The 35th Infantry Regiment Association salutes our fallen brother, 2LT Edward Jerome Schwartz, O-2014766, who died in the service of his country on November 28th, 1950 in North Korea. The cause of death was listed as KIA. At the time of his death Edward was 21 years of age. He was from Hoisinington, Kansas. Edward's Military Occupation Specialty was 1542.
The decorations earned by 2LT Edward Jerome Schwartz include: the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Korea Service Medal, and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
Second Lieutenant Schwartz was a member of Company L, 3rd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was Killed in Action while fighting the enemy in North Korea on November 28, 1950. For his leadership and valor, Second Lieutenant Schwartz was awarded the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.
(Lt. Schwartz's remains were initially not recoverd. Then in 2000 a Korean farmer found some remians that proved to be Lt. Schwartz's. He was buried 05/23/2009.Alan Olsen attended the funerla as the Cacti representative.)
HOISINGTON, Kansas - It's a homecoming that's been nearly 60 years in the making, as a Hoisington veteran killed in the Korean War returned home Saturday.
Lieutenant Eddie Schwartz was killed in the line of duty back in 1950. His remains were discovered in 2000 by a Korean farmer. Just recently, those remains were identified to be Schwartz's through DNA.
"I just never really expected to see the day when Eddie could return," brother Gene Schwartz said. "Considering the circumstances of his death, the odds were very small that he would ever be found and return to this country."
Lieutenant schwartz was given full military honors at his burial, including a gun salute and flag folding ceremony.
More than a hundred family, friends, and neighbors came to wish the hometown hero farewell.
(Obituary)
Mr. Henson, here is the obituary for LT. Schwartz. If I can help further let me know, my phone # is 62... Sincerely, Jon Depiesse
Edward J. Schwartz
HOISINGTON - Edward Jerome Schwartz, 21, died Nov. 28, 1950. He was born July 8, 1929, the son of William H. and Louisa Victoria "Prosser" Schwartz.
Eddie was a lifelong member of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. His early education took place in a one room country school; he then transferred to St. John's Catholic School to finish his elementary education. He graduated from Hoisington High School in 1947. Eddie was active in football, basketball, and track while in high school. It was his wish to continue education in college, hoping to eventually attend medical school. With the knowledge that the benefits of the GI Bill of Rights, earned by military service, would provide significant aid toward college, he enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school. After serving several years in the enlisted ranks of the Army, including two years of service at Ft. George Meade, MD., Eddie applied for, and was accepted into Officers Candidate School at Ft. Riley, and Infantry School, in Ft. Benning, Ga. He served briefly at a Calif. post and was then transferred to Okinawa in Jan. of 1950.
Shortly after, South Korea was invaded by North Korean troops; Eddie's unit was transferred to the South Korean Peninsula. After several months American forces moved into North Korea; as they advanced further the Chinese Army was rumored to be entering the war, and on Nov. 26, 1950, Eddie's Unit was heavily engaged by the Chinese in the Battle of the Ch'ong'chon River, and on Nov. 28, 1950, Eddie was killed in action. 2nd Lieutenant Edward J. Schwartz's remains were recovered in 2000. ID procedures were begun in Hawaii and his remains were identified in Jan. of this year.
For his valor in this action, Eddie was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. His brother Eugene Schwartz, Topeka, survives him.
He was followed in death by his parents, his brothers, Elmer, Ray and Don, and two sisters, Helen Sullentrop and Elizabeth Schwartz.
Graveside services will take place 2 p.m. Saturday at St. John Church Cemetery, Hoisington, under the direction of the Fort Riley Honor Guard. There will be no visitations. Memorials to the VFW Post No. 7428, Hoisington. Proceeds will be used for the 2nd Lieutenant Edward J. Schwartz Scholarship, under the auspice of Post No. 7428, in care of Nicholson-Ricke Funeral Home, P.O. Box 146, Hoisington, KS 67544.
The following story came from the May 26 Wichita Eagle.
Kansas soldier killed in Korea to be laid to rest
In the last letter Lt. Edward Schwartz's family received, he wrote that the U.S. Army was moving his unit up to the front lines in North Korea.Winter had arrived in Korea and the 21-year-old Kansas farm boy wrote that he was extremely cold. Could they please send him little bottles of whiskey to keep him warm?
It was November 1950.
On the Schwartz farm in Barton County, family members responded and quickly sent a homemade care package.
They never heard from him again.
A month later, the family was notified that Schwartz had been killed in action.
Now, nearly six decades later, Schwartz is coming home. His remains, recently identified, will be buried with full military honors at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. John's Catholic Cemetery in Hoisington.
His only surviving sibling, Gene Schwartz of Topeka, will attend the service along with numerous nieces and nephews.
Kansas farm boy
Edward Jerome Schwartz was born July 8, 1929, on the Schwartz family farm northeast of Hoisington. He was the youngest of five boys and two girls.
During the Depression, the German Catholic family worked the rolling fields, Gene Schwartz recalled this past week.
"You had to work hard, everybody did," he said. "There wasn't any welfare. Wouldn't have taken it if there was any."
He remembers his youngest brother as good-natured, athletic and the type of boy that was going to do great things. Eddie excelled in sports at Hoisington High School, participating on the track, basketball and football teams.
At the start of World War II, Eddie was 12 years old as he watched his brothers go off to war.
His oldest brother, Elmer, died following World War II from a lingering illness he contracted while serving in the Pacific jungles.
Another brother, Ray, served in the infantry in the China, Burma and India theaters.
Don, a Navy fighter pilot, flew missions from aircraft carriers.
Gene said he would have served in World War II but a severe leg injury prevented him from doing so. By the start of the Korean War, Gene had gone to medical school to become an ophthalmologist. He was drafted to serve as a physician during the Korean War.
Army life
In 1947, when they graduated from Hoisington High School, Eddie and a classmate, Francis Behr, joined the Army.
Eddie was accepted into officer candidate school and was commissioned at Fort Riley in July 1949.
From there, Lt. Schwartz went through infantry training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, before shipping out to Okinawa for occupation duty.
Although they were in Okinawa at the same time, Behr, now 79, said they never saw each other. But they did write letters to each other.
"He was in the 35th Infantry, I was with the 90th Field Artillery," Behr said.
"We finally got the push in early September to go north, all the way into North Korea."
Schwartz's unit was on the front lines when it was overrun by Chinese troops on Nov. 28, 1950. Behr was only a few miles back when he heard about the battle of the Chongchon River.
Immediately, Behr tried contacting Schwartz's unit.
"We were supporting them with artillery, and I knew he was with them," Behr said.
"I called the unit and asked to talk with him. That's when I learned he'd been killed two hours earlier."
Closure
Schwartz became one of 8,100 soldiers listed by the U.S. military as missing in action during the Korean War and whose remains were unaccounted for.
In recent years, advances in DNA research have enabled military authorities to identify remains of long-dead soldiers.
Since the early 1990s, the Department of Defense DNA Registry has conducted a massive program to catalog the DNA of present and past members of the armed forces.
In the case of Schwartz, researchers managed to extract DNA from his remains and match it with samples donated by his brother Gene and a nephew. They first contacted the family in 2000 about a possible match, which was confirmed earlier this year.
The service Saturday will give some closure to the family, Gene Schwartz said.
"Although he was never out of our life, it was difficult for mom and dad," said Gene Schwartz, now 84.
Both parents died in 1968.
The service Saturday will also be closure for Behr, the longtime friend and soldier.
As he has every Memorial Day since returning to Hoisington from the Korean War, Behr said he will a place a flower on the Schwartz family's stone marker in St. John's Catholic Cemetery in Hoisington.
He also will say a prayer.
"Edward Schwartz gave his life for his country," Behr said. "He was a good soldier and a good American. That's what I will remember most about him."
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