Karl Kleemann was born on July 23, 1923, in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. He was inducted into the U.S. Army on January 11, 1943, and was stationed at Camp Grant, Illinois, before attending basic training at Camp Hulen, Texas, from February to April 1943. While at Camp Hulen, Pvt Kleemann was part of the original cadre that organized Battery B of 485th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, and they trained at Camp Hulen until transferring to Camp Young, California, during July 1945. They then arrived in the Mojave Desert and built Camp Coxcomb, California, going through maneuvers there from July 1943 to February 1944. Pvt Kleemann transferred with his unit to Camp Stoneman, California, in February 1944, and then left the United States from there aboard the USS Ainsworth the same month. He served at Camp Malekole, Hawaii, from February to March 1944, going through jungle training before serving at Kaneohe Naval Air Station, Hawaii, from March to September 1944. During this time he participated in amphibious training and manned the anti-aircraft guns at the Naval Station. He deployed aboard a Tank Landing Ship (LST) with his unit from Kaneohe Bay in September 1944, arriving at Eniwetok the same month, and then at Manus in the Admiralty Islands in early October 1944. Pvt Kleemann went ashore at Leyte in the Philippines on October 20, 1944, and manned anti-aircraft guns defending Dulag Airstrip from October 1944 to March 1945. He then deployed with his unit again, landing on Okinawa on April 1, 1945, and serving in combat there until the war ended. PFC Kleemann remained on Okinawa until leaving for the United States in December 1945, and he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, on January 19, 1946. After leaving active duty, Karl returned to Madison Newspapers in Madison, Wisconsin, where he was working as a printer at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and he remained there until 1977. He then worked for the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) in Madison, where he retired in 1991.