Otmar E. Fischer

World War II

Otmar Fischer was born on June 21, 1921, near Roselle to Frank X. and Katie (Bierl) Fischer. Frank was a German immigrant. The family had farmed near Dedham and Templeton before farming near Roselle about 1919. In 1928, they moved back to a farm near Templeton. Otmar received his education at Sacred Heart School in Templeton.

During August, 1945, World War II came to an end with the atomic bomb attacks on Japan. On November 26, 1945, Otmar married Colette (known as Cookie) Venteicher at Willey, IA. The wedding announcement indicated Otmar was awaiting his call up to military service.

Otmar was inducted into the US Army on January 23, 1946, at Fort Snelling near Minneapolis, MN and assigned serial number 37892885. He received his basic training at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, WA. After initial training, he was assigned to the Madigan General Hospital at Fort Lewis.

Madigan General Hospital had been opened in 1944 and named after Colonel Patrick Madigan, a doctor who had spent his career in the US Army. He became known as the father of Army neuropsychiatry. This facility was expanded to accommodate returning soldiers and, when Otmar served there, could serve over 7,000 patients. The hospital served neuro-psychiatric patients as well as medical patients including many of the soldiers who had spent time in Japanese prisoner of war camps.

Otmar was assigned to the 9952 TSU SGO unit in the Neuro-Psychiatric Ward. His job was as a medical technician. He was discharged from the US Army on November 19, 1946, as a Technical Sergeant 5, a quick rise in rank for a career of less than one year.

Otmar returned to Carroll. He and his family subsequently lived in St. Benedict, IA and the Amana Colonies in Iowa. They moved to Algona, IA in 1978 and remained there until his death on June 12, 2019 at age 97. He was buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Templeton.