2406-- William, a Hero's Story

      William is now gone. He died on the 4th of July, 2002. Such is fitting for a true American hero. This is his story.

Here is William's certificate from President George W. Bush in honor of William's service to his country.

      The Early Years.

      William was born February 15th 1921 to Marcus and Amelia Stoeppler. He was the 5th and last child in the family. William was from early on always testing limits. If you told him he could not do something, he would have to prove to you he could. William was very bright, but was perhaps too independent for school. William was no stranger in the principal's office. He learned first hand how the board of education worked. (Spanking was an accepted form of corporal punishment.) He graduated from grade school at 15, not because he was slow, he was just interested in other things.

      He registered and started High School but never found time to attend. No matter, Dad had work that needed to be done. William soon discovered the money was to be made away from home. Right after finishing the chores at home, he went into the work force. His first job was at a lumber yard, but William liked the fast lane so he left and went to work for Andy Berger Chevrolet. He delivered cars for the company. That lasted until his Uncle Sam called in the October draft of 1942. William answered the call.

      The War Years:

      His parents were ready to take the family to Canada if William did not want to go to Uncle Sam's party. William was not one to shirk his duty to our country. He showed up for induction into the army and went to Colorado for aerial gunnery training (a military occupation with minimal future during the European theater of war). After training he went home on furlough. William was a handsome man in 1942; he had that Clark Gable movie star look.

      The picture here is William home on furlough. He is standing beside his sister. After his furlough, he left and went to Brazil with his squadron for further training before going into combat in North Africa. After the German army was defeated there the allies invaded Sicily, once secured, William's squadron was moved there. From there they started bombing Germany. William was next sent to Italy.

      This picture below is William in Italy between missions. He had already made staff sergeant. William has already matured and looks very little like he did when he was inducted into the U.S. army air corps.

      The plane below is a B-24 Mitchel bomber, the type William flew in as a gunner in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

      William flew 49 missions out of Italy and into Germany. William was about to complete enough missions (50) to earn a furlough home. He was awarded the Mediterranean theater ribbon with battle star, three oak clusters and the air medal. On his last mission, bombing Munich, Germany his plane was hit by German anti-aircraft gunners. The plane was damaged and on one side the engines were out.

      They tried to limp back to Italy after being hit by German flack guns, but could not climb high enough to get over the mountains, so they bailed out into the snowy alpine heights. They had not been trained in evasion tactics, so William and his buddy Foxy were following a stream down a mountainside at night when a bank of blindingly bright spotlights turned night into day. They had walked right into a water powered electric generating station. Foxy, the tail gunner, had the presence of mind to snap to attention and shout "Heil Hitler." William said later, had Foxy not done that the two of them may have been shot right then. He and Foxy were taken prisoner on June 13, 1944. They spent the next year in a German prison camp.



      The picture above was in the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, Thursday June 14, 1945. William is in the front row second from left. This began a dark time for William. It took a long time to get over his experience in that prisoner camp. He was not the boy who went to war. As the story goes, there were several nice girls in the neighborhood who were available and interested, but William was more interested in chasing something he missed while he was in that prisoner camp. The family was more than a little worried about him; but those years ended and William was back to his old self, as close as any combat war veteran can be.

      The Later Years:

      It took a while but William finally met the right girl and married her. William's boyhood smile returned and he and Marie were married 38 years.

      His sister, said Marie was the best thing that ever happened to William. Once William was back to what was normal for him, he still had that impish nature that always made him push things to the edge of the envelope and then just a mite further. He was never a bad man, just one to press on to see how far he could go with whatever he did. I have pictures of William when he was in the nursing home, but they are all in my head. This picture above is the way I want to remember him.

      William left this existence on July 4, 2002. He fell victim to Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, heart stroke and old age.

      The spirit that could not be conquered during the great depression, World War Two, the dark years just after the war, changing fortunes in life, was consumed by old-age maladies. A great generation, of the greatest country ever in the world, has for all intent slipped away from this world. Good-bye William.

      William was always "the golden boy" of his generationin the family. His mother cried during the time he was in the POW camp. One of the reasons that saddened both parents was because William hated sauerkraut and when he was a boy they forced him to eat it and he being in a German prison camp he was likely surviving on it. William never talked about the war until late in life when the families grandchildren asked him about the war for a school assignment.

      This piece has been written by gathering information from his family members, their stories and pictures I found. The presidential certificate was sent to me by his wife Marie.

      I was never living close enough to see William more than a few times in my life, but he had a profound effect on me, so much so that I stopped drinking for two years and five months from that day onward. I can say that never happened before or since.