Veterans Day Banners in Downtown Perrysburg
In recognition of Veterans Day on November 11, the City has installed banners in Downtown Perrysburg featuring our local veterans. Some are well-known Perrysburg citizens and others are descendants of current residents. This is a project that is coordinated by the City and the Way Public Library. Here is more information about each of the 23 veterans (in alphabetical order):
Don Brossia
Don Brossia was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II. He served on LST 942, which patrolled the Asiatic-Pacific waters. An LST was a Landing Ship Tank, which was designed to transport and deploy troops and vehicles. The bow had a large door that opened with a ramp that dropped directly on shore. LST 942 participated in the 1945 Visayan Island landings in the Philippines. Brossia worked for the railroad and was a volunteer firefighter for many years. He died December 20, 2001 and is buried at Fort Meigs Cemetery.
Dave Cook
Dave Cook is a Vietnam U.S. Navy veteran. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy July 11, 1966 and was part of Patrol Squadron VP-22. He served in places such as Johnsville, Pennsylvania Naval Air Development Center where he was an Air Crew Aviation Ordnance man. He also served at Sangley Point Naval Air Station in the Philippines. Cook was discharged as Second Class Petty Officer on July 10, 1972. For his service, he was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal. Cook currently lives in Perrysburg.
Paul Evans
Paul Evans was born in Toledo in 1927. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in June of 1944 and went to boot camp at Great Lakes. Afterwards, he was sent to an amphibious base in Norfolk, Virginia for shipboard training. Evans was assigned to LST 940, a Landing Ship Tank, which was designed to transport and deploy troops and vehicles. The bow had a large door that opened with a ramp the dropped directly on shore. Evans became a cook and sailed the Pacific dropping off troops and supplies. His ship dropped marines at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. At Okinawa, his ship was under fire by Japanese aircraft. After the war, his ship visited Hiroshima. Evans said there was nothing left standing except a smokestack. Evans and his wife and children moved to Perrysburg in 1956. He is currently 95 years old.
Susan Evans
Susan Evans was born in Perrysburg. She attended St. Rose School and Perrysburg High School. After she graduated in 1974, she joined the U.S. Army and became a nurse.
John and George Hoffmann
John and George Hoffmann are Spanish-American War veterans. John grew up in Perrysburg and after the war was a streetcar operator. In 1925, he transitioned to bus driving. He lived in the first block of West Front Street with his wife Nellie, who ran the Rossbach Ladies Shop for many years. John died in 1959 and is buried in Fort Meigs Cemetery. George Hoffmann, John’s cousin, was born in Roachton, a town that no longer exists. It was located at the railroad and Roachton Road. After the war, he moved away from Perrysburg and that is all that is known about him.
Paul Kazmaier
Paul Kazmaier was born in 1918 and grew up at 709 Louisiana Avenue. Kazmaier graduated from PHS in 1935 and went into World War II in 1942. He served in the Anti-Tank Company, 313 Infantry, training at Camp Blanding, Florida. He was promoted sergeant and continued anti-tank training in Nashville, Camp Phillips, Kansas, Arizona and California. He served in the infantry as part of the 7th Army in France. Kazmaier died in 2004 and is buried at Fort Meigs Cemetery.
Zachary Kazmaier
Zachary Kazmaier was born in 1980. He joined the U.S. Navy in 2002 and served during the Iraqi war era. He was in places such as Guam, Okinawa, and South Korea, and later advanced to 2nd Class Petty Officer. He was discharged July 7, 2005.
Edward Kime
Edward Kime is a Korean War veteran, U.S. Army. He was drafted in 1953 and did his basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. He was in Headquarters Company, 6th Armored Division and was later stationed at the National Guard Camp at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Kime currently lives in Perrysburg.
Bob Kohl
Bob Kohl is a Korean War veteran. He was born in Perrysburg in 1930, went to Perrysburg Public Schools, but later left school to help his father on the farm. In the meantime, he joined the Army Reserves and took a job at Brush-Beryllium, then located in Luckey. He received his draft notice and reported to Fort Lewis, Washington and was shipped out to Korea on July 29, 1953. The armistice had been signed two days earlier. In Korea, he was first sent to Camp Casey. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Panmunjom and that’s where he spent the next year doing guard duty and driving a truck delivering supplies to different camps. Kohl left the service in December of 1954 and came home. He still lives on the family farm on Five Point Road.
John Kohl
John Kohl is a Vietnam Veteran. He was born in 1943 on the family farm on Five Point Road. He went to Perrysburg Public Schools and graduated in 1961. After, he helped his father on the farm and took a job with Johns Mansville. Kohl was drafted on November 22, 1966 and basic training was at Fort Bragg. Kohl later decided to go to MP training at Fort Gordon. Afterwards, he was handed orders for Vietnam. He was stationed in Saigon and became part of the 716th MP Battalion where he guarded or patrolled various U.S. installations such as warehouses and officers' apartments. He was there during the TET Offensive and his quarters were strafed although no one was hurt. Kohl was discharged on November 22, 1968. He then joined the Wood County Sheriff’s Department and later was a Perrysburg Township police officer. In 1992, he was elected Sheriff of Wood County and served in that position until 2004.
Larry Mandell
Larry Mandell was born on December 30, 1946. He is a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran who graduated from PHS in 1964. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on May 26, 1966 and served aboard the tender, USS Cascade AD 16, as an instrument repairman. Mandell saw service mainly in the Mediterranean. “We were watching the Russians and they were watching us,” said Mandell. His ship functioned as a support and repair vessel for destroyer escorts and guided missile cruisers. Mandell was discharged January 27, 1970. He currently lives in Perrysburg.
Barry Mandell
Barry Mandell was born October 31, 1956 and graduated from Rossford High School in 1974. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam Era and honorably discharged after three years. He died July 2, 2023.
Adam Mandell 
Adam Mandell was born in 1979. He is a graduate of Ottawa Hills High School. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1997.
Bill Nesper
Bill Nesper was a World War II U.S. Army veteran. Nesper was born in 1923. Among other places, he served at Camp Wheeler, Georgia in Company B, 2nd Platoon, 7th Battalion. He was dispatched to Europe sometime after D-Day and saw service in France, Belgium and Germany. He also had special training as a Private First Class in a glider force. Nesper worked in a Standard Oil Refinery and later ran a service station in Sutton’s Bay, Michigan where he lived. He died there in 2011 and is buried at Fort Meigs Cemetery.
Murrell Redman
Murrell Redman is a Spanish-American War veteran. Originally, from Napoleon, Mr. Redman was mustered in on June 21, 1898 with the 6th Ohio Infantry, Company F. He reported to Camp Poland, Tennessee just outside Knoxville where he trained for several months before becoming ill on September 12. He was in sickbay until November 27, with part of that time spent at home. On December 29, Redman was sent to Cuba as part of the United States Occupational Forces. This short war had ended on December 10. He served at Cienfuegos and Trinidad, Cuba before returning to the United States on April 22, 1899 and was discharged on May 24. Redman moved from the Napoleon area to Perrysburg with his wife and children in 1916. He was a carpenter and built several houses in Perrysburg. He died in 1960 and is buried at Fort Meigs Cemetery.
Lawrence Schramm and Albert Schramm
This father and son photo was likely taken in 1945. Albert Schramm was born in 1893 and served in World War I in the 329th Infantry. He was mustered in at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio on April 27, 1918 and was sent overseas as part of the 329th Infantry. This unit took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the last big battle of World War I. Schramm was discharged February 20, 1919. Many remember him as longtime Perrysburg school bus driver. He died in 1969 and is buried in Fort Meigs Cemetery. Lawrence Schramm was born in 1925. After graduating from PHS in 1943 he went into the U.S. Army. He served in Headquarters Battery 863, Field Artillery 63rd Battalion. Lawrence Schramm died in 2007 and is buried at Fort Meigs Cemetery.
Barney Schwind
Barney Schwind is a graduate of Perrysburg High School, class of 1940. He joined the Navy right after Pearl Harbor, attended aviation school, and was assigned to a PBY squadron. A PBY is a flying boat, a slow-moving airplane used for submarine and patrol bombing that did not need a runway for landing, just water. Schwind was trained as a gunner on a PBY and sent to North Africa. He went on patrols over the Mediterranean, often as far as the Suez Canal. Schwind also had training in radar and radio. Eventually, he was sent back to the states as part of the V-12 program, which sent prospective naval officers to college to study in areas most needed in the Navy. By that time, the war was over and Schwind returned to Perrysburg to become a radio repairman. At the time, television was just coming in so he ended up becoming a TV repairman as well. Schwind died in 2013.
John Searle
John Searle served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1925 and grew up in Shelby, Ohio. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 and went to basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. In December of 1944, he was sent to Camp Miles Standish in Boston and from there, shipped overseas. Searle was in the Army infantry when U.S. troops were poised to invade Germany. He was attached to the 11th Armored Division, as General Patton liked to put an infantry unit with an armored (tank) division. Searle's unit moved east and crossed the Rhine by walking or riding in open trucks. The regiment was ordered to the south to clear out a small town called Ohrdruf, which was the first concentration camp liberated by Western Allies. “It was a terrible sight,” said Searle. “Dead bodies were piled three or four high. We had no idea something like this was going on. Shortly afterwards, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton came to see the camp. There is a photo of their horrified reactions in many history books.” At the end of the war, Searle did not have enough points to go home right away. He stayed in Camp Philip Morris for a few months to wait his turn and eventually came home on the SS Ernie Pyle. Searle currently lives at the Kingston Residence of Perrysburg.
William Thielman
William Thielman is a World War II U.S. Navy veteran. He was born in Toledo in 1921 and graduated from Scott High School in 1939. Thielman attended Midshipman’s School at Notre Dame College. In WWII, he served on an LCI (landing craft infantry) and participated in landings in North Africa, Italy, Sicily, and France, landing troops at D-Day at Normandy. Thielman may be remembered as driving a Perrysburg school bus for special events and sports. Thielman died in 2021, one month shy of age 100.
Robert Tinney
Robert Tinney was born in 1922 and lived in Lime City. He graduated from PHS in 1940. After two years of college, he enlisted in the Army on May 14, 1943. Tinney gained the rank of first lieutenant and was stationed as a company commander in Germany in 1945-1946. He died January 9, 1989.
Michael Young
Michael Young graduated from Perrysburg High School in 1981. After graduation, he joined the Ohio Air National Guard. He completed pilot training in 1990 and received his wings at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. He joined the 180th Air Force National Guard at now Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport. On November 30, 1991, Young was deployed by the 180th on a training flight with several other jets. They were to engage in military exercises over Lake Huron. Lieutenant Young had some trouble with the jet and he was ejected from the aircraft over a farm field. The wind carried him over Lake Huron and he was lost. Perrysburg honored him by placing his name on the war memorial in Hood Park along with others from Perrysburg who gave their life in the service of their country.