Albert Schmid

Al Schmid died of bone cancer on 1 December 1982. On December 6, he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife Ruth was also buried in Arlington National Cemetery on September 12, 2002 (died August 15, 2002).

Schmid eventually recovered partial sight in one eye, but problems with his leg during the cold winters led him to retire in 1957 and move to St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife and two sons.

In June 1946, Schmid was named Father of the Year in Pennsylvania, and the Democratic Party nominated Schmid as a candidate for the Pennsylvania Secretary of Internal Affairs, but he lost the election.

His life story appeared in the American news magazines of the time, the book Al Schmid, Marine by Roger Butterfield, and the 1945 film Pride of the Marines, in which he was played by American actor John Garfield.

Albert Schmid was born on November 15, 1943 in Göggingen, Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.

The 1st Marines landed on Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, the largest Marine force ever engaged in landing operations up to that time and first American offensive against the Japanese. Schmid, a private, was assigned as an assistant gunner/loader of a three-man crew manning a M1917A1 Browning heavy machine gun (water cooled, 30 caliber) led by the crew's commander Corporal Leroy Diamond, with Private First Class Johnny Rivers as gunner. Schmid refused medical treatment for a serious foot infection in order to remain in combat with his team and fellow Marines.

Schmid enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on 9 December 1941 after hearing on the radio of the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor. He received recruit training at Parris Island South Carolina, and further training at New River North Carolina where he was assigned to the 11th Machine Gun Squad, Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. While on leave, he used a $60 bonus (equivalent to $940 in 2019) from his employer to purchase an engagement ring for his girlfriend Ruth Hartley, a salesgirl he first met in May 1941.

On the night of 21 August, an assault force of 800 Japanese crack infantry troops sent from Rabaul on August 18 under the command of Japanese Colonel Kiyonao Ichiki attempted to break through the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines's perimeter and recapture the hotly contested Henderson Field airstrip. To reach it, Ichiki's infantry regiment had to cross the Ilu River. Cpl. Diamond's team was entrenched and posted on its west bank.

Albert "Al" Andrew Schmid (20 October 1920 – 1 December 1982) was a United States Marine awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism at the Battle of the Tenaru (Ilu River) during the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II. Credited with killing over 200 Japanese attackers during a night-long assault, he was blinded in action by a grenade blast and endured multiple surgeries and extended rehabilitation upon his return to the U.S.

Albert Andrew Schmid was born in the Burholme neighborhood of Philadelphia, the second son and third child of Adolph and Marian Schmid who both came from Germany to Philadelphia in the early 1880s. His father worked as a truck driver and baker. His mother died around 1932, and his father remarried in 1934. Albert (Al) moved out around 1938, eventually becoming an apprentice steel burner at the Dodge Steel Company in Philadelphia in 1940.