff. It’s nice to have a recording of it anyways.”
Tietz, who grew up in Winona, Minn., was the oldest of 16 children. He worked on different farms until he was drafted into the Army in 1941. He was 21 years old.
“I got a call, ‘We want you,’ and I took training for about four or four to six weeks, which wasn’t much, in Texas,” he told the Cottage Grove Journal in November. “They sent us to California, where I was supposed to get on a boat there to go to Japan. The boat never showed up. So, since I was there, we walked guard along Long Beach for about three, four weeks.”
When he was stationed in Long Beach, he and other soldiers were dispatched to patrol the beach area, he said Thursday. Actress Doris Day lived in a house on the beach, and she would often bring refreshments to Tietz and the other soldiers, he said Thursday.
“She would bring drinks out and coffee or whatever we wanted,” he said. “Trouble was, at night, the fog was so heavy, you could practically cut it with a knife, and you couldn’t leave the beach. At 9 in the morning, the fog still hadn’t lifted, and you couldn’t leave then either. You had to stay there. But then the darn seals at night, you couldn’t see them. They’d come up and bump you on the leg, and several guys would start shooting. Then they took the ammunition away from them.”
After his stint in Long Beach, Tietz was sent to Camp Rucker, Ala., a World War II training facility for Army soldiers. He was shipped overseas in June 1944, one week after the D-Day operation, he said.
Tietz served in the 135th Infantry Regiment and fought under the command of Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army in the European theater of operations.
“We took training with Patton for a week, and then we spearheaded a start back to France,” Tietz said. “We took two towns, Pont-Hébert and Saint-Lô, and we were there for about a month. Then we started spreading across France. We didn’t go too far, I guess.”
Tietz, who drove a Jeep, had many close calls during the war, he said.
“You had to make sure you stayed in the center of the road when driving,” he said. “If you got off to the side of the road, you would hit the mines that they had planted all the time.”
Many friends didn’t make it home, he said.
“I was driving a lieutenant,” he said. “He was a nice guy, but I took him up to the front lines, and then he never came back.”
Tietz was about to be deployed to Japan when the war ended, he said.
Tietz turned 104 on Nov. 14, 2024, and Cottage Grove Mayor Myron Bailey and Cottage Grove Police Chief Peter Koerner presented him with a Cottage Grove Police Department medallion and a City of Cottage Grove medallion. He also was presented with a patch that police department employees wear signifying military appreciation.
What’s the secret to living such a long life? According to Tietz, diet plays a major role.
“I never had much to eat years ago,” Tietz said. “I would grow my own food. I had a garden.”
His guilty pleasures are green bananas, sweet rolls, and the Whopper Junior from Burger King.
Before he entered hospice, his favorite activity was going to Treasure Island Casino to play slots, family members said. He also liked going fishing and spending time at the family cabin in Wisconsin, they said.
Tietz and his wife, Delores, were married for 49 years; she died Feb. 13, 1995, at the age of 68. The couple had three children, Donald E. Tietz, Deborah Hartung and Doreen Juckel. He has five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren, and twin great-great-grandchildren are due this summer.
Allina Health Hospice care team members, who organized Thursday’s event, work to provide symptom management and comfort care to allow patients to spend their end of lives “truly living and passing their legacy and story onto future generations,” said Amber Siekert, an Allina social worker.
“We want to thank you for your service to our nation,” Siekert told Tietz. “Thank you for the sacrifices that you made and your willingness to serve our country. You endured hardships, and you were willing to risk your life to maintain our freedom. Please accept our deepest thanks and gratitude.”
Siekert said many patients are reluctant to talk about their service “until the last part of life,” she said. “Hospice is really about honoring legacy and creating a story, and I think you guys being here really helps them do that.”
Tietz said he was touched by the ceremony but was sorry he couldn’t remember more about his World War II years. “A lot of other stuff happened, but I can’t remember what it was,” he said.
A brush with farm animals in France, however, remains crystal clear.
“While I was with Patton, I wound up with two chickens: a banty rooster and a banty hen,” he said. “Of course, I fed them, and all they did was follow me around. But I had them for a couple of weeks.”
