06-14-2015, 12:12 AM
PFC Bert William Zimmerman died April 20, 2015 just 6 weeks short of his 95th birthday. He was a truck driver in Company B. 1264th Engineer Combat Battalion, He was drafted from Fenton, Michigan in April 1944. In 1956 he moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he worked as a machinist in the aircraft industry. After retiring in 1991, he left the heat of the desert and moved to Coos Bay, Oregon where he lived the remainder of his life. When his son, Air Force Chaplain Donald Zimmerman was stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany he returned to Germany for the first time since the war. He visited Bad Godesberg where he helped build the bridge across the Rhine River after the bridge at Remagen fell.