World War II Honoree

Herbert G. Ahrens

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Omaha, Nebraska

Honored By

Celia Ahrens Johnson

Relationship

Daughter

The army enlisted medical students in uniform as PFCs to ensure a new supply of doctors. When his class graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, they received their M.D. diplomas at one end of the stage and their commissions as First Lieutenants at the other end. After completing a hospital internship, the Army sent him to Downey Veterans Administration Hospital as a Captain to treat service personnel who had been prisoners of war in Japan.