Oscar Schmidt, Jr.

LOCAL HEROES – SOUTH JERSEY MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS –

OSCAR SCHMIDT, JR.

The last published reference to Oscar Schmidt in the newspapers is his wife’s simple obituary: SCHMIDT, of Gibbs Avenue, Somers Point, N.J., April 18, 1980. LUISE H. (nee Fisher) Schmidt, age 74 years, wife of the late Oscar Schmidt, Jr. Funeral services will be held Mon. eve. 8 PM at the Middleton-Stroble Funeral Home, 304 Shore Road,
Somers Point, N.J., Int. Arlington National Cem, Arlington, Va.

Not mentioned is the fact that she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, which is reserved for veterans, because her husband was a veteran who was awarded the nation’s most distinguished award for combat valor – the Congressional Medal of Honor. There is no mention of children or relatives, and t is not known what became of Schmidt’s medal, but there is a good record of what he did to earn it.

A torn and frayed green covered copy of the Senate Committee Report from the 96th Congress, prepared by the Committee on Veterans Affairs (February 14, 1978) lists all of the Medal of Honor recipients and includes the citations and actions of those who distinguished themselves conspicuously by “gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty – while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States, while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force, or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.”

The report once belonged to a Medal of Honor recipient – Tom Kelly of Margate, New Jersey, who gave it to Kenny Robinson, of the Atlantic City Country Club, himself a Korean War veteran and hero, who gave it to me.

Schmidt’s citation reads:

Rank and organization: Chief Gunner’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Place and date: At sea, 9 October 1918. Entered service at: Pennsylvania. Born: 25 March 1896, Philadelphia, Pa. G.O. No.: 450, 1919. Citation: For gallant conduct and extraordinary heroism while attached to the U.S.S. Chestnut Hill, the occasion of the explosion and subsequent fire on board the U.S. submarine chaser 219. Schmidt, seeing a man, whose legs were partially blown off, hanging on a line from the bow of the 219, jumped overboard, swam to the sub chaser and carried him from the bow to the stern, where a member of the 219’s crew helped him land the man on the afterdeck of the submarine. Schmidt then endeavored to pass through the flames amidships to get another man who was seriously burned. This he was unable to do, but when the injured man fell overboard and drifted to the stern of the chaser Schmidt helped him aboard.

After being discharged from the Navy, Schmidt and his wife settled in Somers Point, NJ, where they lived on Gibbs Avenue with little fanfare, and few knowing of the hero who lived and then died in the neighborhood, and is now buried with other heroes at Arlington National Cemetery.