Section 36. PFC Helmut Boehm Memorial Highway.
(a) Findings.--The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:
(1) Private First Class Helmut Boehm was born April 6, 1925, in the Village of Herold in the Erzgebirge region of Saxony, Germany, to Oskar and Anna Boehm.
(2) At the age of three, PFC Boehm came to the United States with his parents and siblings and settled in the working class neighborhood of Olney in the City of Philadelphia.
(3) After graduating from Olney High School in 1943, PFC Boehm was drafted into the United States Army and served as an Ambulance Orderly (Private First Class) in the 479th Motor Ambulance Company during World War II.
(4) Deployed less than one month after D-Day in 1944, PFC Boehm commenced his service during the heavy Operation Overlord combat through the Hedgerows of Normandy, France.
(5) Driving an ambulance into combat areas, PFC Boehm continually transported the wounded from the battlefield to evacuation airstrips and field hospitals while providing emergency treatments, administering necessary injections, blood plasma and medications and applying bandages until the wounded were successfully evacuated to safety.
(6) PFC Boehm continued these mission-critical duties until liberating the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near the end of World War II.
(7) PFC Boehm saw action in Northern France, Belgium and the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), the Rhineland (Remagen Bridge) and Germany.
(8) PFC Boehm was awarded the Bronze Star for his voluntary participation in a night mission to evacuate the wounded trapped behind enemy lines during the Battle of the H✓rtgen Forest in November 1944.
(9) After the cessation of hostilities, PFC Boehm was tasked with the evacuation of many refugees fleeing the Soviet Army in Eastern Europe.
(10) After returning from Europe and the war, PFC Boehm worked as an industrial painter and undertook an apprenticeship along with vocational electrician training.
(11) PFC Boehm was married to his wife, Elfriede Edith Schwarzkopf, for 66 years and had one son, Gerald, one daughter, Cheryl, six grandchildren and one great-grandson.
(12) Private First Class Helmut Boehm passed away June 10, 2024, at 99 years of age.
(b) Designation.--The entire portion of Pennsylvania Route 232 within the Borough of Rockledge, Montgomery County, is designated as the PFC Helmut Boehm Memorial Highway.
(c) Signs.--The Department of Transportation shall erect and maintain appropriate signs displaying the name of the highway to traffic in both directions on the highway.