Carnegie celebrates our flag

Frederick William Schmelz was an army cook.On Oct. 27, 1918, nearly 100 years ago, Schmelz was north of Verdun, France, with World War I raging around him.He volunteered to take hot food to the front line troops who had not received hot food for three days. After traveling four kilometers, he was fatally wounded by a bursting shell.Like 117,000 other American servicemen in Europe during the First World War, Schmelz was dead. He was only 18 years old. He was just trying to get some food to some hungry guys. He was a cook, after all, and that’s what cooks do.For his extraordinary heroism, Schmelz was posthumously awarded the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross, one of the highest possible military honors, short of the Congressional Medal of Honor.Twelve years later, his sister-in-law Dorothea made what is called a “Gold Star Mother’s Pilgrimage” to France to visit Schmelz’s resting place. She returned with a special American flag, with gold stars in the blue field, instead of the normal white ones.That flag is now in the possession of Steve Timmerman of New Hampton, and it’s in good hands.“I promised that family that I would treasure and take care of that flag, and honor the memory of the hero it represents, for the rest of my life,” Timmerman said. “I intend to keep that promise.” 
For more of this story, see the Aug. 29 edition of the New Hampton Tribune