The First Lieutenant Charles H. Herr Scholarship
Established in 1998 to support a 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) soldier continuing his or her education at Jefferson Community College
First Lieutenant Charles H. Herr of Watertown was one of Northern New York's first native sons to die as a World War II Prisoner of War. A graduate of Manlius Academy, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Officer's Reserve Corps on December 9, 1938. He interrupted his studies at the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania during the early days of World War II, entering active duty on January 29, 1942. Effective February 28, 1942, he was assigned to Headquarters, 1st Armored Division, 1st Armored Regiment and departed the United States on May 31, 1942 for duty in North Africa. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on January 29, 1943.
A tank commander, he suffered massive wounds when struck by enemy fire during the Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, North Africa on February 15, 1943. An officer who demonstrated gallant courage and dedicated leadership, he ordered his crew to leave him and to seek a more secure position as they came under increasingly heavy fire. He was Missing in Action for five days before being captured and held by enemy forces. He was sent from a North African prison camp to a military Prisoner of War hospital in Bari, Italy, where he died on March 20, 1943. He is interred at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial near Rome, Italy, with 7,861 other Americans who gave their lives in defense of freedom and liberty.
The Department of the Army recognized Lieutenant Herr in July, 1998 when it memorialized a new $9.2 million multipurpose training range at Fort Drum in his honor. The range provides soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division, the Army and Marine Corps Reserve, and National Guard troops from throughout the northeast with the most modern virtual combat training facility in the country.
In dedicating the range, Major General Lawson W. Magruder, the Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division, said, "Charles Herr is a hero, in the classic, most noble sense of the word," adding that Lt. Herr "embodied the values of today's Army."
Major General Magruder continued:
It takes more than skill to be a soldier; it takes character. Lt. Herr gave his life because of his loyalty to his country and the men in his command. He did his duty by ordering his men to safety, and endangering his own life. He showed the ultimate respect to his fellow soldiers by enabling them to get away. He performed selfless service by putting his country and crew in front of his own needs. Lt. Herr showed what honor means by the way he fought and the way he died. He showed integrity by doing what was right, not what might have saved himself. Lt. Herr demonstrated personal courage by sending his crew away and facing the elements and enemy while wounded. Lt. Herr exemplified all of our core values.
In presenting the scholarship to Jefferson Community College, Lt. Herr's family said, "It is our hope that the scholarship will be awarded to a soldier who exemplifies the values described by General Magruder and who, like Charlie Herr in his day, represents the best of today's generation of soldiers."