As I said I got bitten by the genealogy bug many years ago back in high school - more years ago than I really care to contemplate. Anyhow, at the time Grandma (Emma Jacqueline Sievenpiper) told me Grandpa (John Christian Schmid) had a cousin who was a WWII hero and his life story was occasionally shown in a movie on public television. It was many years before I learned more. I now know his name is Albert Schmid and his feat of heroism took place during the Battle of Guadalcanal. He had joined the Marines following Pearl Harbor and leaving behind a sweetheart named Ruth Hartley he headed off to war. At Guadalcanal he was manning a machine gun with Corporal Leroy Diamond and Pfc John Rivers. After Pfc Rivers was killed he and Corporal Diamond maintained their post despite an injury to Corporal Diamond's arm preventing him from firing the weapon and Al's blinding injury. They worked as a team and with Al firing and Corporal Diamond directing, they survived. Al was awarded the Navy Cross. Coming home so terribly wounded was difficult and he even tried to keep Ruth from marrying him but she wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Al and Ruth raised a family and he did eventually regain part of his sight. He was written up in several magazines and had a book written about him by Roger Butterfield titled
"Al Schmid - Marine". Warner Brothers Studio made it into a movie "Pride of the Marines". He died in 1982 of bone cancer - just a few years before I knew he existed - and was buried at Arlington National Cemetary.
When we went on vacation to Washington, DC in May 2009 we went to Arlington to find him. If you ever get a chance to go to Washington make sure Arlington is one of your stops. We were successful in finding both Al and Ruth, but the saddest part of the day was having to walk out of our way to avoid intruding on several funerals.
For more information about Albert Schmid and what he experienced, here are some websites:
- http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/schmid.htm
- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5933
- http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=ML_schmid_bkp
- http://www.northeasttimes.com/2008/0327/historycolumn.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Schmid
- http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,773912,00.html
- http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/solomons_tenaru.html
- http://www.thebulletin.us/articles/2009/05/27/top_stories/doc4a1d2859df0c6661156741.txt
- http://homeofheroes.com/members/02_NX/citations/03_wwii-nc/nc_06wwii_usmcR.html
