(KNOX) – Two North Dakota veterans of the Korean War have been awarded honorary high school diplomas.
Clayton Bertsch, 87, of Ypsilanti, and Frank Kraft, 96, of Mandan, are being recognized under a North Dakota law that allows veterans of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War to apply for honorary diplomas if they went into the service before graduating from high school and were honorably discharged.
Bertsch enlisted in the Navy in September 1954 and served for four years, including time as a pipefitter on the destroyer USS Brown. At the time he enlisted, Bertsch had just turned 17 and was a graduate of the eighth grade from a rural school in Danzig, an unincorporated McIntosh County community that is now a ghost town.
The Danzig school closed in 1958, according to a community history compiled by the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. Bertsch grew up speaking German in his family’s home. He had wanted to attend high school after he graduated from eighth grade, but his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and Bertsch’s help was needed on the family farm.
Bertsch joined the Navy not knowing how to swim. At the Naval Station Great Lakes training center in Illinois, Bertsch was “taught” to swim by being ordered to jump off a diving board into Lake Michigan, his daughter said.
During Bertsch’s service, the Brown did antisubmarine duty in the Far East, visiting ports in the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. Shortly after he was discharged from active duty, Bertsch began attending the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, where he trained to become a plumber.
Bertsch subsequently got a job as a plumber at the North Dakota State Hospital in Jamestown, where he worked for 54 years. After his retirement, he was called back for part-time work at the hospital and the James River Correctional Center, a prison located on the State Hospital’s campus. Then-Gov. John Hoeven gave Bertsch an award to honor his state service.
“His family, his state and his country were his priorities,” his daughter said.
Kraft was drafted into the Army in February 1951, after he finished eighth grade at the Selfridge public school. He served as a tank mechanic and was discharged two years later, according to his service record. The U.S. military draft ended in 1973.
During his Army training, Kraft was stationed at Fort Worden and Fort Flagler in Washington state and at Camp Desert Rock, a Nevada nuclear testing site about 65 miles north of Las Vegas. He “told us he arrived after one test and left before the next one,” said his daughter, Sheila Rothstein, of Dickinson.
After taking tank maintenance training in Tokyo and Seoul, Kraft was posted to the Korean war zone, where he spent a year as a tank mechanic, including time about three miles south of the front lines. He worked mostly on M46 Patton tanks. Once Kraft left his helmet atop a tank that he was working on, only to discover a bullet hole in it when he retrieved his helmet later.
After his Army discharge, Kraft returned to North Dakota, where he was a construction worker, bricklayer and mason in North and South Dakota for most of his working career. He also did farm work, had a job at a Mandan creamery, and repaired radios, his daughter said.
In 2001, the North Dakota Legislature authorized honorary high school diplomas for World War II veterans who went into the service before they graduated and were honorably discharged.
During the 2003 session, the honorary diploma option was extended to veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars (NDCC 37-01-42). Almost 300 honorary diplomas have been awarded during the program’s history.
A veteran of World War II, Korea, or Vietnam who would like to obtain an honorary high school diploma should contact the Department of Public Instruction. Relatives of a deceased veteran may apply for a diploma posthumously in the veteran’s name. The process involves completing a one-page application and supplying a copy of the veteran’s DD-214, which documents a veteran’s military service.
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