Biographical Note
Herbert Adair Heidepriem was the older of two sons born to Eric Heidepriem and Vivian Adair Heidepriem in Custer, South Dakota. Vivian Heidepriem died in 1933, when Herbert and his brother Donald (1926-2003) were still very young. In 1935, Eric Heidepriem married Bernadine Luella Brubaker (1913-2000).
Heidepriem enrolled at the University of South Dakota in 1940. In 1942 he was drafted into the United States Army, and after basic training, was assigned to 423rd Regimental Headquarters Company, 106th Infantry Division, as a radio operator.
In October 1944, he shipped overseas. He was stationed briefly in England where the 106th Division was preparing to replace the 2nd Division in western Germany. By early December 1944, Heidepriem’s company was stationed in Buchet, Germany. During the Battle of the Bulge, Heidepriem and Eliot Annable, a fellow radio operator, were sent with their Jeep-mounted radio to establish communications with Troop B, 18th Cavalry in Winterscheid, which was under the command of Captain Robert Fossland.
On December 17th, with German forces on the outskirts of St. Vith, Captain Fossland ordered troops to abandon vehicles, break into small groups, and try to get back to the Allied lines on foot. Heidepriem and Annable destroyed their radio equipment, pulled the wires from their Jeep and headed into the Ardennes Forest without a map, compass, food or supplies. To guide their path west, they used the glow of fires from burning towns and the sounds of “buzz bombs” being fired towards Liege, Belgium. They came under small arms fire several times, but were able to avoid capture by staying in wooded areas as much as possible.
After five days, they made contact with the 82nd Airborne Division near Trois Ponts, Belgium. They returned to division headquarters, where they were assigned to the 424th Infantry Regiment, the only remaining regiment of the 106th Infantry Division.
On January 13, 1945, in Wanne, Belgium, an artillery shell landed near Heidepriem’s Jeep. The shrapnel from the shell severed his Achilles tendon, broke a number of fingers, caused lacerations to his face, and broke his left leg in two places.
Heidepriem spent months in a convalescent hospital in England before being evacuated to the United States. Over the next year, doctors in several Army hospitals, principally in Vancouver and Walla Walla, Washington, tried to repair the nerve damage to his ankle and Achilles tendon. His stepmother, Bernadine, moved to Vancouver in April to assist in his recovery.
He was granted leave during his rehabilitation to return to his home town of Custer, South Dakota, for a brief visit. It was during that time that he met Roberta “Bobbie” Nelson who was teaching in Custer, and they began a courtship. He was discharged from the Army in March 1946, and he and Bobbie were married in June of that year. In 1947, he returned to the University of South Dakota, where he finished undergraduate studies and law school on an expedited basis, benefitting from the G.I. Bill. After completing his education in 1948, he established a law practice and later served as state's attorney for Hand County, and as a state senator. Following a lengthy career in law and politics, he entered semi-retirement in 1986. Heidepriem died on January 23, 1993.