Medal of Honor winner lived later in life in city
SOMERS POINT — Tom Innocente would like to kick himself. More accurately, he would like to kick his twentysomething self.
The U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve veteran spent time with a decorated American hero in the 1970s and failed to take advantage of the opportunity.
“When you’re in your 20s, even though I was a veteran, you just didn’t pay as much attention as you do now,” he said, noting that at the time, during the Vietnam era, the military was not as celebrated as it had been following World War II.
A city resident who serves as commander of the Egg Harbor Township branch of United States Submarine Veterans Inc. (USSVI), Innocente said he and a group of others now would like to properly pay tribute to Medal of Honor winner Oscar Schmidt Jr., who spent the end of his life in town with his wife, Louise, often fishing for flounder and drinking beer with Innocente in Great Egg Harbor Bay.
“It’s inexcusable that you have a guy like that with that kind of recognition and you just drink beer with him,” Innocente said, adding that they want to make up for lost time by giving Schmidt his due.
Risking his life
to save others
Born March 25, 1896, in Philadelphia, Schmidt entered the Navy during World War I, serving as a chief gunner’s mate.
According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society (cmohs.org), Schmidt distinguished himself Oct. 9, 1918, while a crewmember aboard USS Chestnut Hill, “for gallant conduct and extraordinary heroism … on the occasion of the explosion and subsequent fire on board the U.S. submarine chaser 219.
“Schmidt, seeing a man whose legs were partly blown off, hanging on a line from the bow of the 219, jumped overboard, swam to the sub chaser and carried him from the bow to the stern where a member of the 219’s crew helped him land the man on the afterdeck of the submarine.
“Schmidt then endeavored to pass through the flames amidships to get another man who was seriously burned. This he was unable to do, but when the injured man fell overboard and drifted to the stern of the chaser, Schmidt helped him aboard.”
Innocente was astounded by Schmidt’s heroism.
“The guys are blown to smithereens. Guys are literally torn to pieces, and Oscar dove off of his ship, swam through the burning fires and shrapnel, and rescued men off the sinking ship,” Innocente said, awe apparent in his voice.
Schmidt received the Medal of Honor on March 15, 1919, at the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pa.
He was one of only 17 sailors to earn the honor during World War I.
Innocente said after serving 25 years, Schmidt retired from the Navy to Somers Point, likely in the 1960s. He was a member of American Legion Post 352 but also frequented VFW Post 2189. Schmidt died March 24, 1973, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Mayor Jack Glasser reported during a City Council meeting Feb. 10 that there is a move to erect a memorial to Schmidt and name a street in his honor.
Reached Sunday morning, Glasser said he is pleased the project is moving forward.
A good old guy
Innocente said Schmidt was a friend of his uncle Mike Marvica, a longtime commander of the VFW, and he met him in about 1970.
“I went fishing with him many times. He loved to go out in the bay and catch flounder. At that time, he was over 70 years old. It wasn’t like he was a spring chicken but he liked drinking beer and we would go fishing, go over to the American Legion and drink a few more beers,” Innocente said.
Sometimes they would take his boat, other times Schmidt’s boat, Innocente said, noting that he eventually bought Schmidt’s vessel when he got too old to operate it.
He said there wasn’t much talk of war during their trips and that Schmidt “wasn’t looking for accolades.”
“He never made too much of it. It was just Oscar and Tom fishing,” Innocente said. “Until right now that we’re trying to put this memorial together, I hadn’t paid too much attention to it.”
By the way …
Innocente said he and some members of the submariners group were having a conversation about awards and he mentioned that a Medal of Honor winner had lived in Somers Point and he knew him.
“You’ve gotta be sh!**ing me!” he said was the reply. “We have a little town like this and we have a Medal of Honor winner and you’re the only guy who knows about this guy?”
They asked if he had a photo.
“Wait a minute — a guy wins the Medal of Honor, he lives in Somers Point and we don’t have any kind of recognition for him,” the group asked, incredulous.
“So, the sub vets said, ‘Let’s do something about this,’” Innocente said.
He contacted Bob Frolow, director of Atlantic County’s Veterans Service Office and commander of American Legion Post 352, and Freddy Vineyard, first vice commander of AMVETS Post 911.
“Let’s do something to recognize this man’s heroic deeds,” he said he told them.
Innocente said the groups are now gathering funds to erect a monument outside the American Legion post. He was planning to order the black marble grave marker last week. It will have an etched image of Schmidt and the Medal of Honor.
The design will be similar to the markers at the Submarine Veterans Memorial and will include information about Schmidt’s heroics.
He said he is trying to reach any survivors but noted that any grandchildren are “probably in their 70s.”
Innocente said there also is talk about adding “Oscar Schmidt Way” to the Gibbs Avenue signs, an honor that also was bestowed on city native Pvt. Anthony Sausto, who was killed May 10, 2007, in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Innocente said they have between $3,000 and $4,000 and are estimating a final cost of $5,000 to $10,000.
“For all intents and purposes, we have half the money and we’re going to get ’er done,” he said.
Innocente said raising the money is not a problem. What may be a problem is getting the stone from Peterson Monuments of Egg Harbor City. He said Peterson supplied three stones for the submarine memorial but is having difficulty getting more.
“We’re kind of on hold but we don’t want to go ahead and have that ceremony without the stone,” Innocente said.
He said there is an 8-foot-square concrete pad just waiting for the monument. It used to be used for mailboxes to collect old flags.
“It’s going to happen, it’s just a question of when,” Innocente said.
Proud to support military veterans
Somers Point prides itself on its support for military veterans, having chapters and auxiliaries of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMVETS, Korean and Vietnam veterans and Legion Riders all active in the city, as well as a state AMVETS office.
Its annual commemorations on Memorial Day and Veterans Day are both well-organized and well-attended, with worthy keynote speakers.
The city, perhaps not surprisingly given its location, also has a strong connection to the Navy.
“This was an area where people were first settling and their trade and lifestyle were tied to the sea,” Glasser said, noting the city is at the mouth of the Great Egg Harbor River leading to Mays Landing and just inside an inlet from the open Atlantic Ocean.
He said the municipal beach once was the location of a marine base “that protected the mouth of the river when the country was in its infancy.”
There also are multiple monuments to its seafaring past, including Richard Somers Park and a War of 1812 marker at the beach, as well as the all-wars memorial at Patriot Park and the Submarine Veterans Memorial outside the VFW.
“How fitting it is that a city that is named after the family of a great naval hero of the 19th century now has a Navy-centric memorial to a group of heroes from another era,” U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby (Ret.) said in 2015, the day a local submarine veterans group successfully completed its five-year mission to erect a memorial to members of the silent service.
The memorial consists of a Mark 14 torpedo — which took some hefty rank-pulling to acquire — with a custom warhead mounted on an elevated brick pedestal.
The USSVI, Egg Harbor Township Base meets at the Elks Lodge on Somers Point-Mays Landing Road and accepts new members. Call (609) 927-4358 for information.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff