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| - His mother was 23 years old when she had him in 1918 at the St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Her name was Eva Schmit, and she was married to a local businessman Bern Snyder. During his birth Bern named his son Michael after his father who had been an official in the Dutch government. From that day forward the family tried to let Michael have a good life by giving him all the opportunities they could. Michael had been a baby that brought two families together. The Schmit family was a large Catholic family that was extremely religious and wouldn’t do anything without praying. They also went to church every Sunday. The Snyder family was a Jewish family that was tolerant of all religions thus, giving Michael the opportunity to become a Christian like his mother’s family wanted. One demand of the Snyder family was that Michael would spend Jewish holidays with them. The Schmit family heartily agreed. For Michael’s first year of living he spent most of his time in either Catholic or Jewish ceremonies. A new year began on June 6, 1919 marking Michael’s second birthday. He had grown bigger than he originally was as all babies do. In the same year he had a sibling. It was a sister. Her name was Iris Mary Snyder. At this time, Michael did not know what he would do in the future for his sister. Also in this year the war in Europe had come to a full close with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. After three years Michael had reached the ripe age of 5, while his sister was 4. Eva started teaching him the basics of math and english, in the upper apartment of their shop. Bern had continued on with his now flourishing business making his family join the upper-middle class. As Eva kept teaching Michael the basics of math and english she started to add in history and writing to the list. By the time he had reached the tender age of 13, his parents had a clash about how would his educational career go on. The fight ended very abruptly when Eva went for a divorce. During the three month fight to get control of each other’s property Michael and Iris were on the sidelines. The fighting got so fierce that the two families started a small war over this incident. Michael was young and saw people fighting over property just on what education he would get. At a young age he decided to runaway with his sister to a Catholic orphanage that would let people stay for free if they worked, and if they worked they were taught, clothed, and fed. Through 5 years Michael and Iris worked and learned at this school. Michael was usually attacked for the reason he came here, but he always kept his chin up. At this school he met Alex Carson, a boy who was his age and was friendly. A friendship began with these two at once. Michael never forgot that he would always take care of his sister. That was one reason why the two were close friends. The effect of having to stay in a church imprinted on Michael as he began wearing a silver cross on his neck everyday never taking it off, for the thought of not being under the watch of God haunted him. During his time, he felt that writing could ease his fears and was one of his sanctuaries. At the age of 18 the Nuns let him go into the world as a fine young man. At leaving the school he knew German and Dutch. Two languages that he had always wanted to learn so that he would understand some of the arguments that his parents had when he was a child. When he left, he had gotten a letter from Michigan State University saying that they had accepted him into their college. He went to study at Michigan State while keeping in contact with his sister. Through his college years he majored in creative writing and english. At his four years at this college, he had become socially deficient, until he started playing sports. In his first year of college he was on the hockey team, the baseball team, the cross country ski team, and the track team. In his hockey season he travelled through Michigan and neighboring states, while playing hockey. He became known for his strategies in getting the team to the opposite goal and scoring with a different plan every time. His baseball career went along with his track career. He would hit the ball maybe not so far, but he could run. He would be able to get many home runs, with some of his hits. Altogether, he was a team player. For his ski career he had found a way to go faster with competition and that was that you must think that you are losing, and you must push yourself forward to get victory. In track he was a sprinter, long jumper, and high jumper. Again here he was known as a team player only trying his hardest to grasp victory. Soon, most of the University knew him, and along with being known, came popularity. He met a girl by the name of Miriallia Hawke or “Mirr” for short. The two started dating throughout the rest of the time in the college. At their graduation party, Michael proposed to her. The two moved in together and went to live in Grand Rapids. A year later he decided that he should get his military service over with, and enlisted at the local recruitment center. He had made a deal with Miriallia that he would come back within a few months and have their wedding, anyway she wanted it. At Michael’s sign up he was sent to Camp Claiborne in Louisiana. His assignment was with the 82nd Infantry Division. As he reached the camp, he was the rank of private. During training he was one of the more athletic men who kept on urging other men to do more. Soon enough he was able get well known by the men in his platoon. Even as a private all the men respected him for his weight that he put on others. Soon, the Lieutenant in charge of the platoon asked for a promotion, and he was promoted to Corporal. Along with this he was given a weeks leave. In this time he went back to Grand Rapids and got married. The rest of the time he spent with his wife. While he was there a radio broadcast announced that the Japanese had just attacked Pear Harbor. Michael was immediately brought back to Camp Claiborne where he requested from the Lieutenant that he be allowed to go to Officer Candidate School. Within a week the Lieutenant gave the go ahead and Corporal Michael Snyder was sent to Fort Bragg for OCS. The class was dominated by career soldiers who were sergeants. Michael had started his classes with doing calisthenics on his own every morning. Then he would do them again with the class. He excelled in tactics and being able to take command and assess situations quickly, while under fire. Soon enough while he was in command of the unit for a week he kept all the members happy and well trained. After 1 year of OCS he graduated and was sent back to his unit that was at Fort Benning training for the parachute infantry. He was put in as the assistant platoon leader with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. His platoon had already been certified as paratroopers, so he was sent to Battalion Headquarters Company to be certified with them. After doing his three jumps he was certified and came back to his unit. When he was certified he was given a week’s leave and spent more time with his wife back in Grand Rapids. After his leave he was back at Fort Benning, when orders that the division was moving out. This ship was a terrible way to travel, but that is how the division was moved. Upon reaching Morocco in January 1943 he was now doing even more practice jumps. The story was, they were training for the invasion of Sicily. After 2 months in Morocco he received a letter from his wife was that his sister had come to live with her. Even better news was at the end of it. That was that his wife was pregnant.
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