Former Arkansas Republican U.S. Representative, John Paul Hammerschmidt has died. He was 92. Hammerschmidt was born May 4th, 1922 on a rugged ten-acre Ozark homestead near Harrison, Arkansas.
He served in the U.S. Army Air Corp, as a pilot, during World War II. He flew more than 200 combat missions, for which he was awarded four Distinguished Flying Crosses.
In 1966, he was the first Republican to win Arkansas’s 3rd Congressional District since Reconstruction--a seat he held for nearly 30 years.
As U.S. Congressman, John Paul Hammerschmidt worked to improve benefits for U.S. Veterans and to improve our nation’s interstate system. He also sponsored legislation to establish the nation’s first national waterway--the Buffalo National River, where he spent much of his childhood.
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