A woman who is a native of western Iowa has penned a book detailing the service history of a Wisconsin Marine who served as the top scout/sniper, and expert in hand-to-hand combat in World War Two. Karla Jensen, who grew up in Audubon, started a writers group in Beaver Dam, WI. She met 91-year old Del Schultz at the Beaver Dam Senior Center, where Jensen was participating in a similar group. Jensen said Schultz approached her one day with a story he’d never told anyone before. Not even his family.

Jensen learned he been involved in battles at Iwo Jima, Saipan at the Nagaski, after the atomic bomb was dropped. Schultz was a member of the first sniper-scout school ever assembled. Jensen and Schultz met every other week over a period of 18 months. He had two stipulations with regard to the book. One was that his real name not be used. For the first 15 months, she wrote the story using the surname of Leo, which, not coincidentally, is the name of her now deceased father. He served in the Coast Guard, during World War Two.

He also did not want his four adult children to know that his character was featured in last year’s movie “American Sniper.” Schultz’ wife died 5-years ago from Alzheimer’s Disease. He wanted his story to be held back until he was on his death bed, but eventually agreed to allow his real name to be used in the book, and to tell his children. Jensen called Schultz’ son and told him about his father’s hidden past.

His biography/memoir eventually ended-up being 60-thousand words. Jensen suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but never let on how much it affected him until after he began telling his story to Jensen. The title of the book is “Nobody’s Hero: The Story of a Marine Scout Sniper.” It was formed after Del’s youngest son said his dad “Is the type of Marine that doesn’t believe he’s a hero and the type of veteran who will not accept any accolades for being a hero.”

Jensen will share his story during visits in southwest Iowa. A book signing will take place 7-p.m. April 7^th at the Audubon Public Library. A writing workshop will precede the book discussion from 5-to 6:30-p.m., offering anyone who wants to write about their own family history, information on how to be published. Jensen will be at the Irwin Public Library as well, on April 8^th, from 6-until 8-p.m.  Some of the books have been signed by Del Schultz, as well. Her book is available Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.com.