Herman A. Hesselschwardt was born June 21, 1949. He attended St. John's Catholic school until he had finished his eighth grade and then went to Defiance Senior High School as he had gone as far as he could at St. Johns, since it does not have a high school.

According to his close friends, Herman was popular and very well liked in high school. He participated in football all four years, earning a letter during his senior year. The number that Herman wore was fifty (50) which tells that he loved to be in the trenches on the footbal field. His number is the number given to a center and they are always in the middle of the football action for the offensive part of the team. Other activities that Herman was involved in while in high school was Senior Hi-Y, Intramural Sports and Varsity "D: club, all in his senior year of school

Dave Kunz was Herman's long life buddy and best friend. The two of them had started school at St. John's and went to school together for all of their educational years.

A fact that many may be aware of but have long since forgotten is that Herman, while mowing grass out at Defiance College, lost several toes. This kept the popular Herman off his feet for awhile but not for long. Many of his friends said that "that's the type of guy he was, always coming back when things seemed to go wrong, he would pop right back."

During Herman's senior year in school, SSgt. Hemmye, local Marine Corps Recruiter, enticed Herman to join the USMC. Herman planned to go into the service earlier than he did after graduation from school but was encouraged by some of his friends to go into the Corps with them under the "Buddy System". So after school was out, Herman and five of his friends left for the Marine Corps. Jerry Daoust and Juan Soliz, who were teammates on the football team the previous fall, along with classmate Gary Leach and two friends that graduated from Tinora, Ron Kunesh and Tom Reed, received orders to proceed to the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot to undergo "boot camp."

While in San Diego, Herman gained a nickname that would remain with him for the remainder of his young life. That nickname was "Alphabet." It was given to him by his Drill Instructor. It seems that at "mail call", Herman would always receive four letters to one for everyone else. The Drill Instructors who were passing out the mail delighted in calling out Herman's name and watching him come from the far end of Platoon Street only to hear his name once again and repeat his run for mail one more time. This might happen four, five or six times each "mail call." The DI's taunted Herman in a way that you knew that they liked him. It was just the way things were and the shy Herman, attempting to be a Marine, accepted this harrassment. Oh yer, he also accepted the nickname "Alphabet" in the humorous manner in which it was given. Maybe because his middle initial is "A".

After "boot camp", each of the men were assigned to go to Infantry Training at Camp Pendleton. This was the end of the "buddy system" and each man went his own way.

The six new "spit and polish" Marines got together again over the Christmas season after ITR and enjoyed themselves while they were home on leave. This would be the last time that many of the guys would see Herman again.

After Christmas leave was over, the guys all went back to Camp Pendleton, California once again for advanced infantry training. This was called BITS and most of the "old corps" men didn't have to attend this type of training.

Herman went to Camp Pendleton's staging area after he finished BITS. After a short while Herman was shipped to Viet Nam. On April 24, 1968, Herman was killed in the line of duty while serving as a UNITED STATES MARINE.