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Claude Schmidt in Navy cadet uniform in 1944 at age 19.
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52: Claude Schmidt in Navy cadet uniform, circa 1944.
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51: Claude Schmidt and dog Mickey on the family farm, about 1944. Claude is wearing his Navy midshipman's uniform because he was enrolled in the Navy's V-12 program for pre-med students.
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50: Claude Schmidt worked the family farm in 1943 with these horses. The "chicken barn" is in the background.
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49: Alfred Schmidt family circa 1943, when oldest son Ruben was called into military service in World War II. Left-to-right are Irmgard (née Ruhbusch), Claude, Alfred, and Ruben.
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48: Claude Schmidt took off his sophomore year of college in 1943 to return home to work the farm for his father Alfred, who had nearly died from a burst appendix the year before and was unable to handle all the farm chores. Working the family farm also gave Claude a deferment from the draft which followed the Pearl Harbor attack and the US's entry into World War II, which being a pre-med college student probably would not have.
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47: Claude Schmidt's high-school graduation photo, 1941. He was 16 years old.
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46: When Claude Schmidt was 14 years old, his dear pet cat Caesar gto run over in the road by their house. He asked his mother to take this picture of him with the cat.
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45: Ruben F. Schmidt's high-school graduation photo, 1937. He was 16 years old.
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44: Memorial Day 1936. Brother Ruben (center) and Claude (right) Schmidt pose in front of Spirea bush under elm tree on the family farm. The "chicken" barn is visible on the right.
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43: Alfred Schmidt and sons Ruben and Claude, circa 1936, pose on the driveway of the family farm.
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54: Alfred Schmidt models his World War I Army uniform alongside his son Ruben in his World War II uniform, about 1944.
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55: Alfred Schmidt in his World War I uniform alongside son Claude in his Navy cadet uniform, about 1945.
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56: Claude Schmidt on the family farm with a sheep, about 1946.
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57: Claude Schmidt college graduation, 1946.
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58: Claude Schmidt was working with his father Alfred (pictured) cutting hay when the load tipped over (about 1946). Claude ran to get a second pitchfork to clean up, and also grabbed his camera to get this shot. His father was less than amused that Claude stopped to take a picture.
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59: Alfred Schmidt about 1946 in his leather rocker in the farmhouse kitchen. The bench his sons Ruben and Claude sat on for meals is visible to the right, and the Regulator clock is above him on the wall.
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60: Claude Schmidt and roommate Chenoweth Watson in front of "Pres House," the Presbyterian student house where they roomed at the University of Wisconsin. One of their jobs at the house was to shovel coal in the basement for the furnace. There was a shower in the basement, so rather than get their clothes all dirty, they shoveled coal in the nude and then showered!
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61: Claude Schmidt about 1946, probably in Madison, Wisconsin.
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62: Claude Schmidt circa 1946.
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63: Claude Schmidt in the lap of the Lincoln statue in front of Bascom Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus. In those days, coeds would always walk behind the statue, because the students claimed that Lincoln would stand up if a virgin walked in front of him!
