This website is dedicated to my father, William Heller 1910-1972.

Bronze Star

By direction of the President, under the provisions of Army Regulations 600-45, as amended, you are awarded a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious services in connection with military operations against an enemy of the United States.

Citation:

Technician Fourth Grade WILLIAM HELLER, 36 682 818, Signal Corps, Third Signal Company. from 15 August 1944 to 8 May 1945 in France, Germany, and Austria. Technician Heller and a comrade, a Photographic Team assigned to the Division Photographic Section, with great devotion to duty and often at great personal risk, photographed all combat operations of the Division, from the beaches of Southern France to the final operations of the Division in Germany and Austria, thus providing the Division with a complete authentic pictorial record of its campaign.

 Bill, born and raised in Chicago, operated a portrait studio on the south side of Chicago for more than forty years. Married to Sylvia with one son (me - my brother Jerry came along after the war), Bill entered World War 2 when he was 33 years old.

He could have received a deferment, but like most of his generation, Bill offered his services to a grateful country.

As a first generation American, his sense of duty was never in question. Mom always kidded him, that he had to do his John Wayne duty.