On 25 March 1945, flying a P-47D Thunderbolt fighter, Pius was on a dive bombing mission, the target was in Aschaffenburg. He was shot down near Dettingen Germany by enemy flak. The Kuntz family requested the body be returned to North Dakota. Four years later in 1949 the military said they found his grave in a small cemetery in Germany and sent remains back home for burial. He was only 24 years old when he was killed in action serving our country.