Lawrence Delmar Schmidt
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Navy
Lawrence Delmar Schmidt served in World War II in the Pacific Theater. He served in the U.S. Navy. Mr. Schmidt joined the Navy on June 22, 1943.
He went to Farragut, Idaho, for boot camp, and was sent to San Diego Naval Base, California, to attend Quartermaster and Signalman School. He was assigned to the USS Sumner (AGS-5), initially as a Seaman 1st Class, and served in the South Pacific.
He was discharged on March 24, 1946. His rank was Quartermaster 2nd Class Petty Officer.
Mr. Schmidt was born in Young America, Minnesota, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence L. Schmidt, in 1925. He graduated from Alexandria Central High School in 1943.
Source: Veterans’ Memorial Hall veteran history form; veteran’s account (below)
“The USS Sumner (AGS-5) was a large, 300-foot heavy duty advance guard survey ship with a crew of approximately 300 men. It was captained, for the most part while I was aboard, by Captain Yankee Johnson, son of the famous skipper of the Yankee Clipper sailing vessel that sailed the world over. The Sumner and crew spent most of its time in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands surveying and gathering important information to update old maps use in navigation. This information was valuable to our fleet in the South Pacific in case of future invasion plans for Japan. We were very thankful when Harry took care of it.”
