Frank Dietrich Brodersen

Image and bio courtesy of Sam Pestle

Frank Dietrich Brodersen was born to Danish immigrants in Herman, Nebraska, on September 21st, 1889. He received an 8th grade education in school and soon began traveling across the Midwest for agricultural work. Frank eventually settled in Powell, Wyoming, and chose to enlist with the Wyoming National Guard on June 28th, 1916. He subsequently experienced active service along the Mexican Border and his unit was later federalized into the 148th Field Artillery Regiment on July 28th, 1917.

Frank was serving as a Sergeant with Battery "F" when his unit sailed overseas on January 23rd, 1918, and they later disembarked at Le Havre. The 148th Field Artillery then proceeded to Camp De Souge for AEF training regarding their new 155mm guns and artillery tractors. They received several weeks of supplemental instruction and were later moved to the heavy artillery training center at Libourne. The regiment was informed on July 4th that they would begin moving toward the front, and just four days later the 148th Field Artillery was firing shells on German positions around Chateau-Thierry. For the next four months the regiment was heavily engaged in frontline combat with the American 41st Division. They fired 67,590 rounds of ammunition and suffered scores of casualties to enemy counterfire and aerial attacks. The regiment would eventually receive credit for Chateau-Thierry, Vesle, Fismus, St. Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Following the Armistice, the 148th Field Artillery was selected for Rhineland Occupation duties, and this photograph depicts Sgt. Brodersen in Germany serving with the American 3rd Army. Battery "F" returned to the United States aboard the USS Eten in June of 1919 and Frank received an honorable discharge on July 7th. His service number was 141371.

Frank returned to Nebraska after the war and began managing his own farm. He married in 1920 and soon had three children with his wife Mary. Frank remained active in the Masonic Lodge, the American Legion, and was seen as a community leader by his peers. He died unexpectedly in his sleep of an apparent heart attack at 57 years of age on December 2nd, 1946, and is now buried beside his wife with a civilian gravestone in the Herman Cemetery of Herman, NE. A veteran's plaque stands beside the stone.

https://www.findagrave.com/mem.../98579095/frank_d-brodersen