Joseph Raymond Kietzmann was the son of Otto Mitchell Kietzmann and Louisa Amelia Scott. He was killed in action during the Battle of Normandy (Operation Overlord) near the Canal de Vire et Taute, a few miles south of Isigny, Normandy, France while serving with the US 1st Army, XIX Army Corps, 30th Division ("Old Hickory"), 120th Infantry Regiment, Company B.

Raymond was temporarily buried at La Cambe, Normandy, France. Several years after the war the U.S. Government gave his mother Louisa the choice of bringing his remains home for burial or having him permanently interred at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. Louisa chose burial in Glen Cemetery, Paxton, Ford County, Illinois in the family plot next to his father. (U.S. Forces also buried the German dead as they moved through Normandy; after the war the U.S. dead were moved to the permanent Normandy cemetery and La Cambe became one of the largest German military cemeteries in Europe.)

Raymond's 30th Infantry Division included the 117th, 119th, and 120th Infantry Regiments, in addition to Field Artillery Battalions and supporting functions. Raymond's unit, the 120th Infantry Regiment, had as it's motto, Virtus Incendit Vires (Virtue Kindles Strength.) In February 1944 the 30th Infantry Division left Camp Atterbury, Indiana and sailed from Boston on the USS Argentina to Scotland and then on by train to the English Channel seaside resort town of Bognor Regis in anticipation of the invasion of Europe.

Following months of training, and waiting, on June 13th, one week after D-Day, the 30th was transferred into the battle zone; their landing craft brought them to the west end of Omaha Beach at sector Charlie. In the first week of the invasion U.S. forces had been unable to push inland more than a few miles beyond the beaches. The 30th Division's assignment was to relieve elements of the 29th Infantry Division and the 101st Airborne Infantry and repel German troops which sought to split the American forces and push them back to the beaches. The Division's offensive objective was to take the town of St. Lo, a location with a number of important highway junctions about 15 miles inland from the Omaha and Utah beachheads.

After assembling most of the Division's units near the seaside town of Isigny, the 30th fought their way four miles south through the nearly impenetrable hedgerows on June 15th and 16th. Most of the approaches to the Vire et Taute Canal connecting the Vire and Taute Rivers were knee-to-waist deep in floodwaters because the Germans had opened flood control gates on the low-lying marshlands as they withdrew to the south. Bridges over the canal had also been blown by the Germans and the south side of the canal, which the division needed to cross to take St. Lo, was heavily fortified by enemy infantry and artillery. The 30th Division dug in on slightly higher ground above the flooded canal approaches for a prolonged three week standoff; regimental after-action reports detail repeated reconnaissance and combat patrols by both sides.

Raymond was killed in action on June 26, 1944. The XIX Corps' newspaper, Le Tomahawk, published on the Normandy beachhead Sunday, June 27 focused mainly on the U.S. forces taking control of Cherbourg, a major port north of Utah Beach, but the front page included another brief update: "Meantime, in other American sectors, the lines were fairly stable. A strong German counter-attack south of Isigny was thrown back."

The successful holding action by the Division permitted further buildup of troops, munitions and supplies and on July 6th the 30th Division led an advance across the canal which eventually led to Operation Cobra, the Breakthrough at St. Lo and the Allied advance across Europe.

The Germans nicknamed this division "Roosevelt's SS", after the 30th's two successful engagements with Hitler's elite 1st SS Panzer Division. The 30th Infantry Division was regarded by S.L.A. Marshall, the Army's foremost World War II historian, as the number one infantry division in the European Theater of Operations. They were involved in 282 days of intense combat over a period from June 1944 through April 1945; highlights included the liberation of Paris, Belgium and the Netherlands, and significant action at Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge. Battle casualties totaled 18,446 with 3,003 killed in action out of a normal division operating strength of about 15,000.

Raymond's paternal Kietzmann grandparents immigrated to the United States from German Prussia about eighty years before Raymond's death in World War II.

Raymond typically was known by his middle name; likely his family followed the common German naming custom favoring the middle name in family usage. That practice also seems to have been followed by a number of Otto's brothers.