World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseWilbur Carl Sze was born in Washington DC, United States in Jan 1915 to Phillip Sze, a Chinese medical practitioner. His uncle was Alfred Sao-ke Sze, a Chinese diplomat who would later be stationed in the United States in the 1920s. In 1920, at the age of 5, he moved to Shanghai, China. Returning to the United States in 1931 at the age of 16, he had to learn English from the ground up. He attended Staunton Military Academy in Staunton, Virginia, United States when he initially returned to the United States, then transferred to Central High School in Washington DC, graduating in 1936. He enrolled in George Washington University in Washington DC in the fall of 1936, but the outbreak of WW2 in Asia in 1937 temporarily cut him off from his family's financial support from China. He began working during the day to earn tuition and living money, while attending classes at nights. Prior to his graduation, he joined the United States Marine Corps, and in Dec 1943 became the first Chinese-American commissioned officer in the Marines. He received his electrical engineering degree from George Washington University in Feb 1944. In Aug 1944, he accompanied a Chinese general on a tour of Marine Corps Base Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, United States. Between Nov 1944 and Jan 1945, he studied at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, United States, and served with the Military Intelligence Service for the remainder of the war. After WW2, Sze served as the aide-de-camp for Major General Keller Rockey of III Amphibious Corps in Tianjin (Postal Map romanization: Tientsin), China. He passed away in 2009.

Wilbur Sze Interactive Map

Wilbur Sze Timeline