For Alaskan teenager Henry De Hoop, social platforms such as Facebook have proven to be an incredible resource in sharing his grandfather, James Schmidt’s story, with a global audience.
Jim Schmidt, like 16 million others of his generation, served in World War II.
But the war journey of Henry’s granddad is anything but routine. It’s unlike anything most of us have ever heard or even thought possible. Jim Schmidt was keeping a big secret from the military and from his family too.
This incredible journey begins in a movie theater in 1942 with the film Parachute Battalion playing on the big screen in San Rafael, California. The United States is now at war on two fronts.
The story continues after World War II in Korea at the infamous frozen Chosin Reservoir.
It ends in the sweltering jungles of Vietnam more than two decades after WWII is over.