Reidar Waaler

Reidar was born on the 12th of February, 1894, in Oslo, Norway and he emigrated to the United States through Virginia in 1913. After moving to New York, he enlisted in the New York National Guard and deployed with Company A, 105th Machine Gun Battalion, 27th Division to Europe. It was his actions on the 27th of September, 1918, that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

In the face of heavy artillery and machine-gun fire, he crawled forward to a burning British tank, in which some of the crew were imprisoned, and succeeded in rescuing two men. Although the tank was then burning fiercely and contained ammunition which was likely to explode at any time, this soldier immediately returned to the tank and, entering it, made a search for the other occupants, remaining until he satisfied himself that there were no more living men in the tank.

Reidar received the Medal of Honor in a ceremony in France from General Pershing on the 4th of February, 1919, and he left the Army about two months later. He moved back to Norway and opened an import and export business but returned to the States shortly after. Reidar married Gladys in 1920 in New York and from my understanding, the way the US Nationality law was written at the time meant that Gladys lost her US citizenship and became a Norwegian citizen by marriage. The two of them moved back to his hometown and opened a clothing factory in 1923, only to leave Europe again in 1939 at the beginning of the second World War. Reidar was 47 years old when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and he tried to re-enlist but he was initially told that he was too old. After much persistence and review of his Medal of Honor, he was accepted in the Army’s intelligence service and was based in Sweden. The Nationality Act of 1940 allowed him to become a US citizen, which was kept a secret until the end of the War, and then was the vice president of Remington Rand Corp’s European operations after the War.

Reidar and Gladys would spend their summers in Oslo, Norway and their winters in Stuart, Florida, where a street is named in his honor. Reidar Waaler died on the 5th of February, 1979, at the age of 84 due to complications of a surgery. He and Gladys are buried in the Forest Hills Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Palm City, Florida: section NEAGS, row A, lot 5.