Edgar William Schroeder

LT COL in 23rd Headquarters Co

ASN#22166

Born 1913 in KS, Died 1996

Other residence(s): Marion, KS; Columbus, GA; numerous military postings

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: military service

College education before the war: West Point

Notes: Legion of Merit Award; GO #22, Sec IV, Hq ETOUSA, 22 Feb 45. Meritorious Service: Task Force Commander, France, Luxembourg, and Belgium, 1 Jul-12 Nov 44; West Point class of 1939

Source: Roster of 23d HQ officers, from family of Oscar Seale; Awards and Decorations; West Point Graduates list from Cliff Simenson, 27 Dec 2002; photo courtesy Find a Grave (West Point yearbook, 1939)

Edgar Schroeder was born on December 1, 1913 in Lorraine, KS, the second of four sons. His father was a stock farmer, and later a manager at a produce company; three of Ed's four grandparents had been born in Germany. The family later lived in Marion, KS.

Ed graduated from West Point in 1939, and married Jewell Lillian "Teddie" Thompson in Bronxville, NY on September 6, 1939. He and Teddie would go on to have four children: Randall, Edward, Beverly, and Keri.

He worked his way up the ranks to LTC within four years. In early 1944, he was commanding a battalion in the 7^th Armored Division. They were training in California when he received orders to come to Camp Forrest in Tennessee to join what he referred to as “this big deception unit.”

Edgar Schroeder during his 1994 interview

“It was a bad break for me,” Ed recalled in a 1994 interview with his son and grandson. “I had a good battalion. And I tried to get out of it, I was obnoxious as could be, trying to get out of it, but no way out. And we shipped out.”

Ed was unhappy, to say the least. “I couldn’t see how it would be successful. I kept sounding off at officers’ meetings saying I thought it was a bunch of malarky. . . . That didn’t make me too popular around there.”

He tried again when they got to England, but had no luck getting transferred. So he tried to make the best of it.

LTC Schroeder, CPT Seale, LTC Snee; photo courtesy Jonathan Gawne

Ed became a task force commander in the Ghost Army. He commanded deceptive task forces simulating real units in almost every Ghost Army deception. In their last mission, Operation Viersen, he commanded the notional 30^th Division to make it seem as if they were planning to cross the Rhine well south of the real spot.

After the war, he got involved in Latin American service, when officers were selected for missions in Central and South America. A 1986 article in The Columbus Ledger quotes Schroeder as saying that "after the post-war communist encroachment in Europe, the United States decided to get a 'foothold' in its own neighborhood."

He was stationed in Venezuela for three years, went to Japan during the Korean War, and then attended the Army War College. After serving as an Intelligence Officer on the General Staff of the Joint Chiefs, he was appointed commandant of the Caribbean School in Panama in 1961.

This school had been started in 1946 for US soldiers stationed in Panama, and had become an international training ground. According to the same 1986 article, it served as "an exporter of US ideals and military doctrine to students across Central and South America." The school enrolled several thousand Latin American students each year and classes were taught entirely in Spanish.

Ed was unhappy with the name of the school—he felt it meant nothing to the students and didn't have any spirit. He suggested renaming it to "Escuela de las Americas" (School of the Americas) and eventually the name change became official—just as he left command in July, 1963. (In 1986, when the school moved to Fort Benning, he participated in the ceremonies on the base.)

Later in the mid-60s, he continued his educational involvement, serving as a professor of military science at Mercer University in Macon, GA for a year.

He retired from the Army in January, 1969 with the rank of COL, moved to the Columbus, GA area, and served as the Columbus Civil Defense Director for 10 years. In that role he spoke frequently at schools, PTA meetings, and other gatherings.

Ed died on November 8, 1996 and is buried at the Fort Benning Main Post Cemetery. His wife died the following year and is buried with him.

After his death, Colonel Clifford Simenson, the Operations Officer for the 23^rd, wrote to Ed’s wife Teddie: “Ed was truly an outstanding officer. His clear thinking made great contributions to the development and employment of tactical deception. None of us were trained for this unknown field and we had to learn how to cause the enemy to move or not to move to our own advantage. In some 21 deceptions, Ed was always there with sound common sense, good judgment, intuition, ideas, and dependable superb leadership.”