“Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that, having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.” Let us remember these young men from Edgmont.
Bernard William Green – Born in Edgmont in 1919 to Bernard and Ruth. Bernard Sr. was the chauffeur for Walter Jeffords who owned the estate that is now Ridley Creek State Park. Bernard Jr. graduated from Media High School in 1935, and St. Joseph’s College in 1939. He registered for the draft on October 16, 1940 before the registrar, Elsie Carr. He is listed as 6’1 1/2”, 182 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion. He enlisted in the 1st Marine Division, and by May of 1942 he was in the South Pacific. In the various bloody battles in that theater, his performance earned him promotions: he was awarded the Silver Star for holding the beachhead at Guam with his unit in the face of intensive enemy fire until reinforcements
arrived. In the last of those battles, Okinawa, Major Bernard W. Green was killed on April 15, 1945.
Jack Ogden Raulerson was born in 1916 to James, a meat broker and Mabel. He grew up in the Overbrook Farms section of Philadelphia and was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. His Edgmont connection? He married
Sara Walker Carter, sister of Jane Levis Carter, in 1941. Their daughter Susan was born the following year, in Mississippi. Jack had enlisted in the Army by then and so was stationed at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg. In December of 1943 he shipped out to join the 88th Infantry in Italy. Fighting their way north, the 88th battled fierce German resistance outside of Rome, where 1 st Lt. Raulerson was killed. The 88th captured Rome the following day. After the war, his body was repatriated and he rests now in Arlington National Cemetery.
Mitchell Philip Snow was born in Swarthmore in 1923 to Ernest and Melinda “Liniie.” By 1935 the family was living in Glen Mills. Mitchell attended the University of Pennsylvania for one year before enlisting in the Army Air Corps on March 31, 1942, a few months after Pearl Harbor. He
was a pilot in the 79th Fighter Squadron, 20th Group, which flew out of Northamptonshire, England. They served as fighter escort for bombing runs over Germany. Returning from a mission on April 8, 1944, he was killed when his plane and a German fighter collided over western Germany. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Purple Heart. He is buried at the American Cemetery in the Ardennes.
For more history on Edgmont Township, Delaware County, and membership information, please visit our Facebook group, “Edgmont Historical Society”.