CHAMOIS — The Chamois R-1 gym was filled last Tuesday, Nov. 11, as veterans, families, and community members gathered for the district’s annual Veterans Day program. Before the ceremony began, high school students served biscuits and gravy, coffee, and juice in the back of the gym — a simple breakfast that gave veterans time to visit before moving into the bleachers for the program.

The morning assembly featured music, student remarks, and the presentation of colors, but the heart of the event was the keynote address by Ken Holzem and his son, Mark Holzem. Ken’s mother was a sister to Norbert “Bud” Boss, making Norbert Ken’s uncle and Mark’s great-uncle.

Their presentation included visuals projected onto a large screen: wartime photographs, the Western Union telegram announcing Boss as missing in action, and a Navy Department letter signed by Capt. Charles McVay III describing the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. These artifacts provided the structure for the story the Holzems came to tell.

“I want to thank the organizers for asking Mark and I come down and talk about Norbert,” Ken began. “It’s been 80 years this year since he was lost.”

Ken began with Norbert’s early life just outside Chamois. “He had six sisters and two brothers. His mom and dad were Joe and Bertha. She died in 1943 when Norbert was 16 years old,” he said.

After boot camp at Great Lakes, Norbert was sent to San Francisco for assignment — a moment that Ken described as pure chance.

“When he got to Bair Island, there were two ships needing replacement groups, the USS New Jersey and the USS Indianapolis. So as most of you veterans will know, they were lined up and they counted off by twos. All the ones went to the Indianapolis and the twos went to the New Jersey. So by the luck of the draw, he ended up on the ship that ended up being lost.”

When Ken finished laying the foundation, he turned the microphone over to Mark.

“My father and I read a lot of books on this subject,” Mark said. “We don’t declare to be experts on this by any respect, but we do know a lot about the sinking of this ship, and the story of its crew members.”

Slides behind him showed the USS Indianapolis, its crew, and wartime illustrations of the sinking. Mark explained the ship’s final mission, delivering parts of the bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima a few weeks later, and the moments leading up to the attack.

“This Japanese sub saw them right on the horizon, by the bright moonlight, and they fired six torpedoes at the Indianapolis, and two connected into the side,” he explained. “There was a very hot night in South Pacific, and it was 85 degrees in the middle of the night, so all the crew members were sleeping on deck, and a lot of them died from this blast. Three hundred died from the blast and the ship sunk in 12 minutes, which is pretty fast for ship that size.

“So, 900 men went into the water,” he continued. “No distress signal was sent because the blast threw out the power of the ship, so they did not get a signal out. So they were in the water for three and a half days. No one knew about them. No one knew they were even out there.”

Slides showed survivors coated in fuel oil, floating on rafts or treading water. Mark described the conditions they faced — heat, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, separation by current, and even sharks — before reaching the moment of their discovery.

“On the morning of the third day, on Aug. 2, Wilbur Gwinn was flying a plane on reconnaissance and patrols, and he noticed oil,” Mark said. “So he goes down for a deeper dive, and he noticed all the men. He called in the signal. ‘Ducks on the pond,’ he said.

A second pilot, Adrian Marks, made a dangerous water landing. Mark relayed it simply, saying, “He actually assisted in the rescue, and he came down and actually landed his plane, which he was not supposed to do, because they had 10-foot waves. It’s a very dangerous maneuver to land a plane like that. But he landed anyway, and he actually picked up a few and they were all laying on the wings of that plane.

“Some of the survivors would indicate that that was the scariest moment of their life, was when that plane was on the ocean, because they didn’t want to drown or get attacked by a shark when hope was literally in sight,” he continued. “Their skin was so soft it was falling off. There are stories of the rescue, where they literally pulled them out of the water, and they would grab their forearms and the skin would just peel off as they were going out of the water, because it was so soft.”

Ultimately, 317 men survived.

But the story that mattered most to the Holzem family came from a survivor account found in a book written by Gerald Poor.

Mark read it directly: “I became good friends of Alfred Jurgensmeyer and Norbert Boss. I remember Jurgensmeyer became disoriented, and I was holding him in my arms when he died. There were officers and corpsmen who would come and help ‘bury’ someone when they passed away. Finally, there were only corpsmen left. When I called for help to ‘bury’ Alfred, I was told there were no more corpsmen left, and I would have to do it myself. Norbert helped me and all we could do was take off his life jacket, say a prayer, and let him slip into the water. Later, Norbert became disoriented and kept asking about Alfred. He started to cry, started to swim away, and I never saw him again.”

This was the first detailed account the family had ever found describing Norbert’s final hours after the ship went down.

Mark concluded by explaining why he and his father accepted the school’s invitation without hesitation: “When dad and I were asked to do this, we did not hesitate, because we felt the need to tell their story, keep their memories alive and going, and they deserve that, and it needs to be told. I encourage everyone to share what you’ve heard and listened to today. Pass down their story and keep it alive. Keep their memories alive.”

After the presentation, Steve Duncan of American Legion Post 506 stepped to the stage, reflecting on what the audience had just heard.

“I’ve heard a lot of Veterans Day presentations, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard one as important and as emotional as this,” Duncan said. “Norbert Boss needs to be remembered. He’s a hero. For those seniors in the audience, he was 18 years old. He was your age when all this took place. And as Mark said, we need to remember these heroes. Don’t ever let it be forgotten.”