From POW to prized patient
During a decoy run on Feb. 22, 1944, his B-17 Bomber called Pot O' Gold was shot down. He and his crew bailed out.
When he pulled his rip cord the chute didn’t deploy, perhaps a foreshadowing of what was to come. He reached back and pulled the chute out and it opened successfully but he landed like a ton of bricks. Their small parachutes were intended to limit their time in the air. He landed in a muddy area and was immediately circled by German soldiers pointing their weapons at him. He was now a prison of war. During his third day of captivity, interrogations began. As he waited his turn, he heard people begging for mercy and an occasional gun shot. He came face-to-face with a guard whose face was scared where his left eye should have been and missing his right arm up to his elbow. He gave his name, rank and serial number while being interrogated for information about their missions that he wasn’t about to share. The interrogator pointed a gun right at his head and said, “you better answer the next question, or else.” Again, he gave his name, rank and serial number. To his surprise, the gun fell away from his temple and he was booted out the door.
Staff Sgt. Lester Schrenk, "Les," would be a POW for the next 15 months. He had enlisted in the Air Force on his 19th birthday, following in the steps of his older brother. Enlisting was a way to get out of farming.
He started going to the VA for care immediately after his service in WWII. “At that time the VA was absolutely horrible,” said Les. They initially denied him care for stomach pain, finally granting him surgery after his persistence.
“Hubert Humphrey is the one that got everything turned around,” said Les about the improvements at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. “I didn’t even like Hubert Humphrey, but I have to give him credit, he did wonders.” He says he’s gotten all of his care at the VA ever since.
When asked how his care at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center is now, he says, “It couldn’t be better. I’ve got people like Tasha working for me. They take care of me.”
Tasha is part of the Structural Heart Program at the Minneapolis VA, a cardiology team of physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and technicians that care for Veteran's with structural heart problems. Together, the team has worked with Les since he was 99 years-old and underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). TAVR is a procedure to replace the aortic valve through a small catheter that usually enters through the leg. Les would not have done well with an open-heart surgery, but with TAVR, he went home the day after his procedure.
“He is one of the oldest we’ve done it to, and he’s just done great with it,” said Tasha.
The Minneapolis structural team has done nearly 800 TAVR cases since 2015 and treats other complex heart problems as well. Nationally, the Minneapolis VA has done more TAVRs, and more complex structural cases, than any other VA site in the country.
At a recent appointment, just weeks before an upcoming honor flight and less than two months before his 101st birthday, Tasha tells him, “It’s rewarding to see you live your life and enjoy it.”
He is enjoying life. In addition to quite a bit of travel, to include an honor flight to France for the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, he says, “I spend way too much time sleeping. But I swim, I bicycle, and I putter around with the computer.”
Just over a year ago he lost his wife Bernice at the age of 97. The two were married 75 years. The couple had one daughter, she worked in U.S. embassies all over the world and loved it, but unfortunately, she died about five years ago of ovarian cancer.
He is at home with the staff at the Minneapolis VA, collecting smiles and hugs from those who know him well. And it’s all because he raised his hand and enlisted. He can even find a friend in the waiting room at the VA. “That’s because you’ve got something in common with them, they’re all Veterans,” said Les.
“Am I glad that I went in, yes, very much so. Not only giving service to my country, but look at all the benefits I’m getting back from it now. I mean it’s pouring on me. The treatment at the VA, all of these honors flights, quite a few things never would have happened if I wouldn’t have enlisted.”
“I feel in a very small way I helped preserve our freedom,” Les said in an interview with American Veterans Center that has been viewed by over a million people.