Philip Schmidt was born in June 1922 in Alton, Iowa. It was a small town with not much entertainment and few friends. His father was a harness maker and his mother stayed in the house. Everyone in the neighborhood knew each other. People knew when others would leave town to shop. People did not have much and had to make due with what they had. Because there were farms around, people would trade food for other goods. Schmidt's father made harnesses for farmers, so he knew what the farmers were growing and would trade if able. Schmidt started mowing lawns when he got old enough. By high school, he was working for his father. He cleaned and repaired equipment damaged on farms. Schmidt did not like doing that work. He had a younger brother. While in high school, Schmidt did not know what he wanted to do with his life. His parent gave him the opportunity to go to college, which he took. He spent two and a half years studying English with hopes of becoming a teacher. He enjoyed college. Schmidt was aware of what was happening in Europe and Asia, but was not involved and was not thinking about getting involved. There was a presidential election while he was in college. He thought it was a usual college experience. He liked going into the town on the weekends.

Before he could finish his schooling, Philip Schmidt was drafted into the Army. He knew several people that had been drafted, so he had some expectations for basic training. He did not want to make it a career, but wanted to do his best. He heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] from some friends who heard about it over the radio. He had gone to a movie that afternoon with his friends and when he got back to his dorm, his roommate told him about it. People started volunteering for the military. In the week after the attack, Schmidt tried to enlist, but they would not take him because he was color blind. He decided to stay in college, and wait to be drafted, which happened in March 1943. He knew it was necessary to go to war, and the faster it ended, the better. Everyone knew America would win, but did not know how long it would last. At that age, time seemed to go fast, then the war knocked him off his track. It felt like it would go on for a while. During basic training, Schmidt learned how to shoot a gun, cook, and march. He trained at Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was also taught how to work tanks. He thought Fort Polk was terrible. They had barracks, a mess hall, and a theater hall. After his training was complete, troops started being sent overseas. Schmidt was not one of those troops. During his time at Fort Polk, he became a clerk-typist and a bandsman. He played trombone in a military band. He played for parades and other functions in and around town. He enjoyed his military life. His biggest job was staying cool in the Louisiana summer. He enjoyed it because it was an easy life, but he was never bored. He made a lot of friends at Fort Polk. He got the feeling much of military life was like that, even when overseas. He kept up with the war through Army training movies. He had to go to those and try to learn from them.

Philip Schmidt received his orders to go overseas in November 1944. In the year and a half he was at Fort Polk [Annotator's Note: Fort Polk, Louisiana], his unit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 8th Armored Division] was used to train troops to go overseas. Armored units that needed troops got them from Fort Polk. The band crated their instruments and took them overseas. However, they never touched the instruments once in Europe. By that time, Schmidt was company clerk for the band. He kept track of their records and got them paid. They were happy they had done a good job of training troops. His unit suffered few casualties. When he first got to England, Schmidt started picking up equipment needed for the division. He stayed there from December through January. He then landed in Le Havre, France and immediately headed north. They drove most of the time. His unit joined with Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery], where it experienced some fighting. Schmidt was still with the Headquarters Company, so he did not see combat. He was close enough to see the damage and it made him realize how futile war is. He saw it as a waste of time, equipment, money, and people. He entered Germany with the British, where he started seeing more dead bodies along the roads. They kept their lights off at night. They realized the Germans had two of anything they needed because of all the confiscations. The Americans did not take anything because they did not want to carry more stuff. They knew they were making progress because of how much they moved, which made them feel good. His officers would tell him bits of information that they knew. The military newspaper also gave him more information about the war in the Pacific. Later in life, Schmidt had a best friend who was Japanese-American. Schmidt had no idea there were internment camps for Japanese-Americans in America.

At the end of the war, Philip Schmidt and his unit [Annotator's Note: Headquarters Company, 8th Armored Division] could not find any more Germans to fight. They sat in the far eastern part of Germany. Across the river [Annotator's Note: Elbe River] were Russian troops. The Americans were trying to find things to do. Schmidt was taking care of personnel records. He handled records for troops being shifted to other theaters. He volunteered for a mission in Marseille, France. His job was to do the paper work to get the troops to their next duty station. Schmidt was not allowed to see many French people. The Americans were forbidden from going to certain sections of the city. Occasionally he went shopping in daylight hours. He saw his first opera while in Marseille. While the war was still going on, he would take leave [Annotator’s Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], where he met up with French people. They were kind, but did not have much respect for the Americans. He learned from the locals. Schmidt went to a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] camp, where a young French girl volunteered to bring Schmidt and his friends around the Paris underground. She then brought them to her family's house. When he went overseas, he went on a British merchant ship. He slept in the lower deck, unless there was room on the main deck. He did not like the food. On his way home, he traveled on a Victory Ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] and the conditions were much better. When he arrived in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York], the ship anchored next to the Statue of Liberty. He spent four days on the boat in the harbor because there was a tug boat strike. When he got off the boat, he was shipped to Camp Grant, Illinois, where he turned in his old equipment got new equipment. He then returned home, and was discharged. It took a week to complete all of the paper work. He did not want to stay in the Army because he saw the worst of the military and it did not seem like much of a challenge. His father was a World War 1 veteran who got out as soon as possible as well.

Philip Schmidt used the G.I. Bill to get an education. He went to Saint Paul, Minnesota and found tons of G.I.s looking to take classes. The clerk looked at his papers and he was accepted. He decided to study finance. He managed to get housing with a local family whose kids had all gone into the service and moved away. He completed his education at the University of Minnesota. He met his future wife prior to his service and married her the September after he graduated. They moved to Minnesota and had a family. His wife passed away after 72 years of marriage. [Annotator's Note: Schmidt shows emotion.] He thinks the military changed his life by letting him experience different people, places, and life styles. He saw them as learning experiences.