A Texas County war hero’s service to the country is being honored with a commemorative sign on a bridge in southern Texas County.
The Missouri General Assembly approved the recognition for World War II Cpl. Theodore Bernard Padberg, U.S. Army Air Forces, on the Highway 17 bridge south of Summersville.
Padberg was born Feb. 11, 1923, and grew up in the Summersville area. He worked as a farm hand when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces on his 20th birthday at Jefferson Barracks in the St. Louis area. He was assigned duties with the 32nd Photographic Squadron, 5th Reconnaissance Group, U.S. Army Air Forces (Before the establishment of the U.S. Air Force) during World War II.
He had been trained as a high-altitude imagery specialist. Padberg was accompanying Army demolition crews who were going in behind Allied troops freeing Italy. On April 20, 1944, Padberg and his unit were being transported on the S.S. Paul Hamilton (Hull Number 227, a Liberty Ship) when it was attacked and sunk off the coast of Algeria, North Africa, in the Mediterranean Sea.
Just before dusk an aerial torpedo was dropped by a German Ju 88 bomber aircraft flying low level. The Liberty ship sank within 30 seconds due to the high amount of demolition explosives on board. About 580 men were lost. Only one “Killed in Action” soldier was recovered due to the explosion of the ship. This was considered the single largest loss of life on a ship in the European Theater of Operations.
Padberg was declared “Missing in Action” in the sinking. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal and is memorialized as an American hero at Tablets of the Missing at the North Africa American Cemetery, Carthage, Tunisia. He also has a veteran burial headstone in the Bell Cemetery, south of Summersville.
Organizers said the Missouri POW/MIA Memorial Bridge dedication was made possible through the efforts of the Missouri legislature with the assistance of Rep. Bennie Cook, R-Houston, District 143, Missouri Department of Transportation, many local Texas and Shannon County citizens who signed the naming petition for the bridge memorial and the Veterans of VFW Post 7222 at Summersville. It holds monthly meetings at 6 p.m. on the first Thursday at the VFW Hall east of Summersville.
