HB 740 — An Act designating the entire portion of Pennsylvania Route 232 within the Borough of Rockledge, Montgomery County, as the PFC Helmut Boehm Memorial Road.

PRINTER'S NO.    764

                     THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



                         HOUSE BILL
                         No. 740
                                                Session of
                                                  2025

     INTRODUCED BY SANCHEZ, McANDREW, GIRAL, GUENST, PIELLI, KHAN,
        WARREN, FREEMAN, HILL-EVANS, GREEN AND GILLEN,
        FEBRUARY 26, 2025

     REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION, FEBRUARY 26, 2025


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

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1      10, 2024, at 99 years of age.
2      (b)   Designation.--The entire portion of Pennsylvania Route
3   232 within the Borough of Rockledge, Montgomery County, is
4   designated as the PFC Helmut Boehm Memorial Road.
5      (c)   Signs.--The Department of Transportation shall erect and
6   maintain appropriate signs displaying the name of the road to
7   traffic in both directions on the road.
8   Section 2.   Effective date.
9      This act shall take effect in 60 days.




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