BANGOR, Maine — Henry Welzel suffered a stroke in 1998 that affected his short- to medium-term memory, but ask him to recall his military career in the 1940s and 1950s, and the details roll off his tongue.

And oh, the details.

Welzel, now 84 and living in Freeport, will tell his story at the Memorial Day commemoration service held Monday at the Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor.

Galen Cole, the museum’s founder and a World War II veteran himself, said he has met hundreds of veterans over the years but has never heard a tale like Welzel’s.

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It begins in 1926 in Ohio, where Welzel was born to German immigrant parents who moved the family back to their homeland when he was still a boy.

In Germany in the late 1930s, Welzel joined the Hitler Youth organization even though he wasn’t sold on the beliefs of the German dictator.

“As a teenage male, you didn’t really have a choice,” he said recently in an interview.

Welzel trained for several years to be a soldier for Germany and, at age 17 in 1943, was first deployed.

“I was the only medic assigned to a company of about 300 people,” he said.

Welzel’s company moved often, always at night. One evening, the entire unit was captured by U.S. soldiers. He was held for about two weeks in Italy, then Spain before he was put on an ocean liner.

A few weeks later, he was back on American soil in Norfolk, Va.

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Welzel didn’t stay in Virginia long. He and many other prisoners of war were transferred to Fort Rucker in Alabama. He stayed about one year.

“There were still some serious Nazis there,” he said. “I was scum to them.”

After the war ended, the U.S. instituted the Marshal Plan to rebuild a Western Europe devastated by combat. Welzel was sent back overseas in 1948, this time to France. He remembers that time fondly. Even though he was still technically a prisoner, he felt free.

Unfortunately, he also was alone.

With family still in Germany, Welzel left his assignment in France without authorization and planned to visit his parents.

He never got there.

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At the border of France and Germany were Russian soldiers stopping everyone who wanted to get in. That included Welzel. They searched his bag.

“I had cigarettes, soap and [girlie] magazines,” he said. “They took the magazines.”

Welzel found himself in captivity again, this time by the Russians.

“They tried to indoctrinate us to become communists and told us how bad Americans were,” he said. “But I was an American.”

After another six months held captive in East Germany, Welzel tried again to flee and visit his family. This time, he was successful.

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His family stayed in Germany, but Welzel knew he wasn’t safe there. He safely made his way to an American embassy and was sent back to his birth country. This time, he was no longer a prisoner.

Welzel was back in the United States for less than two years before he was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Devens in Massachusetts. He was bound for Korea in 1951 and served as a medic at U.S. headquarters in Seoul. This deployment was tame by Welzel’s standards. He said the worst thing that happened to him was frostbite.

He returned to the U.S. for good in early 1953.

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Welzel had married his wife in 1950 before his tour in Korea. Once Welzel returned to the U.S., he started a family and a new life. He worked in Massachusetts for many years, but always had a camp in Washington, Maine. In 1981, his family moved to Maine full time. He continued to work and eventually retired from Bath Iron Works.

Over the years, his military background faded into the background. The Bronze Star and other accolades he earned were the only reminders. And his memory.

He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for a time but now is comfortable talking about his service. He often meets with other veterans and participates in historical discussions.

When Galen Cole invited Welzel to speak on Memorial Day, Welzel was honored.

Said the man who easily could be one of the many war dead to be remembered on May 31: “I guess I do have a pretty interesting story.”