NORTH SMITHFIELD – Saturday morning, after eleven cloudy days, the sun was shining bright as a flag was raised outside the Memorial Town Building in Slatersville. The flag was raised to honor a veteran of World War II.
Bill Schnorr, an Army sergeant, served his country from 1942 to 1945.
The veteran’s daughter Lynn Schnorr, with other family members, along with local veterans attended the ceremony, braving the biting wind on Saturday, Feb. 3, and temperature in the 30s.
“We’re very appreciative to the VFW and North Smithfield Heritage Association,” said Schnorr.
The VFW Post 6342 LeClair Kozlik Logan Bassett, together with the North Smithfield Heritage Association, hosted the flag-raising.
The flag will fly in veteran Schnorr’s honor throughout the remainder of February.
“This is such an honor, to honor this veteran,” said Post Commander Farrell McMillan.
McMillan noted the young Schnorr so much wanted to serve his country that he enlisted at 17, pretending to be of military enrollment age.
The group gathered to give tribute and remember Schnorr, who rose to the rank of sergeant. Sgt. Schnorr served in the Army Air Corps as a bombardier and gunner with 94th Bomb Group, 410th Squadron. He was stationed in Bury St. Edmonds, England, from where he flew missions to Germany.
Schnorr was born in 1925. He was from Slatersville, and moved to Maine in the 1980s.
The Army vet, who passed on in 2018, was belatedly in 2016 awarded the World War II Victory Medal. Earlier in life, Schnorr received the Presidential Unit Citation, an Air Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal.
At Slatersville, the group observed as the flag was raised and flew in the wind to the sound of the National Anthem.
“It was beautiful,” Sally Gervais said of the ceremony honoring her late father.
