Staff Sgt. Harold Schafer, a World War II soldier from Colorado, was finally brought back home after 80 years since he was killed in combat overseas. He was buried at Denver’s Fort Logan National Cemetery with full military honors, including bagpipes and a 21-gun salute. Schafer was 28 years old when he was killed while fighting in Germany in 1944. He joined the Army in 1943 and was sent to Europe in the following year as part of the 90th Infantry Division. On December 6, 1944, his unit attempted to capture and hold the towns of Pachten and Dillingen, Germany, before Schafer was mortally wounded by machine gun fire.
His fellow servicemen were unable to recover his body and those of other fallen soldiers before relocating to a safe area. After the war, the American Graves Registration Command conducted investigations in the Pachten-Dillingen area from 1946 to 1950, recovering and identifying bodies of servicemen from Schafer’s division who had been buried at a civilian cemetery in Reimsbach, Germany. However, they were unable to match Schafer with a body. It was not until 2023 that his remains were finally identified, bringing a sense of closure to his family after so many years.
According to reports, Staff Sgt. Schafer was killed in a foxhole while trying to help a fellow soldier during combat. His niece, Barb Bernhard, shared that his death had a profound impact on their family, especially her grandmother who was never the same after his passing. The fact that they never got to bury Schafer’s body only added to the family’s pain over the years. The identification of his remains many years later came as a welcome surprise and brought both relief and peace to his family.
Barb Bernhard expressed her emotions in relation to the long-awaited service held for her uncle on Monday. She shared her feelings of happiness and amazement at finally being able to honor Schafer and lay him to rest after all those years. The service provided a sense of closure for the family, with Bernhard addressing her late grandmother directly, stating that they had finally brought Schafer home, fulfilling her grandmother’s lifelong wish to have him back home. The long-awaited burial allowed the family to properly honor and remember Staff Sgt. Harold Schafer after his ultimate sacrifice during World War II.
