Fred Hargesheimer

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Major Fred Hargesheimer
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal

Major Fred Hargesheimer (May 7, 1916 – December 23, 2010) was a former pilot of the United States Army Air Forces who was shot down during World War II over Papua New Guinea in June 1943. He later became a philanthropist who helped out the village that had hidden him from the Japanese.

Early life

Hargesheimer was born and raised in

Edwin H. Armstrong.[1]

World War II

Hargesheimer served with the 8th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He was flying a

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal. After the war, he returned to his hometown of Rochester, Minnesota
, where he raised a family of his own.

Philanthropy

Fred Hargesheimer visits with pupils of the Airmen's Memorial School in Ewasse on Aug. 2, 2004, during a visit to the southwest Pacific island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. As a World War II U.S. Army pilot, he was shot down over the Japanese-occupied island and was protected by villagers for months. In gratitude, he later built this and another school, libraries and a clinic, and he and his wife taught island children in the 1970s. (Photo:Geoff Heard)

Hargesheimer corresponded with a missionary to learn how the tribe that kept him safe had fared and in 1960 returned to the island. He was told that they needed a school. He came home and raised $15,000 over three years, "most of it $5 and $10 gifts," and then returned with son Richard in 1963 to contract for the construction of the school.[2] The simple four-room schoolhouse became known as the Airmen's Memorial School * [1]. Hargesheimer returned many times for the next 40 years, building a library as well as infrastructure for the village of Ea Ea, now known as Nantabu. From 1970 to 1974 he and his wife, Dorothee, lived there.[2] He was known by the locals as Mastah Preddi, a corruption of Master Freddie. In 2000, he was proclaimed "Suara Auru," or "Chief Warrior" in the native language. Hargesheimer returned in 2006 for his last visit. During the trip, he visited the site where the wreckage of his old P-38 had been recently found. Hargesheimer also attended the opening of a new library at the Noau school.

Contact with his attacker

In 1999, aided by amateur Japanese historians of World War II, he contacted the wife of the man who had shot him down. He had always wondered why the pilot had never taken the time to finish him off when he was parachuting to the ground. By then the man, Mitsugu Hyakutomi of

Yamaguchi, Japan, was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. His wife said that her husband had always said that he could never shoot down such defenseless parachuting fliers.[3]

Death

He died in Lincoln, Nebraska, on December 23, 2010.[2]

Bibliography

  • Hargesheimer, Fred. The School That Fell From The Sky

References

  1. ^ Nelson, Ed. "Fred Hargesheimer and ERA/Univac Story" (PDF). 2007. Vipclubmn. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b c WWII Pilot who Forever Repaid Rescuers Dies at 94, The Associated Press, December 23, 2010 Archived December 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Hanley, Charles J. "'Mastah Preddi' fell from the sky, into hearts Islanders heal, hail WW2 pilot; man changes lives, returns to build school". Mar 8 2008. NBC News via AP. Retrieved 24 December 2010.

External links