Henry Schirmer

Branch of Service: Army

Unit: 93rd Signal Battalion

Theater of Operation: European

Enlisted / Commissioned: Mar 25, 1942

Discharged: Oct 8, 1945

Highest Rank: Staff Sgt

Honored By: Daughters, Relda M. and Tracey Galli

Henry was inducted into the United States Army on February 28, 1942. He completed his basic training camp at Camp Crowder, Missouri. He served 19 months oversears in France, Belgium, Luxenbourg and Germany with the 93rd Signal Battalion, which was attached to the 12th Corps of General George Patton’s Third Army. Henry served in communications as a Field Lineman. As a Field Lineman, he supervised a wire laying crew in maintaining and taking up the wire and cable of a telephone or telegraph system. He was awarded a Bronze Star for gallantry in action and received several Commendations for good conduct.
Because Henry could speak fluent German, he served an additional six months after the end of World War II for the U.S. Military Forces as a German Language Interpreter and Translator.
Henry served his country a total of 45 months. He was Honorably Discharged as a Staff Sergeant from the United States Army at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, on November 8, 1945, and returned to the family farm. Henry and Deloris Neitzel were married June 3, 1962. They had one child.
When talking about World War II, Henry often commented, ‘I didn’t start the war, but I had to help finish it.’ He often wondered how Adolph Hitler was allowed to become so out of control. The war was a difficult time for Henry’s parents as they had immigrated from Germany to the United States in 1914, and their only son had to go fight a war in their homeland.