OTTUMWA, Iowa  — The Bronze Star has a soldier’s name inscribed upon it. But it’s the last of his siblings who has been warmed by the presentation of the award.

“I was born and raised in Ottumwa; all seven of us were raised here,” said Gerry Trier, 86.

As a girl of 11 at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, she saw her brothers march off to fight in World War II.

An older brother Bill (Schmitz) of Ottumwa was stationed in the Philippines.

“We had one letter from him, and never heard back from him,” Treir recalls. “My folks would send a letter to the Philippines. And the government would send it back [because mail service was unavailable]. They kept sending letters, hoping one would get through. I still have three of those letters.”

Bill Schmitz was captured by the Japanese. He was then subjected to the Bataan Death March by his captors.

“My uncle, I’ve heard about him all my life,” said Steve Babb of Ottumwa on Thursday. “In that family there were four boys who joined up, and all went off in the service.”

That made the war hard on the family, though Trier remembers it being especially difficult for her parents.

“My brother was Missing in Action nearly four years,” she said. “And my folks had other sons in danger, and us at home to raise.”

One day in the 1940s, sitting on the front porch at age 14, a boy on a bicycle rode up. The day has become an important part of family history.

“The thing I remember,” said Steve Babb, “my mom’s mom told me — my grandmother, of course — as soon as she saw the [telegram] boy, she said, ‘Which one is it?’ That always stuck in my mind. I think she knew which one it was but she asked, which one is it.”

“He died in a Japanese prison camp,” Trier said.

She remembers her brother Bill well, though it’s been roughly 75 years since she’s seen him. A few years ago, a former airman from Arizona contacted her. Her brother was considered Air Force and the man was persistent about getting Bill the awards he was owed.

“None of us knew he was to be awarded; we never knew. The man asked if I wanted to follow through. The Air Force kept sending papers, I had to sign them and send them back. That went on for two years.”

The Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a POW ribbon were all presented posthumously to Bill Schmitz, received by his little sister in Newton this week at the Legion Hall. Gerry is the last of the seven siblings, and moved to Newton recently. The awards, she said, were presented Wednesday by a US Air Force general from Camp Dodge.

“It was a beautiful ceremony. There were so many people!”

Babb went to support his aunt (his mother’s sister), to honor the uncle he never met and to represent his mother, who died earlier this year.

“Too bad she couldn’t have been here to see it,” Babb said. “They really went over the top up there.”

There were Legion officers, multiple veterans and an honor guard. Trier’s son was present, as was another nephew, also from Ottumwa.

Her only request for attendance kept the ceremony focused on her brother: She asked that no politicians speak at the event. Those service members and vets who did speak did right by her brother, she said.

“They told what had happened, how he served,” she said. “These men were deserving of these medals. We were very thankful, but the general, the [Legionnaires]? They were thanking us for the work we did! They thought it was an honor to have this ceremony for William.”

Mark Newman writes for the Ottomwa, Iowa Courier.