CENTURY SALUTE
DELCO WORLD WAR II VET CELEBRATES 100TH BIRTHDAY ON VETERANS DAY
MIDDLETOWN >> His mother always told him that when longtime Chester resident Frank Herbus was born, church bells were ringing.
But those bells weren’t ringing for Chester’s newest resident. It was Nov. 11, 1919, and everyone was celebrating the first anniversary of the end of World War I.
This weekend, dozens of family and friends gathered at Brandywine Prime in Chadds Ford to celebrate Frank Herbus’ 100th birthday. The celebration also commemorated the life of a man that lived through the Great Depression, was wounded twice on the World War II battlefields of France, and then went on to settle in his hometown of Chester, get married and raise a family.
When asked how it felt to reach 100 years of age, Herbus said: “Good, it’s a long time.”
Born on the first anniversary of the end of World War I, Herbus now lives at Fair Acres Geriatric Center in Lima. These days, it’s a little difficult for him to hear and speak. As a result, telling his story fell to two of his five children, Jerry and Lorraine Herbus.
According to Jerry, the story of the bells was something that his father and grandmother often told.
“His mother said that when he was born, she could hear the bells ringing for Armistice Day,” Jerry Herbus said.
Armistice Day in 1919 commemorated the first anniversary of the Armistice that ended the war. In 1954, the name of the day was changed to Veterans Day in honor of all veterans.
Herbus entered the Army in 1942 and early on remained stateside. He served as a military police officer at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
As has been so often said of many World War II veterans, his son Jerry said his father rarely talked much about the war. But he did, from time to time, share some stories. One of the things he mentioned was that his unit was present at the liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp.
About a decade ago, one of his grandsons filmed a video talking to him about the war and posted it to YouTube. Among his stateside roles before going to Europe was to guard prisoners of war.
“I spent about a year in there chasing prisoners,” he said in the video. “Some of them would say once in a while, ‘you’d better watch me. I’m going to take off.’”
He said he’d pat his .45 and tell them to start running before they’d respond that they weren’t going anywhere. “I wouldn’t shoot them, I’d chase them or something, but I wouldn’t shoot them,” he said in the video.
Herbus would later go to France with Company C of the 232 Infantry Regiment in the 42 Infantry Division. He earned a couple of Purple Hearts. One of those injuries came when a mortar round hit a nearby wall, which crashed onto him. His discharge papers show him as having been discharged with the rank of private first class.
After the war, Herbus moved back to Chester and married Isabella, with whom he shared six decades of marriage while raising five children. She passed away about 10 years ago.
After the war, Herbus had a long career as a wallpaper hanger. He continued to work into his 90s, his son said.
When asked how he lived so long, he said, “It just kind of happened.”