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.