Fred S. Bertsch Jr. collection

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Fred S. Bertsch Jr. was born October 8, 1920, and grew up in Holland, Michigan. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve during his junior year at Hope College and spent the following summer vacation as an unpaid sailor aboard the U.S.S. Wyoming battleship. Toward the end of his senior year, he was recalled to active duty. He graduated from Hope College in 1941 and entered the U.S. Navy as an ensign. Stationed at Pearl Harbor at the outbreak of war, he survived the attack and served almost three consecutive years of combat on the destroyer USS Case (DD-370) in the Western Pacific. Experiences documented in his handwritten journal include the Japanese Pearl Harbor attack,  Midway Island, Aleutian Island campaign, and Guadalcanal campaign. He married Ensign Lorraine Timmer of the United States Naval Reserve (Women's Reserve) on October 16, 1943, in Elmendorf Chapel, New York, NY.  Lorraine served with the Women's Reserve from 1943-1945 in the Communications Annex, Washington, D.C. After World War II, Capt. Bertsch attended flight school and was designated a naval aviator. He served 18 months flying combat patrol missions over and around Korea from 1950 to 1952. He transferred into the Naval Reserve in 1957 and returned to Holland, where he taught math at Holland High School and later was principal from 1964 to 1978. Upon retirement, he moved to Stuart, FL with Lorraine.  Lorraine passed away on August 23, 1997, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  Bertsch Jr. remarried Dorothy Kirk Bertsch in 1998. Bertsch Jr. was active in business, subdividing several properties along Lake Macatawa and engaged in several other entrepreneurial activities. He was a member of the Macatawa Bay Yacht Club, serving two terms as Commodore. He also was a member of the Holland Rotary Club, serving a term as district governor. Bertsch Jr. passed away on October 10, 2012, in Palm City, FL and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Bertsch Jr. was also a gifted amateur photographer and captured all of the images in this collection.  He designed a dark room aboard the U.S.S. Case to develop his photographs. Moreover, he published two books based on his naval experiences before World War II entitled My Paradise, Dad's Hell and another book about his experiences during World War II entitled Every Day is Navy Day. In addition, his experiences during the Pearl Harbor attack are published in Voices of My Comrades: America's Reserve Officers Remember World War II, edited by Carol Adele Kelly.

Link to oral history interview of Fred S. Bertsch Jr. conducted by the National Park Service on December 5, 2001:  [url=https://www.nps.gov/valr/learn/historyculture/upload/FredBertsch.pdf]https://www.nps.gov/valr/learn/historyculture/upload/FredBertsch.pdf[/url]

Note written by