Each day after school, he would head down for flight lessons with the money he had saved. By the time he graduated from Dr. Martin Luther High School, he had obtained his pilot’s license. After one year of college at Dr. Martin Luther College and a year at Gustavus Adolphus, he decided to join the Army Air Corp in 1940, one year before the U.S. entered WWII. He left Hawaii six days before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

He was stationed at Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, where he flew both dive bombers and attack bombers, including the B-25, P-38, B-17, P-51, and the F-6 Hellcat. On one of his many combat missions, he and his co-pilot were shot down over New Guinea. True to his love for our Lord, Howard started a church and preached the Gospel to the indigenous people. Because of their spiritual customs, they would allow him to preach only if he was unclothed. He preached, but refused to remove his shoes, due to the parasites on the sandy island.

Rose H. Mitchell was born in Sydney, Australia, on April 16, 1921. Her father was a successful businessman, which afforded Rose the opportunity to develop her talent in water skiing, art and modeling. A romantic at heart, Rose was a voracious reader who longed for adventure. With WWII encroaching on Australia, Rose left Sydney’s Methodist Ladies College to be a volunteer driver for their pilots on the flight line.

The handsome and adventurous pilot and the romantic, beautiful model were destined to meet. While Howard was on military leave and recuperating after his dive bomber was shot down, they met at the historical Sydney Hotel. It was love at first sight. They got engaged, but Howard was sent stateside and Rose was in Australia. Since the United States had travel restrictions for non-citizens immediately after the war, Rose couldn’t travel to the U.S. to get married. Overcoming their first challenge as a couple, they innovated by getting married by telephone. President Truman sent his blessings and congratulations to the first couple in the United States to be legally married by trans-international telephone.

Howard served in WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War as a command pilot, helicopter rescue pilot, combat control officer and missile officer, retiring with the rank of full colonel in 1969. Enduring the many challenges associated with being the wife of a career combat officer, Rose was unfailingly supportive, while ensuring her children were nurtured in the Christian faith.

After a military career full of adventures and travels throughout Europe together with their children, the Lord still had work for Howard and Rose to do in furthering his kingdom. Howard attended Bethany Lutheran Seminary and, after ordination in 1974, took a call to an Evangelical Lutheran Synod church in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He later graduated from the prestigious Fuller Theological Seminary with a doctoral degree in Ministry. Upon their second retirement, Howard and Rose moved to their dream city in San Diego, where they lived happily together, listening to the waves, breathing in the sea air, and ministering Christ’s love to others for over 25 years. Throughout their lives, they remained inseparable.

Howard, who passed on Jan. 7, 2004, and Rose, who passed on April 28, 2013, were preceded in death by their parents, Herman and Esther Aufderheide and Stan and Virginia Mitchell, respectively. They are survived by their daughter, Christine Aufderheide (Dr. Basil Fossum) and their sons, Stan Aufderheide (Ruth) and Dean Aufderheide (Kerryn), along with four grandchildren and five-great-grandchildren.

A memorial service with military honors by the New Ulm Area Comrades of Valor will be conducted at 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022, at St. Paul’s Lutheran cemetery in New Ulm. The service will be held at Plot E09 Lot 59, and the public is welcome to attend.

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