Master Sergeant Benjamin L. Pedigo
United States Army
In 1942 Pedigo left Royalton and enlisted in the US Army. After “boot” and
advanced infantry training he was shipped to Italy to participate in
the first evasion of that country. Sergeant Pedigo was captured by
members of the German army in February of 1943 and sent to Stalag IIB
in northeast Germany, near the Polish boarder. Pedigo remained under
the control of the German army in Hammerstein until American POWs were
freed in May, 1945.
Pedigo suffered both mental and physical hardship while a prisoner
of the German Army. Stalag 118 was located near the North Sea where
the winters were very long and bitter and the warm clothing and food
was very scarce. At the end of the war, Pedigo chose to remain in the
army rather than accept a discharged.
In June, 1950 the army of North Korea crossed the 38th Parallel and
invaded South Korea which set-off a “Police Action” that
lasted three years. Pedigo, like many other World War II veterans,
was rushed to Korea to aid in saving that country from Communism. In
1953, at the conclusion of the Korean conflict, Sergeant Pedigo chose
the army as his career. Consequently, in 1962 he was assigned to Viet
Nam, the third war in which he fought. On July 1, 1964 he retired from
the US Army at the rank of Master Sergeant. Currently, he is the only
known surviving Prisoner of War from Six-Mile Township.
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