Manfred Römer stands beside the burial site of Lt. John W. Herb.

Mr. Manfred Römer to Address the Corps of Cadets On Thursday, December 7th.

Riverside Military Academy presents Mr. Manfred Römer as this week’s Norman P. Blake Family Distinguished Speaker on Thursday, 7 December, at 10:30am, in the Cervantes Theater. It will be a public address to Riverside family and friends, therefore spaces will be limited. 
As a child living in Nazi Germany in 1945, Mr. Römer witnessed the crash of a US Army Air Corps P-51 fighter plane in a heavily wooded area east of Hamburg. The aircraft or remains of the pilot were not identified or recovered after the war. About 3 years ago, Mr. Römer, then 74 years old, visited the site and discovered evidence of the crash. American and German authorities were summoned to excavate the scene, and the remains of the pilot were found nearby. On the pilots finger was an RMA class ring with his initials inscribed. From this, he was identified as Lieutenant John W. Herb from the Class of 1941. His remains were returned to the United States and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Mr. Römer will tell this amazing story and how he lost his own father on the Eastern Front during the war. As a comparison to our speaker a few weeks ago, Mr. Murray Lynn, who survived Auschwitz as a Jewish teenager, Mr. Römer will describe life as a German youth under the Nazi regime.
 
This presentation will be simultaneously translated by Dr. Rudi Kiefer, a Professor of German at Brenau University.
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    • Manfred Römer stands beside the burial site of Lt. John W. Herb.