865 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cb3c0d51493301bbc9597831761b8bf5.jpg 0ec6f630a51ed01806044b952cd01ff6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchalonEdward Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Schalon, Edward Description An account of the resource Edward Schalon Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/170251116b49d9f5b2cb66d1acc5ca02.jpg 3a3d990cd504d8e4b0b141eea32631f5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchamelIrmingard Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Schamel, Irmingard Description An account of the resource Irmingard Schamel, German Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fd89cca37672fac484a3244d4951936c.mp4 adda53e3ba64c542a9c46f56d020f162 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1d16b4081ba183845704ef32589a2fee.pdf bd4d0395fd171beada96a1ed506a1f06 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project David Schaper World War II 40 minutes 24 seconds (00:00:02) Early Life -Born in Wright City, Missouri on August 2, 1921 -Graduated from high school -Went to Central Western College for two semesters -Transferred to Sanford-Brown Business College in St. Louis, Missouri (00:00:38) Start of the War and Enlisting in the Army Air Force -He was going to technical school in St. Louis when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor -Heard about it on the radio and in the newspaper -Knew that he was old enough to be drafted -Wanted to choose the branch that he would go into -He was working on airplane technology -Took the Army Air Force test and passed it -Thought it'd be better to be an airman rather than in the infantry -Eventually received his letter to report for service -He was working at a Curtiss-Wright factory, helping to develop the AT-6 -Reported for service, but was told that he was too important to the war effort -Granted a six month deferrment -Received another letter and got deferred for another six months -Received a third letter and insisted that he would be allowed to serve -While he was home he followed the news coming out of Europe and Asia -Had friends that were flying with the 8th Air Force and had flown with the Flying Tigers (00:05:43) Basic Training -Reported to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis -One good friend was there as a sergeant and gave him a pass to go to St. Louis -Sent to Amarillo Army Air Field, Texas for basic training -Saw a lot of men doing calisthenics -Got processed and issued Air Force clothing -Days started at 4 AM -Reported for roll call and then had breakfast -After breakfast received orders for the day -Some days went on marches, or on bivouacs, or for calisthenics -Basic training lasted six weeks (00:07:48) Gunnery Training -At the end of basic training he was reviewed by a flight surgeon -Was hoping that he would get to be a cadet and go on to become a pilot -He qualified to be a pilot, but there was a need for gunners -Sent to Laredo Army Airfield, Texas for gunnery training -Enjoyed gunner training �-Went on the gun range and learned how to shoot the .50 caliber machine gu -Learned how to maintain the .50 caliber machine gun -Did skeet shooting for accuracy practice (00:09:40) Joining a Crew -Sent to Lincoln, Nebraska where new bomber crews were being formed -There were one thousand airmen there waiting to be assigned to a crew -They were forming ten man crews for the B-24 Liberator bomber -Your name was called off in alphabetical order -Once he was assigned to a crew the pilot had the information about where to go next -In the case of his crew the next destination was Davis-Monthan Army Air Field -Granted ten days of leave before reporting to Davis-Monthan -After their leave the crew regrouped at Davis-Monthan Army Air Field near Tuscon, Arizona -Once there the crew got to meet each other and get to know each other better -Began flying training missions with the crew -Learned to depend on the pilot, co-pilot, and navigator -Fired at ground targets -Learned how to fly at night -Had an excellent crew -There was mutual respect between the officers and the enlisted men (00:13:45) Deployment to the European Theatre -Sent to Topeka Army Air Field, Kansas by train to get their B-24 bomber -Given a three day leave and got to see Kansas City -Their bomber was a brand new, shining plane -Had all new guns and electronics -He was nervous, but excited to fly missions in it -Had their picture taken and they flew up to Massachusetts -He was part of Crew #54 -From Massachusetts they flew to Newfoundland, then to the Azores, then to North Africa -From North Africa flew up to Cerignola Airfield, Italy -Note: Based on unit, it was probably Torretto Airfield, not Cerignola -There were between twenty and thirty bombers at the airfield when they arrived -They were part of the 766th Bombardment Squadron 461st Bombardment Group -The officers were sent to the officers' quarters and enlisted men sent to their quarters -Slept in a barn that was used as a temporary barracks and the chapel -It was better than sleeping in tents -Met with some of the other crews -Played cards together (00:19:35) Flying Missions -Next morning learned that he was going to fly a mission -Crew was split up for that mission because various crews needed replacements -It was similar to their training missions, but now it was real -Their objective was Linz, Austria -Took off and formed up and flew to Linz -The bomb run began and they started taking flak �-Saw bombers getting hit, one P-51 Mustang got hit by flak -One bomber had to fall out of formation and they didn't know what happened to the crew -Their bombardier was on board that bomber -After returning from that mission they went through a debriefing -Learned three weeks later what had happened to their bombardier -Had survived the crash in Yugoslavia, but was killed by the Ustase -Four of the crew were rescued by Yugoslavian partisans -Flew a mission to Vienna, Austria and one of their gas tanks got hit by flak -Transferred the gas from that tank to another intact tank -Could see tracers going past the bomber -If one tracer hit the bomber it would have ignited the gasoline -Landed at an airfield on an island off the coast of Yugoslavia -Had to abandon the bomber, but the crew got picked up by a C-47 the next day -On one mission he looked back to see if the bombs were hitting their target -A bullet came through the plexiglass right where his head had been -Final mission was in the Po Valley -Dropping supplies to Allied prisoners of war in Austria -Could see displaced persons travelling on the roads (00:33:22) End of the War -At Torretto Field when Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945 -Celebrated the war being over with bourbon -Returned to South Carolina and was given thirty days of leave to go home and await orders -His original orders were to go to Tampa, Florida -Orders were changed to Pratt Army Airfield, Kansas -At Pratt he started training with the B-29 Superfortress -Preparing for the invasion of Japan -Trained with the B-29 in July 1945 -He got married on July 12, 1945 -Was able to get a job off the base to earn a little extra money -Reported for duty one morning and learned that the atomic bombs had been dropped -Shortly thereafter training was cancelled -Felt great that the war was over (00:36:11) End of Service -Received orders to go to Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa to be discharged -Had enough "points" -Needed eighty five points to be discharged -Points awarded based on rank, length of service, dependents, and combat seen -Took a train to St. Louis with his wife, got an apartment, and got a job as a machinist (00:36:30) Reflections on Service -Taught him responsibility -Taught him how to work with other people �-Learned how to survive (00:38:02) Life after the War -Went into the grocery business after the war -Had enjoyed tool and die work, but there weren't many jobs after the war -Went back to work for Curtiss-Wright, but the work was limited � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_SchaperD1798V Title A name given to the resource Schaper, David (Interview outline and video), 2005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-10-22 Description An account of the resource David Schaper was born in Wright City, Missouri on August 2, 1921. Prior to enlisting in the Army Air Force he worked for Curtiss-Wright on the AT-6, even after enlisting he was granted a twelve month deferrment due to his work on the AT-6. He was eventually called up for service and was sent to Texas for basic training and gunnery training. He was assigned to a B-24 Liberator bomber crew in Lincoln, Nebraska. They trained together before being deployed to the European Theatre. They were Crew #54 of the 766th Bombardment Squadron of the 461st Bombardment Group stationed at Torretto Air Field, Italy. They flew bombing missions into Austria, as well as supply missions into the Po Valley. In the summer of 1945 he was sent back to the United States and began training with the B-29 Superfortress at Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas in July. After Japan surrendered he was sent to Sioux City Army Air Bse, Iowa where he was discharged. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schaper, David Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Boring, Frank (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/39c17bdb5dde01f399a512f98cbba8c3.jpg 4935046ff3af5088266b17ed60046dbd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ScharmaJitendra Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Scharma, Jitendra Description An account of the resource Jitendra Scharma, Business Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fa047c14ced46aa1a769b0bdcec44fb2.pdf bf7e3affe04f32ea73db04f328a2c3cd PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incunabula Description An account of the resource The term incunabula refers to books printed between 1450 and 1500, approximately the first fifty years following the invention, by Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, of printing from moveable type. Our collection includes over 200 volumes and numerous unbound leaves from books printed during this period. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1450/1500 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Incunabula Collection (DC-03) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United </a> Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource text Language A language of the resource eng it la nl de Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtümer des Heils [folium 47] Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-03_047Fridolin1491 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Fridolin Description An account of the resource One leaf of Schatzbehalter der wahren Reichtümer des Heils, printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger on November 8, 1491. [GW 10329; ISTC is00306000] Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Nuremberg: Anton Koberger Subject The topic of the resource Incunabula Printing 1450-1500 Language A language of the resource de Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1491 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Text https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ab0301bb613a60fdb95b6549f4af52c.jpg 0a78021d446228daa75147e82aee4745 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-07_SD-Red-Misc-43 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 Title A name given to the resource Schedule of 1976 Plays Description An account of the resource A red and white advertisement for the Red Barn Theatre that lists the theatre's 1976 production schedule. It also includes information on how to acquire membership tickets and patron tickets. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Community theater Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for the Stories of Summer project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b55a0f733428766ac73137ce3d25c433.pdf 58f5bdc29cec175d03e30e6ddb40f684 PDF Text Text Scheduled to Death With Good Things Text: Joshua 4:6; 24:15; Psalm 78:4-7; Matthew 18:14 Richard A. Rhem Christ Community Church Spring Lake, Michigan September 12, 1999 Transcription of the spoken sermon There has been a long debate about when life begins. There are those who say that life begins at the moment of conception. I think John Calvin argued that the soul was invested in the fetus at 40 days. (On most things he was smarter than that.) Others say that life begins at actual birth. It is an ancient debate and it continues into our contemporary situation. But, I tend to agree with the person who said life begins when the last kid is out of the house and the dog dies... (Your laughter is all too revealing.) Raising children is a very, very great task and responsibility. It takes the very best that we have of our time and our energy and our resources, and it is not easy, and it’s not getting any easier. I think that it becomes more difficult. As I have the luxury of being in the position of a grandparent, I can now from safe distance watch my own children raise their children, and I honestly believe that they are much better parents than I was. I don’t even think I knew that I was supposed to be a parent. After all, I was in the Lord’s work, you know. But, I have the privilege of watching my children in those marvelous years when they have adolescents, and I have a couple who are dealing with two-year-olds. So that whole spectrum is rather interesting to me to observe. I think that it is much more difficult than when I grew up and when I was raising my children, not only because there are more perils and pitfalls available, but also because there are more wonderful options and opportunities available, and I recognize the possibility of being scheduled to death with good things. I knew that I would probably be preaching in September on opening Sunday, and it was already in June when Time magazine came out with a cover that caught my eye and gave me today’s sermon. I knew in June this is what I would deal with. The June 12 issue has a cover with a Little Leaguer on it, in his helmet, swinging a bat, his tongue out, Michael Jordan style, and the cover says Sports crazed kids: Year ‘round play, summer clinics, pushy parents - is this too much of a good thing? Well, it’s a typical media type of presentation; not everybody is like the people who are described here and there are some pretty extreme cases in terms of the time invested and the money invested and the obsessional level with which it is pursued. But, nonetheless, I knew from my own observation that there are © Grand Valley State University   �Scheduled to Death Richard A. Rhem Page 2   many wonderful things that are available to children and young people today and I sense that it is not so easy to know how to set the priorities and determine the agendas in order that there might be balance and in order that that which is done would be life-enhancing and not, on the other hand, life-defeating. In the article there is one paragraph that I thought I would share with you. After recounting all of this tremendous outlay of money and time and energy and commitment, the writers say, So, what are parents to do? We do what Americans have always done. This is, after all, a country that systematizes. We create seminars on how to make friends, teach classes in grieving, and make pet-walking a profession. In that light, Greg Heintzman’s praise of unstructured play seems almost un-American. Any activity, no matter how innocent or trivial or spontaneous, can become specialized in America. So, if our children are to have sports, we will make leagues and teams, write schedules and rule books, publish box scores and rankings, hire coaches and refs, buy uniforms and equipment to the limit of our means. We will kiss our weekends goodbye and maybe more than our weekends. That is a voice from the broader culture and, as I said when I saw it last June, I thought there is a word there for the people of God, because we have not only the ongoing responsibility to do what we can to protect our children and ourselves from the perils and pitfalls that are open, but also from the multitude, the plethora of good things hereby we can be scheduled to death, and find that we are being determined by all of those things that play upon us rather than determining our own lives, the course of our lives, the way we spend our days, our time, and our resources. And so, this morning I simply want to engage in some consciousness-raising with you. I don’t have any special wisdom. I just think that together we need to be very self-aware and self-conscious about that to which we give our lives, and how we structure, to the extent that it is possible, the lives of our children and our youth. And I want to say, first of all, that we should be intentional about it. We should be self-aware and self-conscious; we ought to have thought about it in order that we are doing that which we intend to do, that which we really want to do, that which is reflective of the things that we believe most deeply and value most highly. We should be conscious; we ought to live consciously. There’s a story told of Jesus and the Gospel of Thomas, that he saw a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, and gathering sticks on the Sabbath day could get one stoned. But Jesus, in typical fashion, said to him, "If you understand what you’re doing, blessed are you. But, if you don’t understand what you’re doing, you are cursed," for Jesus knew that the law of the Sabbath was not simply an external legalism to be observed, but it should come out of the inward motivation of the heart. If you know what you’re doing, even though you are breaking the law, if there is an intentionality about it for a proper purpose, then © Grand Valley State University �Scheduled to Death Richard A. Rhem Page 3   you’re blessed. But, if you’re just willy-nilly without even thinking about the Sabbath or knowing what the Sabbath is all about, you’re cursed, and to live without intention, without self-knowledge and awareness is to be cursed. So, that’s simply the first thing that I want to say this morning, on a day of new beginnings, to have us for a moment ask ourselves, "What are our priorities, and do our activities reflect our values and the things that we really want to be about for ourselves and for our children and our grandchildren?" Raising that question, I want to put in a word for the programming in of those things that point to the spiritual dimension, the shaping of the life, the mind and the heart of ourselves, of our children, and our grandchildren, because in our day, with our freedoms, with our affluence, and with that plethora of opportunities that are out there, it is very easy to let slide the things that require a certain discipline and commitment and I think especially in a place like Christ Community where no one hounds you to do anything, where we have majored in an attitude of grace. One of the nicest compliments that we receive here, and it comes again and again, is the compliment, "Most of my life I went to church because it was Sunday and I felt that I ought to go, and now I look forward to Sunday in order that I may go to church." That’s beautiful. That’s I want it to be. That’s the way it should be. I met a friend this week whom I hadn’t seen for a while; he’d been traveling, stopping at a child’s home in another part of the country and the son-in-law said to him, "Do you want to go to church with us Sunday?" And he said, "What is it? How is it?" The son-in-law said, "I don’t think you’d like it. I can hardly stand it, but I go for little Johnny." I don’t want you here for Johnny’s sake. If you can’t be here because this place is reflective of who you are and what you believe and what you feel, then you ought not to be here for the sake of your child, because your child will pick it up in a minute. Your child will know. I always think of a friend of some years ago. I remember how angry she was as she spouted out the fact that she went to church every Sunday, every morning and every evening, and she had a bad back, to boot, and she had to sit on a straight chair back of the choir, but she said, "I went every Sunday, every service, to set an example for my children and as soon as they grew up and got out of the house, I don’t think any of them has ever been to an evening service, and they hardly make morning." She was so angry, not really because they weren’t going, but because she had put in all that effort going when she didn’t want to go, so finally when they got out of the house, they simply did what she always wanted to do because they knew what she really wanted to do! Of course. This place is not a place to come for the sake of your children unless it reflects your heart and your passion. Then, your children will find this to be a fine place © Grand Valley State University �Scheduled to Death Richard A. Rhem Page 4   that will be positive, that will give them good experiences. So, a place like Christ Community, a place of grace, where you’re not hounded, where you’re welcomed whenever you show up and never questioned when you don’t, is a place where you really need to be mature enough and responsible enough to make those decisions and to make them in such fashion that there will be the spiritual formation of your children as well as your own lives. I think it’s so important that we are authentic and consistent in the exercise of our spiritual discipline. I want to tell you a little story. I was a Professor of Preaching at one time, a very short time, and the textbooks say never to make any personal references, but then I don’t do anything else I was taught in the seminary, either, so I’ll tell you a little of my own story. Growing up as a kid, my home was so devout and so serious about it all that, for me, I absolutely was saved by going to the public school. Christian education advocates say that it shapes a Christian, biblical world and life view, and if you send your child to the public school, they won’t get that. Well, in my case, I needed enough fresh air to breathe and a little light because I was so shaped in my home and in my church that it was in the public school that I had any kind of exposure to anything else. For me, it was saving. But, as a kid, all I wanted to do was play ball. Now, my parents were so devout and so consistent in my spiritual nurture. There wasn’t anything of church life I didn’t ever attend. They did make one little sortie into the cultural field when they tried to give me music lessons, piano lessons. I sat there and I doodled, and I would go week after week and I made no progress and finally, thank God, the teacher was a Christian, who called my mother and said, "In good conscience, I can’t take your money anymore." My mother said, "Dicky, you’re going to be sorry," and I said, "I really believe you," and I am, but I just didn’t want ... I wanted to play ball. In the ninth grade, the superintendent of the schools, a very rather austere man who intimidated the daylights out of us, pulled me out of class. Now what? Well, it so happened the week before it was the opening day of baseball practice, but it was also the tryouts for the spring play which he directed for the junior high, every spring. Big deal. And I didn’t show up. I went to baseball practice. He pulled me aside because, as a matter of fact, he was trying to say to me, "You need to be broadened, Boy. I’m going to talk to you about values." He asked me who were the heroes of the Kalamazoo Maroon Giants a year or two or three ago. Well, I did know some of them. But, he was saying to me, "You’re not cultivating a broad enough spectrum." It was an honest attempt. It was good. But, I still went out for baseball. There was one time in the ninth grade when I just made the starting five. Now, this was a small school and you have to be really poor not to make the team, but I just made it because I wasn’t a very good athlete. The coach was my salvation. He was a fallen Catholic, shanty Irish, had a good sense of humor; he liked me very © Grand Valley State University �Scheduled to Death Richard A. Rhem Page 5   much and I liked him very much. He knew I was a good student, he had me in math, but he would always tease me about my piety and that was so healthy for me. On Tuesdays I had to go to Catechism. Now, when you’re hanging on by your fingernails to stay on the first team and you have to miss one practice a week, that’s tough. We’d take a shower on Monday night and he’d say, "Well, Charlie (everybody called me Charlie), say a ‘Hail Mary’ for me tomorrow night and I hope you start Friday." Well, we could handle that. Then one noon hour at the table I told my mother and father that next week I couldn’t go to Catechism because we had one game on a Tuesday night all season and I, of course, had to go to the game. Guess what? I went to Catechism. It wasn’t a big argument. It wasn’t even an argument! I tell you that a lot of years later, and I can tell you that I think my parents were wrong. I think they should have let me play that game. But, I never rebelled and I honor them to this day because they were simply being consistent. They were totally authentic, and they never asked of me what they had not first modeled out for me, and I can say I think they should have let me play ball, but in their good judgment, I went to Catechism. I have been very conscious of the fact that I have not been able to replicate with my children the way I was raised. I didn’t even try. I mean, it wouldn’t have worked anyway, but I didn’t even try because I knew that what they did was the reflection of the authenticity of their heart and their passion, and if I would try to replicate that, my heart wouldn’t be in it. I would be a slave to a particular mode that wasn’t really mine, even though it had been that to which I was raised. I had to make my own way with my own children, stammering and stumbling along, but trying to be at least honest and authentic. And it seems to me that is key, the spiritual disciplines, and they are disciplines, take discipline, and while in this place that is left to your own mature judgment to pick and to choose, to engage or not engage, I want to encourage you to be self-aware, self-conscious, deliberate, authentic, and then committed to it. There are fifty-four involved in our Worship Center program for young children and, again, I use this as an illustration. It is very unusual. I want to say in all my years of ministry, I have never known a committed group of people who come back here year after year after year in a beautifully conceived educational nurturing experience. But, they can only do it if the children are there. And if it is to be a genuine educational experience, then there has to be consistency, a regularity. The curriculum is set out in order to shape and to form the child, but it’s conceived as a whole, and I think, I have to say to you we’ll have probably the record attendance down there today and then it will drop off. Now, in my courses, my adult courses, I usually have about 50 the first time, and 25 the second time, but that’s because I’m the kind of teacher I am and deal with the kind of esoteric stuff I do. But, that’s not an excuse for down there. They are © Grand Valley State University �Scheduled to Death Richard A. Rhem Page 6   teaching and leading the children week after week after week in a well-conceived program. It does take the kind of discipline that it takes to make the Striker soccer team. When I saw the Time article I thought I want to call my people to consciousness about being self-aware, self-conscious, intentional, authentic, and then committed. Israel is still a people of God because they continued to tell their story. There’s no magic in it. They were on the threshold of entering the Promised Land and Joshua, their leader said to a leader from every tribe, "Take a stone out of the river bed and make a stack of stones on the other side as a sign so that when your children say, ‘What do these stones mean?’ you have a story to tell them." I love Psalm 78. The second verse can be translated, "I will tell you a story with a meaning." That’s precisely what is happening in the lower level today. A story with a meaning. Why? So that they may come to set their hope in God. It’s beautiful. And, of course, we have the image of Jesus who says, "Bring them to me because the kingdom of God is made up of the likes of them." And as Bob said to all of you, you are a child of God. So, let me simply invite you today to do as Joshua did. They got into the Promised Land and they had been pretty slipshod about everything, but this was the time for covenant renewal and he said to them, "You choose. But, as for me and my house, we’re going to get into this thing." I invite you to do the same. © Grand Valley State University � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa040c682a8bb7e2dbfefa375539fec3.mp3 595a91bc19be66e8d2b5f8ffafeb86ca Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Education Sunday, Pentecost XVII Scripture Text Joshua 4:6, 24:15, Psalm 78:4-7, Matthew 18:14 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01_RA-0-19990912 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1999-09-12 Title A name given to the resource Scheduled to Death With Good Things, Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 application/pdf Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on September 12, 1999 entitled "Scheduled to Death With Good Things,", on the occasion of Education Sunday, Pentecost XVII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Joshua 4:6, 24:15, Psalm 78:4-7, Matthew 18:14. Community of Faith Consciousness Intentional https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0582b341003eac3019f559adf907d850.mp4 ee93dfa83ebfc7062e425869606c9e94 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3b7950d37fa170f0b24bcabf8996b1da.pdf f47b0c4960dc97bc9b8409cdba229bd6 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: World War II Interviewee: Lawrence Scheidel Length of Interview: 01:01:43 Background                      He was born in 1923, June 7th, in Loretto, Michigan. His dad worked for Ford, helping to make the Model T cars. His family would eventually move to Alpine Township, where he would grow up. The depression caused a big change in his parents’ life, and what he remembers is sporadic work. During the depression he was fairly destitute. It was a very rural countryside and he always had a cow. He went to a Catholic school about ¼ miles from where he lived. He started school up in Grant when he was 8 years old. He doesn’t know why he started so late. His family then moved back to Grand Rapids where he would go to the Catholic school. It was actually “Public school 11” but it was taught by a nun. She was one tough nun, but she was a good educator. He was the oldest kid in most of the school. In fact, they jumped him past the second grade, which was a bad idea because he ended up failing the third grade. He made it up to tenth grade and he had made it two weeks into the year and he decided he didn’t like school. So he quit school and got a job. He left in 1942 or ’43. Getting a job was a hassle too. By the time he quit school the war had already started. He remembers hearing about Pearl Harbor as well. It was Sunday and he was visiting friends off in the Greenville Area. They pulled up in the yard and his friends had a radio, listening to what was going on. He was 16 at the time and he was devastated. He was kind of enthusiastic about becoming a soldier. He picked up an army book somewhere, from WWI and learned about what a soldier did. He certainly did not shy away from the thought. Summers he worked up in Grant weeding onions. When he turned 18 he went down to sign up. His folks would take up on a Sunday night and pick him up next Saturday. He would always enthusiastically asking about whether he got his draft notice yet. It didn’t come for the next couple of weeks so he went down to the draft board to check it out. His draft notice had been deferred because he was “needed” on the farm. He said that that was crap and he was trying to get of that darn farm. His mother went down there and had given them a story to give him more time at home. When he went down to the train station and boarded the train, his mother cried a lot and real hard. �  He was actually drafted, for 3 years of service. He would also sign up for another 3 years after his first 3 were up. He would be sent to Miami “Hellhole of the World” Beach for his training. Training (9:00)               He would be sent to Miami by train. The trip took about 2 days. He doesn’t really remember much about that trip. He never been on a long train trip before either. In fact, he had never been out of Michigan. The farthest away he had been was Detroit for his physical. While he was at Detroit, he got a choice to join the Navy or the Air Corps. He doesn’t like water so he joined the Air Corps. When he was signing in, he said “I do” and they handed him a broom there and then and said “All right, start sweeping” Miami Beach was not an Air Corps base, but a basic training camp. He remembers going out there and learning a little bit of everything. One time, he had to go to the rifle range, 7 or 8 miles away and he shot on the range and got a medal, like “sharpshooter” or something like that. The only time he’s every shot a gun before is when he was shooting as squirrels. It was very hot there and he started there in July. While he was there, they taught him how to use a gas mask. They did a lot of marching. They also did a lot of reconnaissance training. They would go to a theater and darken it to help them learn out to spot things. There was not a lot of emphasis on discipline, but they told you up from what they wanted you to do. He wasn’t much of a guy to break rules, so he stuck to what he was told to do. One thing that bugged him is that a drill sergeant would say his name wrong. His name has a German pronunciation to it. Finally he came up with a way to say it and it kind of stuck. He had basic training for 3 months. After he graduated from basic, they put him on a train and he had no idea of where he was going. Three days later, he got off in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Sioux Falls (13:55)       He was freezing. Florida was so hot and every day at noon it would pour for about 20 minutes. The rain would settle the dust and an hour later the dust would be flying again. He then learned that he was to attend radio school. From there he found out that he was to be a radio operator gunner on a B-17. Radio school would last around 9 months to a year. He graduated from radio school. He learned Morse Code, and would have to achieve 13 words a minute. He remembers being with a couple of guys from Grand Rapids. One of them was very gullible. �            They had a female instructor and they were explaining AC/DC currents. And through a series of unfortunate events, his friend ended up shocking himself. He would not receive any gunnery training at this point. He did meet his wife there at radio school. He had a band and he played the guitar. They decided to do a show for Easter and they needed a place to practice. A buddy of his, not in the band, suggested a room that his wife rents from a gal in Sioux Falls. So they went over there and got in the room. It was kind of cramped. The lady of the house told them they could practice in the living room instead. So they did. Her daughter would come home from school. She was a good looker and he looked. To make a long story short they got married. The radio school acted a lot like a day job. There was a certain time he had to be up and when he was off duty, he was allowed to go off base and do things too. He used to hitchhike up to Flandreau, which was 50 miles away. There was an Indian reservation up there; it was a nice little town. His buddy had a girlfriend there. One time he stayed a little too late. Now it was not hard getting a ride up there. When you were in uniform, nobody passed you. Coming home, however, was not the same. There was almost no traffic. He had a freezing night that night and ended up getting back to base. There was only one time when he did not get back to base on time. He had been staying at his wife’s house and when the MP came by, they lied for him. He was there 2 or 3 days. When he finally got back to base, they caught him. The guy really chewed him up. He would be punished with KP for a week and he was restricted to base for a week. The man who gave him the punishment was an understanding man. He knew who was up to real trouble and who wasn’t. He also understood that when the “love bug” hits, there really isn’t anything you can do. After radio school was done, he was moved to March Field, California. March Field, Gunnery School (21:30)     It would be here that he would train to be a gunner on a B-17. He was put in a pressure tester, and he had a list of questions to answer. He ended up having some problems in his left ear. He was sent to the doctor, who informed him that he couldn’t fly due to a scarred eardrum. He didn’t know what to do then. But he wasn’t there very long and he was sent to Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas, Nevada (22:40)     People who are put in this place are put there because they don’t really know what they are going to do with you. It was a real casual place. He was there for about 3 months. Every morning you had to get up and sweep the area for cigarette butts and pick those up. �       He remembers one occasion he was out of uniform. A lieutenant saw him and gave him hell for not being in uniform. The lieutenant’s uniform was drenched in sweat. He asked the lieutenant to speak freely, and he was granted it. He told the lieutenant that if HE was the lieutenant, he would not be giving hell to someone who was out of uniform, if he looked as bad as he did. That was a dumb thing to do. He had to report to the 1st sergeant. He had to take a bucket of soapy water and wash all the windows in the orderly room and when he got back, he was told to go back and do it again. It was the worst experience ever. He would also dabble in hypnotism while he was there. He would go to a local USO show where he would hypnotize two guys. They were both set into a chair and told their arms were getting lighter. When their arms were raised, he told them that they would be unable to put them back down. And they couldn’t. You could see the pain in their eyes as they were trying. He would then be reassigned to the MP’s and went to Riverside, California. He was there to be assigned, but he work there at a prison detail. He was not there very long and was transferred to San Francisco. San Francisco (29:00)             When he got there he was assigned to the 4th Air Force headquarters. Their barracks what a local hotel. He thought it was big, though it was only 5 or 7 stories high. He did a lot of duty there in the main lobby, at the main gate, so to speak. He never would walk the streets or anything like that. He was once assigned with a guy who had malaria. He was having an attack. They got a call from a local bar down the road a bit needing help with a soldier who was getting a little out of hand. His partner could not do it and he was just a little guy, but he un-holstered his gun and left it in the desk, so guns would not be involved and headed out to help. He got there and found the guy with a half-a-beer left. He told the sergeant to finish up his beer and get going. The bartender wanted him out then, but since the guy paid for the drink, Scheidel was going to let him finish it. The guy drank his beer without any problems and went back to the barracks nicely. When they got back to the gates, the guy asked if he was going to write him up and he said no, there was no reason to. The next day he was summoned to the provost marshal's office. He asked Scheidel why he didn’t write the man up. He said that the guys running the streets like to aggravate people. He was a little guy, and since the man did not do anything wrong, he figured he would just let it be. The officer thought that it was admirable of him to do that, and thought that was the way guys should be. He would work in an office building and a telephone building. Very rarely did he pull guard duty there. He was also in San Francisco when the sailors tore up the town, VJ day. There was not a single window in the whole city that was not broken and all the booze was gone. �                  There were sailors on top of cars, kissing women and celebrating. He just watched. He got married in June of 1945. He wanted her to join him in Frisco, but she said no. He wrote her a letter saying that he was going to come home and get the ring that he had given her earlier. When he got to her place, her mom said she was up to her Grandmother’s for the summer. So he took a bus up there to see her. When he saw her, his feelings immediately changed. Sparks flew! Turns out her grandma did not want her going with a soldier and tried to put her with a local football player. He was going to head back to Michigan. She decided that she wanted to go with him. So in the morning, she told her Grandmother and grandma went irate. She kicked them out of the house without breakfast. His wife did not speak to her grandma and then her grandma died. That was kind of an experience. His wife had just turned sixteen, and she was not able to get married. Her mom had written her a letter, giving him permission to take her across state lines and she moved with him to San Francisco. She would get a job in there and they would set a date. His mother did not condone the marriage and refused to send him any records of his baptism so they could get married in the church. Instead, they went down to the Justice of Peace in Oakland, California. He and his wife have been married 65 years now. (38:00) He could have moved off base, but he didn’t because his job was second shift. But they did have an apartment. He really loved living in San Francisco. There was a lot of architecture and there was always something going on. The only thing he did not like about Frisco was that it was so rainy during the winter time. During VJ day, people were breaking windows mainly to take booze, but he supposes that if there was something someone liked, they may have taken it. He doesn’t remember there being police or MP’s to try and stop them, but he was sure there were. Honestly, there were just too many of them to actually stop them. They were a drunken mob. The celebration lasted all day and into the night. It probably took as long as it would for the guys to pass out. By that time, he still had time to serve, and was transferred back to Riverside or March Field, he can’t remember exactly. He did guard duty there mostly. It would also be where he would sign up for another 3 years of duty. He wasn’t there very long and would then be transferred to Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City (41:30)     That would be 300 miles from his wife’s home in Sioux Falls. Rapid City was a casual base. There was 129 people there and was used for emergency landings mostly. He would be on duty for the main gate and would work the small guard house there. He was there for about 9 months. �         Sergeant Shell, was a three striped sergeant was an MP and a prisoner. He was maintaining the guard house. He and the sergeant would investigate money stolen from the cash box in the mess hall. Shell was gone and it turns out he was a prisoner who chose to spend his time in the army instead of prison. They figured that he was the one who did it. They checked with the local cab company and it turns out a man fitting his description took a cab to Sturgis, a city about 70 miles from there. So they got a staff car and a couple of soldiers and they went and got him. Scheidel was actually the one to pick him up. Found him at a bus station, reading a sign. Shell ended up going back to prison to serve some time. He would then have orders to ship to Roswell, New Mexico He took his wife to her home in Sioux Falls and he and another man went down there. He would be there until 1947. The army was looking to get rid of some guys, especially those with dependents. Since he had a wife, they gave him extra and that’s when he got out. Roswell, New Mexico (46:25)               When he was in Roswell, he was doing the same thing as the other places. It was very hot down there. He did a lot of duty on the guard house. He can’t remember working at the front gate. There was one time when a friend of his wanted to take his car to see his girlfriend. At first he said no, but then he changed his mind. His friend did not come back. He would report his car stolen, but his friend would eventually come back. He took his car to go skating later and on his way, the cops suddenly pulled him over. Apparently, the vehicle was stolen. He had all the papers, but it didn’t help him. He was brought to the local police department until they got everything all figured out. The MP in charge of the town guys would finally come down to the police station and get everything straightened out. One other time, there was a black guy in the guard house and he got released. He tried to treat those guys decent. They had to go into town one time to pick up a deserter at a bar. This black guy happens to be at the bar. In fact, all the guys in the bar were black at the time. He tried to bring the guy back to base, and suddenly he was facing four or five men saying that was not going to happen. Luckily there was a guy there with him to keep things under control. The guy ended up coming with him nicely. There were not that many black and Hispanic soldiers, and they had their own barracks. Most of them worked in the Motor Pool. Post Duty (51:55)  Once he was discharged from the service, it was a disaster. �              His first house was a little trailer parked on his dad’s place. His wife was pregnant with his first kid. He was trying to take the tires off the trailer and had it jacked up, when the trailer tipped and hit a tree, with his wife inside. She was ok. They did not stay there long and ended up buying a little place up in Sparta, a little 10 acre plot. His mother worked at the local bank and convinced them to loan them the $1200 to pay for the land and shack on it. The lived in that from ’49-’54, when he built his other house. He did not do much for work, he was kind of lazy. His wife worked as a waitress and put food on the table for them. Eventually, he would find a job at a jukebox place. He worked there for about a year and then worked for a jukebox company in GR for a year. Eventually he would work at a bigger company that would put radio on hospital beds. You put a nickel in it and it would play the radio for an hour. Unfortunately, if you moved the hospital beds, it would crack the case. The guy offered him a job to change the cases of those radios in FL. He would work from January to June. He would end up fixing up his car for him so he could take it to FL. His wife would go down there with him. The reason he was able to milk it so long, because there was a lawsuit against him. He planned on leaving, but managed to get a letter of recommendation, saying that he did a good job. He would also do extra work trying to get the radio stations in to some hospital rooms. His boss was a “no good.” His wife loved the time she spent there. The army definitely furthered his education in electronics and radio school really helped. When he was job hunting, he started a job at Metal Craft Buffing. He quit by 10. He would not stay at a job that he didn’t like. He ended up working 34 years at Lear Siegler. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ScheidelL Title A name given to the resource Scheidel, Lawrence (Interview outline and video), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Scheidel, Lawrence Description An account of the resource Lawrence Scheidel grew up in Michigan and enlisted in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War. He went to basic training in Miami Beach, and then to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for radio school. He was then shifted to different bases in the western United States and became an MP serving on different air bases. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Air Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-09-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/20a462c6cedc0412aa14c140f62bd7ad.jpg 0a8c49e888e061816fe4b21c4b68d77a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/88b3c3051196c123c998d699944fd222.jpg fc0adaf19a273a728440271b6307d613 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Insel-Bücherei Series Description An account of the resource The German publishing company Insel Verlag was founded in 1899 by Anton Kippenberg in Leipzig. In its early years the firm only printed expensive, beautifully-produced volumes, until demand led to the publication of the more modest Insel-Bücherei series in 1912. Relatively inexpensive but with the same careful sense of design and typography, these smaller-format books reprinted shorter works from a variety of German, European, and world authors. The series numbers considerably more than a thousand titles and is still being issued. The Digital Collection contains the scanned covers of 140 titles held by Grand Valley State University Libraries. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1904-1987 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource ger Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05_IB0478 Title A name given to the resource Schein und Sein Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</A> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Description An account of the resource Cover of Schein und Sein, by Wilhelm Busch, published by Insel-Verlag. Insel-Bücherei Nr. 478 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books. Insel-Bücherei. Z315.I5 B83 no.478 Language A language of the resource de Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a6830d7f494dc9a00939e0a9358c8765.mp4 cdae61877bfeb92cee8b4a6640af6eb5 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/75181e864878d99a26c82d9f04bdf50d.pdf 3be3bafc7cb839c72c57d00b4f2f66f8 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Cold War Interviewee’s Name: David Scherer Length of Interview: 2:42:08 Interviewed by: James Smither Transcribed by: Sam Noonan Interviewer: “We’re talking today with David Scherer of Allendale, Michigan, and the interviewer is James Smither of the Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project. Start us off with some background on yourself and to begin with, where and when were you born?” I was born November 27th, 1960, in Newburgh, Indiana. Small little farming community next to the Ohio River. We’re just outside of Evansville, Indiana, and— Interviewer: “What was your family doing for a living then?” My dad was a self-contractor plus [he] had a farm. My mother was a nurse for St. Mary’s Hospital in Evansville. Interviewer: “Okay, alright. And as you’re growing up, when you’re a kid the Vietnam war is going on, did you pay any attention to that or was that not really on your radar screen?” When we used to eat supper, TV would be on, and the news coverage on television, I remember them doing, showing the body counts. How many wounded for a day, how many killed in action, how many enemy… was killed. You’d see them chopperin’ the wounded off by helicopter, [there would] be a general or a captain talking about that day’s battle. Same time, eating supper. And my dad wouldn’t say much because my dad was a World War II veteran, Seabees. So of course, being young, [I thought] ‘Ooh, military! Something military on the TV!’ Had a friend, his son was in Vietnam. And he didn’t talk about it very much, I never knew what happened to his son growing up, nothing was said so that family moved out, never saw them again, and – but still, to talk of Vietnam… the protesting on TV, I remember watching them burn their draft cards. I was in my teens, very early – thirteen, fourteen – and then once the end of Vietnam, you know, just kind of went away. Except for what you saw on TV about the veterans, the veterans that were upset – veterans that, they’ve had it with America, they’re gonna move out west, out in the mountains, get lost. That was it. And my dad did belong to [the] American Legion, what veterans there were, Vietnam veterans, they stayed to themselves. To me they were young guys, and the World War II veterans, I’d still remember my dad and his friends, couldn’t understand why these guys… I remember the word ‘selfish’ was being used. The World War II veterans said it. And I could understand… and I do remember these guys, when they did �get drunk they were hostile. Especially toward the World War II veterans. But then high school rolled around, Vietnam wasn’t talked [about] in history, still everything in history was World War II – very little was talked about Vietnam. Graduated high school in 1979, and still there was no talk about Vietnam at that period, if you were a Vietnam soldier - they kept very quiet. And then I do remember the news talking about the [casualties], and then Agent Orange. That was starting to become a big thing in the late ‘70’s. (4:40) Interviewer: “Now so what did you do after you graduated high school?” Worked on a farm. Bunch of us guys used to hang around, you know, being a small town, go to the river, frog around there, had our cars, had our pickup trucks. Farming was starting to become very bad, my dad’s business wasn’t doing very good, and back home it was either working – either at a coal mine or farming, or the military. 1980 rolled around and… actually the reason – if my wife was here she would tell you exactly why I joined the military, besides the work. I was dating a girl and things weren’t working out very well between her and I, and I got this thing in my head, ‘Join the army! Maybe she’ll come and stop you.’ Well the day came to get on the bus, she didn’t show up at the bus station. By then I’d already raised my right hand, I was sworn in. Interviewer: “Alright, now when you – at the time you enlisted were there a lot of guys from your community who were going in or did you just walk into a recruiting office and you’re the only one there or…” I was the only one there, cause by then everybody was either [in] college or still working on the farms. The recruiter said, ‘Not too many people from your area…’ Cause everybody was still talking college. (6:20) Interviewer: “Okay, now when you enlist were you given options for what kinds of training you could take or did you have to – did that all just depend on aptitude tests?” Aptitude tests. And everything turned out mechanical. Interviewer: “Alright. Now did you know that before you went off to boot camp or did you take a lot of these tests at boot camp when you got there?” I knew that before I went to basic. Interviewer: “Okay. So where did you do basic?” Fort Sill, Oklahoma. �Interviewer: “Alright, and describe that place, what did it look like at the time?” When I got off the bus at the reception center, everything was nice, clean, tidy, drill instructor got on the bus, course they’re yelling and they’re screaming and I’m thinking, ‘What did I do?’ And they rushed us through, ran us through the mess hall real quick, and the mess hall was huge, food was fantastic, I’m like, ‘This is pretty cool.’ Once we got our uniforms and… it was almost like that one scene [in] Stripes you know, getting the uniform, they’re fitting you, and this and that. Then they got us in the barracks, there’s one barracks. And… I arrived at Fort Sill July 2nd, by the time I got to the permanent barracks it was July 4th. Open-bay barracks, never saw nothing like this before. There was bunk beds, we’re all… bald-headed bunch of guys in our underwear and t-shirts trying to fill each other out, drill instructor said, ‘Time to go to bed.’ Fourth of July, we’re figuring okay, we’ll get to see fireworks - no. It was hot in Oklahoma, and you’re laying in bed, you’re sweating, and you hear the fireworks, they did have fans and by then we were already tired from the hustling around, getting everything together. So laying in your bed, sweating, hearing the fireworks thinking, ‘What did I do wrong?’ Everybody else was thinking the same thing too. Well, made it through the night, 5:00 the following morning, drill instructor’s throwing trash cans down the hallway. That was an experience, hearing trash cans, [being] called every name that you can think of that they could call you. We’re standing up, some guy’s still laying in bed and they’re flipping the mattresses off the bunk bed. So we’re getting… get dressed, showered, shaved, PT and all this. We still had the green uniforms, that’s before the fatigues. So we wore white tee shirts. And so then basic [started]. And drill instructor – both my drill instructors were Vietnam vets, I mean I was impressed with their shoulder patches, cause both of them [were] 7th Cavalry. That’s the big patch with a horse, and one was a white drill instructor, the other one was Puerto Rican, Sergeant Vega. Short. Man, the looks that these guys could give you… stop your heart. And they laid it out to us, being mom, dad, preacher, the whole…. But they’re also here to get you through basic training. Well they were still old school, how they were trained. They had no problems of putting you into place by.. I want to say a little more firmer grab, but you’re still called every name [in] the book. So they taught us the marching, the drills. We’re like, ‘okay, marching, drills.’ Then we went out in the fields. And taught us weapons, everything. The grenade throwing, how [to] set up your fire points and all this, and I was thinking, ‘well I’m [going to be] in maintenance, why do I need to know all this?’ No, no, no, no, this is it. But in the process I felt comfortable with my drill instructors. My father was a depression child, and plus a World War II veteran. Navy. There’s only one way, the right way. His way, the Navy way. You didn’t moan, groan, complain, and you took a butt chewing. Just, I mean, you took – well it was a basic drill instructor sitting there screaming [at] you, I found myself finally comfortable. [I thought], ‘Dad! When’d you turn into a Puerto Rican?’ I mean, I was comfortable though. And turned out the other guys who had fathers that were in the military, World War II, depression child, they’re hardcore. They didn’t know nonsense. (12:02) Interviewer: “So about how long did it take you to kind of come to that realization?” �I probably have to say within the third week. Interviewer: “Okay, alright. So on some level at least, did you understand what they were doing or were you just in a comfort zone at this point – did you know why they were doing this?” Yes. Cause talk to other veterans, World War II veterans, they’re more or less telling you how it was. If you didn’t pay attention to your training, you could lose your life. And my father, when he was in the Navy he was also a Seabee, so they were doing construction. Do it right the first time. And that’s how it was in basic, do it right. Interviewer: “And you’ve done farm work and stuff so you could probably handle the physical side of It pretty well?” Plus playing in high school football. I’m still in pretty good shape, compared to now, but yes – the running, the physical training part? It was easy. Interviewer: “Alright. So how long was the basic?” Six weeks. Interviewer: “Okay. And then what do you do after those six weeks?” Then we graduated. Then you gotta wait for orders to go to another school, your AIT – Advanced Individual Training. Interviewer: “Right. Okay, and what was yours?” Mine? I was a forty-one Charlie. Considered fire control repair. When you look in your sight, you had to make sure what you’re looking at, your barrel of the armored vehicle was looking at the same thing. There was a lot of optics and mechanical gears involved. Interviewer: “Did you do this at Fort Sill or did you go somewhere else?” Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. Interviewer: “And how was being there different from being at Fort Sill?” It was a different animal because we didn’t have drill instructors there, we had platoon sergeants. We still had the marching, but they marched us to school – where our barracks were. And where the school was, I’d say a good five, six blocks. And these were old barracks that we stayed in, but we still you know, had to keep our things extremely clean, did inspections left and right, but still being marched to school. Look forward to the weekends, we had weekends off, it was like ‘wow!’ And got to explore Baltimore, we were allowed to leave post. But Monday �morning, marching back to that school. And at school… was at first very basic, our instructors, they had the same M.O. as you, and so that’s when we started working on optics and the mechanical gears – on tanks and artillery pieces. From the most simplest things to binoculars. Then at the most complicated thing, a ballistic computer which belonged in an M60 tank. And everybody was excited, ballistic computers – this was still 1980. You know, inside a tank was a white box, cast aluminum with a lid. Took off the screws, had [a] couple handles on the outside, two mechanisms coming on the top. Popped the screw on this thing, excited – a computer! Looked in it, it’s ran by a bicycle chain. (laughter) I’m telling you, it’s true. Then it had a cam system and what the gunner would do, he’d turn a knob for what round they were shooting and what distance. Well, turn all this with the … and electric motor and the bicycle chain would turn the cams, which elevator to press the gun to. But still, the shock of seeing a bicycle chain in a ballistic computer. (16:30) Interviewer: “Now was it a computer only [in the] sense of being a machine that calculated things, as opposed to you know, having all the integrated circuits and all—” Circuit cards and everything, yeah. But that was the technology for the M60 tank from 1960 ‘til they started modifying the tank to an A1, A2, and the fire control systems got a little more complicated but not by much. And… but everything was still being dealt with optics. Nice, clean environment, no grease, no dirt. Interviewer: “Okay, now how much – was there a lot of math involved with what you were doing?” There was quite a bit of math involved, especially when it came to the mechanized gears – cause you had to make sure you had everything tolerated, count it just right, how many revolutions, broke down by… what it required for. There was also a lot of electricity involved too, so you had [an] oscilloscope, multimeter, rheostats, and all this that we were replacing. Interviewer: “Okay. So then you’re … electronics at the same time?” Mhm. Interviewer: “Now was there enough math that you got to use a calculator? I mean the handheld calculator existed by then, but was that part of what you used at that point?” That’s what we used, or if not we did the old math. Wrote our thing down inside the turret with a pencil. Interviewer: “But no slide rule?” No slide rule no. �Interviewer: “Yeah, they stopped teaching us that. Okay, alright. And how long was that training session?” That was a year. Interviewer: “Okay, alright. So daily life was basically just get up in the morning, march off to breakfast, go to school—” School, did our P.T. and then typical military life you know, barracks and then we started watching the numbers of the guys that weren’t around no more, cause we were also having testing quite a bit. And what the instructors used to love to do, as soon as you work on something, they would come in later on, take screws out, take this out – well you’re so confident that you worked on the piece earlier, you knew it was gonna be fine. Well all of the sudden it’s not working. Why is it not working? So you’re freaking out but you didn’t think about them sabotaging the part. You’re panicking, and can’t find out what’s wrong, so they might take a unhooked wire that you knew was hooked earlier, so they kept you on your feet like that. Then they started introducing Soviet stuff that was captured. We couldn’t believe how basic this Soviet equipment was, their sights compared to our sights. Interviewer: “I did once interview somebody who was serving in Germany in the ‘70s and they got to see inside of a T-72 tank, and he said a lot of it was of wood.” Their stuff was very crude compared to our stuff. Interviewer: “Alright, now when you would go into town into Baltimore or whatever, I mean you’d be going in there and you’d have short hair and so forth, would people know you are military to look at you, or…” (19:58) Cause long hair was still popular… you would stick out like a sore thumb. Interviewer: “How did people treat soldiers at that point?” We didn’t brag that much about – I mean they knew we were soldiers, only time… when you went back home on leave, somebody would- ‘Hey, you’re in the Army’ [and they would buy you a drink.] Interviewer: “So you weren’t getting any kind of old Vietnam backlash, or.. I suppose being [in] Southern Indiana you wouldn’t hit a whole lot of that anyway, but there were some areas where if you were in the military people might look down on you or—” �I got that at Chicago O’Hare Airport, cause I was in uniform. And I had a woman, wanted to know, ‘are we still trained on killing babies?’ And I looked at her and I just walked away. Then a couple of us went into a bar at O’Hare, and we were just minding our own business. Couple of guys told us about Vietnam and they told us about their experience walking through that airport and – early ‘70s, and they’re like, ‘You shouldn’t be walking through here in uniform.’ And you know, they told us about their experiences. Yelled at, screamed at. Interviewer: “Yeah. Okay, so there’s a little bit of that left over but clearly not like it was-” No, nothing like what it was. Interviewer: “Okay. So now you kind of, you get to the end of this year’s training, now how long had you enlisted for? What was the length of enlistment?” First time, four years. Interviewer: “Okay. And so you’re basically a little over a year into it at this point, once you complete that training what do they do with you?” It was the waiting game, just like being in college. When you took your final exams and it’s posted on the board. There was orders posted on a board, and when I enlisted, first thing the recruiter says, ‘Where you want to be stationed at?’ And I said Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, or Hawaii. Okay, that’s all on the paperwork. So we ran up to this bulletin board, saw orders. You know how excited … when you’re in college, ‘I passed!’ All of the sudden I hear guys, ‘Germany! Germany! Korea! Aw, I got Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, Fort Lewis,’ and I’m looking, looking, looking, ‘Scherer!’ Germany. My recruiter said, ‘I will get you Fort Knox, or Fort Campbell. For sure Hawaii.’ I’m still looking. Interviewer: “Now Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, why did you prefer those at the time?” They were 150 miles away from my home. Interviewer: “Yup, close to home.” Close to home. Interviewer: “If you’re gonna go anywhere else, go to Hawaii.” Hawaii. (23:08) Interviewer: “So you get Germany.” �I got Germany. Interviewer: “Alright, and now what, if anything do you do to prepare to go over?” Got a thirty-day leave and [went] back home, hung around my friends, you know, your typical.. like when you came home from college. Hang around your friends and you know, try to pick up some stuff, and the thirty days was great until probably the last week of that. And I still remember to the day, all of the sudden it’s time to go. And I had to fly out the local airport, then fly into JFK. And [I] still had never been to a big city, that big of a city. So got in JFK, big ‘ol wide-eyed, saw a bunch of other soldiers, we had a station area we had to stay at. Was going overseas. And just looking at the people at JFK and still In dress greens and excited, it was time for us to board. Eight hour flight. But there’s no preparation to get ready to go. Interviewer: “So they’re not teaching you anything about life in Germany or anything else like that?” Knew nothing about Germany. To tell you how naïve I was, when we landed at Frankfurt I was still expecting to see the Hansel and Gretel style homes. That’s how naïve I was! Still seeing German girls in pigtails and got in Frankfurt and… McDonalds. ‘Where’d these big buildings come from?’ Where’s the little Hansel and Gretel style homes, and all this? We had a reassignment area we had to go through, where a unit came [to] pick you up. Spent a day there, and then I’m noticing everybody’s speaking German. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, my dad and family spoke German. One day my [dad] said, ‘You might want to learn how to speak German.’ Psh! He was right. And my unit came, picked me up. Interviewer: “And what unit was that?” The 19th Maintenance Support Battalion. Interviewer: “Okay. Alright, they come and get you and now what happens?” They came, got me, and you know the whole ABCs, welcome to Germany, we’re going down the Autobahn and heading toward the barracks, and I was shocked on how these cars were driving. We had a military jeep, and just seeing all these cars – how fast! Still, where’s the bricklined roads, cobblestone streets and all this. All of sudden I saw a sign, ‘Welcome to Hanau, Germany.’ And so I get to my company, 19th Maintenance, old World War II German barracks. So I got the introduction, had a process and still checking out the barracks, still had marble floors. But you go down the hallway and it had gun racks in the walls. And homesickness [was] kicking in by then, I wanted to go home, and… nope, stuck there. Was introduced to everybody, my platoon sergeant and my squad leader – both of them Vietnam vets. ‘Welcome to Germany, you’ll have fun, you’ll have a blast.’ Well in the process while we were talking, big … in their head. ‘We’re gonna have fun, we’re gonna have a blast.’ (27:21) �Interviewer: “Alright, so now what do they do to kind of orient you or get you up to speed when you join the unit?” Well so got into the unit, signed in, then Frank …, he was in the squad I was assigned to, so it’s his job to get me everything I needed, from all the equipment and make sure all the paperwork’s signed in, showed me where the PX was on post and all the places that I needed to go. Now the post still had the cobblestone streets, and the barracks, like I said they were German barracks. But our motorpool was about five blocks away, and Frank told me about the history of Hanau. The city of Hanau, during World War II, the city was sacrificed – the lights were left on during the bombing, during WWII, to save Frankfurt. Nighttime bombing. So we got the history of Hanau, then the history of [the] 19th Maintenance Battalion. And we were the highest maintenance battalion you could go to next to the civilians. And the 19th Maintenance Battalion had a very proud history on turnaround for maintenance, that goes from wheeled vehicles to track vehicles, weapons, of course armor. Interviewer: “Now were you supporting units within an Army corps or a whole army or?” Army corps. We – they had to bring their stuff to us, what they couldn’t fix. We had several armor battalions we supported, we… their maintenance people brought everything to us, if we couldn’t fix it then we had to send it to Mannheim, that’s where the civilians were – to repair. But we were the last stop for them. And we saw some tore up things. Broken optics, how can you break this? And it’s stuff you never thought of, but we’re still in this nice, clean environment. And stayed busy, extremely busy. Interviewer: “And do they ever – do you go out and do field exercises or have other duties besides just the maintenance work?” (30:05) When the armor rode to the field, we rode. And when there was alerts called, then we went to our rally point out in the field. But we also did a lot of training out there too. You know, setting up… the general area which we were assigned to, if something would’ve happened, we did a lot of time in Freiberg, Germany. And my platoon sergeant asked a bunch of us, ‘You guys ever seen Roman ruins?’ ‘No!’ ‘Ever been to Rome?’ ‘No, never been to Rome.’ Well we’re in a field there, and he said, ‘You guys want to see Roman ruins?’ I thought he was yanking our chain, all of the sudden there’s these columns laying on the ground, chiseled columns. It was from when the Romans were there. Indiana, thinking… Romans? Shows you how much I paid attention, how much Romans conquered the world. There were these beautiful columns laying there, and we were eating our meal there, but it was just – I just couldn’t believe it – how far history went. And… but we did a lot of training out there, sloshing through the mud. And then still working on the stuff that they brought to us, we worked out a big large truck, and … got dirty, muddy, and all of this. Lot of practicing on NBC – chemical warfare, and of course nuclear warfare. That was drilled to us. And constantly drilled, that was our death threat from [the] Soviets. Warsaw Pact. �They had, we were taught if they do invade it’s going to be chemical warfare – they doubted that they were going to nuke us. ThenInterviewer: “So for chemical warfare, I mean what – was there protective measures you would take or?” We had chemical uniforms. And they had us – I mean, drilled on how to put on a chemical uniform, how fast can you put on these chemical uniforms. And your mask. And to the point, I mean you were timed, there we learned all the signals. Then they wanted you comfortable in these things, walk around with them in a day, you couldn’t pull your mask off. The cigarette smokers were going through hell. I mean you’re doing everything possible. And they didn’t give us a break, eat chow or smokes, but then they came up with a brilliant idea – let’s play baseball in these things. Cause they wanted you to get used to them, and they were charcoal activated – look inside a chemical suit, it’s all black. Then we were still wearing white t-shirts, so we played baseball, we played volleyball, and everybody’s sucking wind left and right, time to take our tops off and so what was the nice white t-shirt? [It] was black. We had to wear rubber gloves, your hands are pruned, but this, they kept drilling in our heads over time after time and time, that when an alert would come, how fast can you get your gear together, get it to the truck, have your weapon ready? This went on and on and there were sometimes where we’d get to the trucks, we’re moving out. And probably about [the] third month I was there I was on my.. probably fourth alert. And they’d call these things at one o’clock in the morning, never during the daytime but one o’clock in the morning. It was a race, get everything together that you were issued. Pile in the back of a deuce and a half, off we went. And then you knew we were going to go for a longer distance when they put convoy numbers on the trucks. (34:48) Then I became a driver, and had a convoy number on my truck. First time driving on the autobahn, so geeked up. Well [we] had a long drive, we ended up in Grafenwoehr, ‘where is Grafenwoehr?’ And got there, set up, and same thing all over again, chemical, train, train, nuclear, they – somebody walked around with a flash on a camera, ‘See the flash? That’s nuclear!’ Hit the ground. Put your butt toward the flash, cover your head. And so that went on, ran around [in] MOPP suits. Train with your weapon, still do your job – they’re still bringing parts to you. ‘Get it out, get it out,’ cause by then the tankers and artillery battalions are at the ranges – they have to qualify. They wouldn’t need their stuff so you’re getting everything out, still make sure your job [is being done.] Cause one of the things you were [threatened with] was you screw it up, that round falls short, kills somebody, your name’s all over that paperwork. And working on optics was – you know, no more … getting an optic cleaned, set just right. Looking through the thing there’s a smudge, ‘where did that smudge come from? Where did a piece of dust come from?’ And of course with being a mechanized gear it had to – everything was set. And still, had to be put out one hundred percent. And so this went on for a while, and still, chemical, chemical, chemical, and then one night things changed. That’s when the Soviets shot down that Korean airliner. And we were put on an alert. None of us knew nothing about the Korean airliner. But that gotta [have] happened probably two days before we had our alert. So we’re going to the �motorpool, all of the sudden we’re going a different direction than our usual where we would. ‘Where we going?’ ‘Fulda.’ ‘Where’s Fulda?’ ‘Fulda gap.’ That’s where the estimate the East German army and the Russian army comin’ through. ‘Nawww.’ ‘Yeah.’ By the time we got there we were the fourth battalion, they already had the armor ready to go. So they told us where we were going, we set up. And you look where we’re setting up, you saw the gap. We had our M60 machine guns and our fifties ready. And ‘you’re telling me we’re going to war?’ ‘No we’re not.’ ‘Yeah, we’re going to war.’ And… that was the first time I – while I was there, [that] it was scary. I was scared. And we were out there for three days. And my old platoon sergeant that was a Vietnam vet came up to us, he goes, ‘If we get overran, if I’m around I’m gonna make sure to shoot you guys,’ cause he said ‘the communists get a hold of you guys,’ cause he’s remember, from Vietnam, ‘it’s gonna be ugly.’ I don’t wanna be shot! But we were ready. Then, find out how big of a cluster it was, these other battalions run into their point. Then there was accidents left and right, left and right. And… but it never happened. We packed up, went back to where we came from, unloaded, broke out the beer. Beer was the biggest band-aid, and there was a lot of beer, there was a lot of drinking on your down time. (39:17) Interviewer: “Alright, now would you go off base or just stay on base?” Off base, local guest houses. Interviewer: “And how did the local Germans deal with the American soldiers?” I was hoping you would ask me this. It was like [an] age divide. The older Germans, that I would say was our parents’ ages when we were over there, they remembered American GIs, how well the American GIs treated ‘em. They said … they were starving for food, GIs always had food. [They] would give them the rations, they’re … and treated ‘em, even though they were Germans they would treat ‘em fantastically. They had nothing but praises [for] the American GIs. And it was the German… was our parents ages that we were what, say teenagers and younger. Then the older Germans would ask us - you know, treat us like we were kings. We had a rally point, was out in the boonies where we had – with our two trucks – it was at a farm, German farm. To me a home farm. It was this old German and his wife, they had a deal, contract where we would set up with the government – so they were used to Americans being there. They treated us like kings, they would feed us. And we would give them cigarettes here and there, and his wife always brought bread – fresh German bread. And he knew we couldn’t drink, but he was still – smuggled us a couple bottles of schnapps. But still, he remembered the Americans. Americans. And he hated communism. And the only ones that would not talk to us – and we figured, those were the ones that were in the war - the soldiers. German soldiers. They stayed away from us, and we discovered too, the older men would always wear long sleeves. No matter how hot it was. And somebody told us once, they think they were SS. Cause the SS marked on arms, and everybody else would run around with short sleeves. �(41:57) Interviewer: “What about the people your own age?” The younger kids, the college kids. They wanted us out, cause of nuclear weapons. And we were warned several times, careful in Frankfurt, might be a riot. And the younger kids by then, they wanted us out. No more nukes, that was hot and heavy in the mid ‘80s. And you see the protests, we got caught up in the protests in Frankfurt. There was four of us, and we were like… scared, ‘what are we gonna do?’ And it was this shop owner, pulled us in his shop. He knew we were Americans of course, with the haircuts. And we waited ‘til that protests went through, they were burning American flags, screaming, yelling, we ended up having five more buddies down the way got caught smack-dab in the center of that thing also, and they couldn’t get out. They were running trying to get away from there, by then the Germans said, ‘These are American soldiers,’ they pinned ‘em up against the walls and by then the Polizei were right there with their German shepards, but we’re still in that shop. And to this day I still remember that shop owner, we thanked him and thanked him and thanked him, and every time we went in Frankfurt we made sure we’d stop off at that shop. Of all things, it was a toy store. Interviewer: “Cause that’s somewhere where in the United States, when all that stuff was going on, I mean the Korean airliner thing attracted a certain amount of attention but at home it wasn’t really something where you really thought that that was gonna get you into a war or whatever else, and of course you – while there was an anti-nuclear movement of a sort that had been around, born really in the late ‘70s, you know, rioting, things like that now – I mean maybe over building a nuclear powerplant someplace-“ Exactly. Interviewer: “But yeah, it was just a different set of experiences there. Right.” Growing up, what rioting I remember seeing on TV of course, was down south. With issues down there, that’s where you saw the rioting – firemen with the fire hoses and all this. Interviewer: “Yeah, and there were antiwar – the antiwar stuff that went on the late ‘60s, early ‘70s too, but yeah, but for this whole other stuff going on in the ’80s, yeah it doesn’t affect us here. Okay, now are there other things that went on when you were in Hanau that kind of stand out in your memory from that tour?” Flag burning. We had a rec room, we used to watch news. It was stars and stripes, and then it was CNN news, they would have a partnership with CNN news. Bunch of us in the rec room watching TV, it was late, they’re talking about flag burning. ‘Flag burning? … burn flags in the US. What?’ Then they’re showing it. ‘The hell’s going on?’ Then they said it was okay to burn flags, [the] American flag. ‘Nawww, no way’ If somebody would’ve told me, ‘yeah, they’re burning flags in America,’ I wouldn’t have believed it ‘til I saw it on TV. And then AIDS, that’s same time about the AIDS breakout. And I remember a lot us saying we’re not going home, I’m �not going home, I mean what’s going on? Had the AIDS breakout, then ‘course the flag burning. ‘Course President Reagan, reassuring everybody everything’s gonna be fine. And we’re at Grafenwoehr when the Challenger exploded. Watched that on TV. It was cold, and I walked into the area, just got back from the range working on some tanks. Everybody’s gathered around the TV, ‘what’s going on?’ ‘Space shuttle exploded.’ And we were just at awe at that. Still, all our graphs, cause what news coverage we got wasn’t all that big – that was from the states. (46:39) Interviewer: “Now what was the time frame when you were in Germany for that tour?” From 1981 to ’84. Interviewer: “Okay. So I’m trying to think when the Challenger exploded I guess that was ’84, yeah. Okay, alright, so those things go on, then at this point now you’re running into the end of your original enlistment. At what point do you – did you decide to reenlist while you’re in Germany or?” No. When I was at Fort Polk, Louisiana. I got orders to go to Fort Polk, but right before I left – I would say a year before I left we started getting the M1 tanks. And the Army’s phasing out the M60 tanks. And I got orders to go on M1 – deprocessing team. What we were doing was receiving the brand new M1s, there was forty of us from all over Europe, got the orders. And the Army’s phasing out the M60s. So we had to work on the M1s, get them ready for issue. Finish working on what the plant didn’t finish putting on. And same thing, crash-course learning – cause we didn’t go to school for M1s. And by then [the] M1 was all computerized. Very few optics in the thing, all relied on circuit boards. I can say it now, cause all of this stuff is – I probably wouldn’t even recognize a M1 tank today compared to what we had. So you know, we were taught how to drive ‘em, fix ‘em, everything on these things. This went on for a year, and so like I said we’re phasing everything out. Start seeing accidents with these things. Especially wintertime, if anybody’s been to Grafenwoehr or Hohenfels, driving on a tank trail [in] wintertime, a sixty-ton tank and ice [don’t] mix. I mean, just out of the blue the thing would take off on you. You’re standing on the brake and you’re sliding, even though you’re not going that fast. Well … takes over. Had one guy, slid so hard into a tree he died. And then we had a couple guys in the motorpool, one got too close to another tank – and we had to line the tanks up front to back, front to back, where you’re almost touching. Well one guy traversed so fast, he didn’t think someone was on the outside and caught the guy between two tanks. And then you know, we knew about war but they didn’t teach you on fatalities. Anything was… get everything cleaned up, go back to work. Get drunk. And shake it off. So you know, we’re using a high pressure hose to get rid of the blood and on the new tanks, still that battalion coming in for this new tanks, … get these things out. And there was still a lot of accidents, people don’t realize, you know we didn’t fire a shot over there, you know how many casualties [there] were over there just in the ‘80s alone? Covered all four US wars. Nobody knows about the casualties we had in peacetime. We had explosions, vehicles overturning, vehicles in wrecks. Short rounds, guys getting hit by a mortar that fell short. The last year I was in Germany, Grafenwoehr had an engineer battalion, �combat engineer battalion working on landmines, how to set landmines – one exploded, killed seven guys. (51:45) Interviewer: “Yeah. I mean sometimes news of military accidents comes through, but usually it’s a helicopter crash or something like that.” Very brief. But when there was a explosion in the turret of a tank, no one knows – compared to today. And that sticks in my gull. Interviewer: “Okay. Now we had gotten into this, so you spent the last year in Germany on that tour, you’re now working with the Abrams tanks and so forth and you get orders to go to Fort Polk.” Fort Polk, Louisiana. I knew for sure I p’d off somebody to send me there. Who did I make mad? I was running through my mind – must’ve been my first sergeant, ‘come to commander!’ Got down there in Louisiana, drove down – it was July, hot. I mean now where I’m from Indiana, it got hot, extremely hot, the humidity wise. Louisiana, completely different animal. Get a sign, maintenance battalion, now when I left Germany I had a four-man room – still World War II barracks. Get down at Fort Polk, open bay barracks. Interviewer: “Now what rank were you at this point?” Sergeant. Interviewer: “Okay.” So I got my little – MY room. The only ones who got the rooms were in Seals, still open bay barracks. And being sergeant green, he you know, did all - what he had to do, get me signed in, processed, and got my equipment. And he said, ‘you guys get jungle fatigues.’ Why? Cause we were – we had to buy our BDUs, weren’t issued. And the BDUs at the time were heavy fatigues, he goes, ‘Down here we wear Vietnam era jungle fatigues.’ Now I don’t know personally if you’ve ever seen the fatigues – very light, very airy. Breathable, compared to what we had for the BDUs. (54:13) Interviewer: “What does BDU stand for by the way, is that battle dress uniform?” Correct. A woodland camouflage. So went to buy my jungle fatigues, they were olive green, and put my camouflage uniforms away, and then the new guys are coming in from basic, same thing. They’re buying jungle fatigues – we even had the jungle boots too. Look, I came from Germany! And was issued a window fan and a mosquito net and I was like… I want Germany, I �want Germany. And it was so hot down there, the Fort Polk day for armor and artillery, they weren’t as big as in Germany. The whole time I was there, fifteen months there, I worked on one tank. An old M60. You’re inside that turret and you’re sweating, sweating, I mean… hot. Now I did get to work on optics you know, binoculars and some sights, but nothing like in Europe. Now they didn’t have no M1s there, not yet. And this M60 had to be moved, so the platoon sergeant I had then, he goes, ‘You’re from Germany aren’t you?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘You know how to drive a tank?’ ‘Yeah I know how to drive a tank!’ ‘M60?’ ‘Yes!’ I showed him my driver’s license cause everything, what vehicle you drive… I moved this dinosaur, and the last tank I moved then was an M1. Now the M1 compared to the M60 – imagine you have a Volkswagen, all of a sudden you got a BMW. That’s how the M1 was, everything. But down there in Fort Polk, best way to describe it – just imagine somewhere in the country you see a bunch of people on a porch just fanning themselves, Fort Polk – while I was there, I think we had two alerts. And the guys from Germany and Korea, who went through alerts all the time, we got our stuff quickly. Now the guys who were stationed in the states, alerts? They’re still him-hawing around, yelling, screaming, ‘Where’s my backpack? Where’s my tent? Where’s this, where’s that?’ And you learn, especially from Europe and Korea how to have everything you need in that rucksack, everything. From extra pairs of socks, underwear, t-shirts, your sleeping bag, your tent, everything. And there’s these guys, they’re going, ‘I can’t find that stuff, what’s up?’ Well us guys from Germany and Korea, we’re already at the arms room, we’re ready. And these other guys are just finally showing up. Waiting at the truck, I got assigned a truck. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, where is everybody? Cause you know in Germany, it’s ‘go, gotta go, gotta go.’ Lose the …. Finally they showed up, alert’s over with. So some other people said well, ‘how come you have all this stuff, you’re carrying all that stuff?’ Man, you need it. And I taught ‘em. ‘Alright, this is called a tanker drill. This is what you put in your rucksack, and it stays 24/7, don’t touch it.’ ‘Why? I wanna go camping?’ ‘Buy a tent then.’ And they couldn’t understand why you needed everything, cause in Germany you needed everything. From your mess kit to… the Army still used [a] two-man tent, one guy had one shelter half, [the other had] the other shelter half. So everything, in Louisiana, trying to get these guys figured out. Except for the guys coming in from overseas, we were ready. Then we were told, ‘Slow down.’ ‘Why?’ ‘We’ll never see a chemical attack here, nuclear attack. We’ll never be deployed.’ Battalion commander, when they had their incident at Grenada, he did everything to volunteer that battalion to go to Grenada. And most of the Vietnam guys were laughing at them, ‘these fools are gonna get us killed.’ I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that one movie with Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge? (59:19) Interviewer: “Yeah, mhm.” How him and that battalion commander and the old first sergeant you know, how they talked. That’s how it was. And I was still listening to the Vietnam vets, cause they still know what they’re talking about, but the guys from Germany are like, ‘We’re in trouble,’ especially with how they’re pushing chemical warfare, nuclear attack and all this. So then every Wednesday it was training day – we gave classes, would give more or less a refresher of what you were taught from basic and all this. And I’m telling the honest truth, I have the certificate to show you, and it was �bugging me – nothing on chemical warfare. So they encouraged you to give a class. That’s part of your job. So I said I’ll do a chemical warfare [class], how to decontaminate. They’re like, ‘decontaminate?’ ‘Yes!’ How to decontaminate your vehicle in case you’re – for chemicals. So my company commander said ‘Fine, write me up some index cards on the class.’ And the – our chemical NBC NCO wasn’t too keen on chemical warfare, and with all his time spent at Fort Polk – and like I said the training for that was… so I gave him a class, like I said that day, was more or less like a round-table thing for classes, from CPR, weapons, common map-reading, how to communicate on radio. Well mine was outside, and I had my truck – which was a 5-ton truck. They did have decontamination bottles there, which was charged by CO2 canisters. I laid out everything, and then everybody was going outside to my station. Had to introduce [myself] to ‘em, who I was and what the class [was]. And my company commander says, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ We were drilled, and drilled, and drilled, to the point [where we could] do it in our sleep. So I was giving my class, everybody’s like, ‘okay, so you have to clean it,’ you know, with this canister you had to soak, hose down inside the cabin of the truck, everything you would imagine you would touch. From the outside, inside, if you’re hauling troops, the backside. Went and [decontaminated] that truck. They’re saying, ‘Why? What if you’re separated from [your] unit?’ You see a vehicle, and you’re trying to make it back to the back. There’s a bunch of you, you see a vehicle that’s still working? You want to decontaminate that, get you and your people back in the back. By then you’ll be decontaminated. I told them how it had been done and how we were taught, and so this went on for all day, I think I probably had eight classes that day. Battalion commander showed up, and he very suddenly shows up – well there’s other units, he showed up to mine. So he wanted to know how I learned all this. I said, ‘In Germany this is – we’re training on this 24/7, besides your weapon.’ And he goes – and he was stationed in Germany, he remembers all the training. He says, ‘Stateside units are weak on this.’ He said, ‘Well run me through your class.’ I ran through my class, and everything, him and his aide and his first sergeants went through the class. It was over with, he said I gave a very nice class and he said, ‘You should be proud of what you were taught.’ That was it, left. Week later, all of the sudden we had a formation, battalion commander was there. And that’s when I got the Army achievement medal for my NBC classes. Now, if it had been Germany it’d have been another ‘oh god,’ there… and the funniest thing was listening to people say, ‘I can’t drive his truck!’ Cause they didn’t know how to drive stick shift. You’re gonna learn, guarantee. But they’re like, ‘will it save lives?’ They’re saying it will save your life. And so I got back to the barracks feeling kind of proud of myself, and this sergeant … in front of me, and he said ‘Showoff.’ You know, and he’d been to Europe. But it was just funny how stateside units… and it was getting’ time for reenlisting. And I liked [the] Army, I really did. I liked the structure. Everybody in the military was your family, I don’t care who you were – I think you heard this from other vets, when they get, use the term ‘brother,’ it’s true. With your best friend, you know everything about him, he knows everything about you. You almost feel like you’re part of his family, way he would talk about his family, vice versa. But at Fort Polk, soon as everything was done, boom, get in your car, go. There weren’t that very many people to hang out, like there was in Europe. These guys complained about how much they hated the Army, I’m like, ‘you got it made here!’ There’s no alerts, you’re not in the field. Went to the field once at Fort Polk – and nothing like Germany. �(1:05:46) It’s time to reenlist. ‘I’ll do it for another four years, what the hell.’ I’m having fun. By then, my dad had lost the farm – that’s when farming was taken out. Nosedive. I didn’t wanna work in a coal mine… The girl who I had high hopes [for], the reason why I went into the Army? Pffft, forgot about her, long time ago. So I reenlisted. Reenlistment NCO said, ‘Alright, where you want to be stationed at? Your dream sheet.’ First three places I chose the first time – Fort Campbell, Fort Knox, and Hawaii. ‘Okay.’ So it’s Knox, Campbell, Hawaii. Waited around for about two-three weeks, got orders. ‘Germany!’ ‘What happened to..’ ‘Well, those slots were filled.’ ‘Germany!’ He goes, ‘Could be worse, [you could] go to Korea.]’ I heard too many horror stories about Korea, no no no no. Then my thirty-day leave, and this time I knew what to expect. Leave went by fine, fantastic, got on that airplane and got [to the] reception station in Frankfurt. Same thing. So they said, ‘You’re gonna be assigned to the third infantry division.’ And I told them ‘I’m not infantry. I’m maintenance!’ ‘No no no, they got tanks and artillery there.’ ‘Can I go back to originally where I came from, 19th?’ They’re like, ‘No, no. Third infantry.’ So they came down, picked me up, and then they told me the history of third infantry, Audie Murphy. Okay, it’s cool. And got there, Wurzburg. Again, German barracks. Expected that, and so I expected everything, what I went through the first time I was in Germany. So I said, ‘What shop am I going to?’ Figured I’m going to a shop. ‘You’re not going to a shop, you’ve been assigned to a armor brigade.’ And that was the death knell, cause guys in armor brigade, their maintenance people, when the tanks moved, they moved. And they didn’t work out a nice, clean, sterile shop. They worked out of a van the size of a moving van. Said ‘this can’t be too bad,’ so I got there, platoon sergeant’s explaining everything, this is what my duties were – and we had … which was the computer to [run] tests on the computers on the tanks. Would tell you what was wrong, mostly circuit card, diode, all this. You won’t see no optics, I guarantee it. ‘It’s you and this one guy.’ Okay, fine, no problem. And this guy was like, ‘Oh, welcome, da-da-da,’ he was my roommate. We had nothing to do for about a month! Next thing I know, I’m busting track on a tank – which was not my job. They needed help, and they came to the truck, ‘you doing anything today?’ ‘Nope.’ ‘Yeah, you are.’ (1:09:37) Interviewer: “Mhm.” ‘You ever bust track before?’ ‘No. I drove tanks before.’ Ended up, for that whole month, they were reshoeing the M1s, busting track. Didn’t get to work inside the turret hardly. Interviewer: “Alright, you had no experiences with that at all?” No experience. Learn as you go. And so all the sudden, the recovery driver, which drives the M88 recovery vehicle, he was getting out. No one really – they had a hard time finding a replacement for him, and they looked at [me], and they said, ‘You’re a pretty big guy, you like heavy equipment?’ ‘It don’t bother me.’ And one of them said, ‘You’re a farm boy, aren’t you.’ ‘Yeah, no problem.’ ‘You’re our new recovery operator.’ Never recovered anything before in my �whole life, this thing is big enough, flip over a truck without even breaking a sweat, small APC, they usually use it to pull engine packs out of tanks. Learn as you go, never went to recovery school. But again, when the tanks moved, that thing moved. They would get stuck in the mud, we had to hook up to ‘em, try to pull them out. Wading through the mud, you’re muddy. In the process I ran across a friend of mine who was still at 19th maintenance. And there we were always proud of our uniforms, everything was always starched. Boots, spit-shined. Ran across him, saw his uniform was [the] same rank, he said ‘You look like a ragamuffin!’ ‘I don’t have time! We don’t do looking pretty no more!’ Boots and mud, and when you’re at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels I hope you run into a veteran, you’ll find mud [where] you never thought you could find mud. Summertime, dust. This real fine dust powder. And so again, you never dreamt [where] you could find dust, and the mud. But my friend’s like ‘Yeah, I’m still in the same truck we used to have back then!’ That truck, you could eat off the floor cause everything had to be clean. I said, ‘Well have you been working on the M1s?’ ‘Not much! What do you do on them?’ So I told him, ‘Well, in my unit you bust track, you help ‘em pull engine packs out.’ Course you’re working a turret, are you pulling a turret out or replacing a gun barrel?’ He goes, ‘we weren’t taught that in school.’ ‘I know, nothing.’ But they – you did everything when it came to the armor. Also I think for the artillery. And, ‘Can you replace the barrel in an M1?’ ‘Yeah.’ Takes two guys. ‘Can you do this on it?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘Can you pull that motor by yourself?’ ‘Yup.’ Still takes two guys. When we first started processing the M1s in [the] mid ‘80s, they discovered everything was in metric. And we had nothing but U.S. standard toolboxes. Now these are coming in from the states, metric. We couldn’t pull – everybody had their own certain job with a brand new tank, mine was to climb underneath there, drop these two plates, look for serial numbers. Couldn’t drop ‘em. They were 17mm, was there a 17mm in Germany that the Army issued? Interviewer: “Nope.” They had to go [an] auto parts store, German auto parts store, get a 17mm socket. That thing could’ve stopped if we would’ve had a war… it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, 17mm. (1:14:00) Interviewer: “Alright, okay. So you do this second tour, you join this armor brigade and you’re doing all these different kinds of things, and so what else kind of stands out about that tour for you?” How they would take people out of their MOSs and teach ‘em to do other jobs. We were so short-handed when we went to the range, desperately hurting for people. And I told [my] platoon sergeant, I said, ‘look, I need another person to-‘ My roommates then, Mark and I, we had this one tank [that] was giving us fits. Electronics. Need somebody to help us, you know, run to the truck, run the part on …, while one person is still in the turret. But we needed a person, once that part was fixed, run that part – or that piece of equipment to the person in the turret. Losing time! ‘I’ll get you somebody.’ They pulled a company clerk, a PSC. Not his job, never been in the field before. He’s just standing there, never been in mud. But that’s how it was, they pull somebody, and by the time I left – even though I’ve never been to gunnery, the tanker showed �me. Cause we had – what they were having problems with [was] fixing their sights. So we had to work on that. Then all of the sudden once you finish working on it at the range, they’re lobbing ‘em downrange. And you learn. I was on another deprocessing team for the second time around, and these were the new M1s coming out – there’s M1, [and] M1A1. Same thing, but this time we were at the ranges with these new tanks. And I didn’t see my company, my original – that armor brigade for a year. And back doing the same thing, but this time I had more experience cause there was some times we had to replace track. ‘Ooh, I know how to do that!’ Learnt that from them. And then when they came with the new M1A1, they were having problems with the hydraulic system. … put the wrong hydraulic fluid in the turret, and they put original hydraulic fluid instead of organic. And original was eating the O-rings worse than… you know, these are sixty million dollar tanks – and ready to be issued. But what really – I mean there’s one thing I did forget to tell you about, I don’t know if you remember when the Marines were bombed in Lebanon? We had an alert for that. And had to go get the M88, drive it down to post, put it at post, we already had the thing staggered and everybody was flipping out you know, ‘we’re gonna get bombed, we’re gonna get bombed,’ and they’re trying to reassure us, ‘no, we’re fine, we’re fine.’ At the same time, we’re starting to deal with terrorists. In the ‘80s, in Germany. They blew up that nightclub, that killed Americans. And then also there was a bombing in Frankfurt, airport, at Rhein-Main. And then when Reagan – President Reagan visited Libya over the bombing at the nightclub, and that really put everybody on edge. And they were saying, ‘Anybody who has a personal vehicle, this is what you need to look for, especially parked on the streets. Look at your gas cap filter – make sure the door’s closed, open it up, look at your gas cap. Make sure your doors are shut, none of them are ajar.’ And so everybody’s getting really paranoid, driving to the main gate, the MPs are out there with their metal detectors and the mirrors, looking underneath the vehicle. And my roomie and I went to Heidelberg just for fun, and.. walking back to his car, and all the sudden he noticed the passenger door. ‘Did you shut the door?’ ‘Yeah I shut it.’ ‘Was it ajar?’ ‘(‘I don’t know’ noise) Well I didn’t shut it all the way.’ But he was so paranoid, ‘You were sitting in that seat, not me!’ God, and that was the thing we were paranoid [about]. The terrorists. Plus the Soviets. And then the bombing at Beirut, we never thought of stuff like [that]. Then all the sudden the busses that we had on post, regular school busses – they had metal over the windows – mesh. (1:19:45) Interviewer: “Like being back in Vietnam.” It’s like what the… But we were still laid-back though, once we convoyed through the cities, the smaller towns – get to either Hohenfels, Grafenwoehr, and we still had to stop in these small cities. Had to stay by your truck, Germans would walk up to us – nothing like today, worry about suicide vests. Or somebody mucking around with your fuel tank like they did in Vietnam, would do the grenades with the tape where the fuel would loosen up the tape on the handles on the grenades, and off they went. Germany, the Germans come up to us and offer us coffee – especially if there’s a deli, the deli owner would come out with brotchens, and lunch meat – ham. Feed us! Left and right, nothing like it is today. There was always, would be somebody by the vehicle with – but our weapons were usually in the cab of the truck, were never loaded �anyway but… so it was always fun driving through these little towns because the Germans would look at your vehicle and stuff, they’d snoop around. They’d tell me how when I used to drive the 88 going through the towns, cobblestone streets – you know, this is a eighty-ton vehicle, and you know, [they’d] tell me how many years they’d been seeing American tanks run through here and all this. But very nice people. But it’s a shame today’s troops can’t do that like I said, going through Afghanistan. Interviewer: “Yeah, very different thing.” Different animal. And the troops in Vietnam, they were on their feet. If they stopped off at a little village or what there is of a town, they had to worry about the guerillas there, sabotaging. Interviewer: “If we can kind of steer back here toward your second tour – cause we’ve kind of gone and you’ve had kind of a flashback into the first tour and that kind of thing and that’s a good thing to have filled in, alright. So are there other main duties that you had or other things you did in Germany in that second tour beyond what you’ve talked about here?” (1:22:16) Well once I became an NCO – full time babysitter, which.. when I was a private, when an NCO told you to do something - from a Vietnam vet - NCOs we had, they said something, we’d listen to ‘em. Once they started to leave, there [were] very few Vietnam veterans still in the service. So a lot of those guys [who’ve] been in for a while, we remember what they taught us. Especially even though it was Germany, what to expect in a firefight. How to set up the claymore landmines, they were – or how to shoot your 203 grenade launcher. If you were an M60 crew or M50 crew, they were – they drilled that in, this is how you’re… your line of fire, everything. What they – but it was still taught to us. Then when it came – like I said earlier, they were old school. When it came time for room inspections they would flip out. I mean, god forbid they see a dust bunny floating underneath your bed. But it was still drilled into us, the new guys coming along. I mean, I feel bad now because I used to call some of the old Vietnam vets that I got along with ‘Pops, Grandpa,’ just wait, just wait, you know. And you knew the ones who you could monkey with and you knew the ones – especially once they’re drunk, no - leave them alone. Now, I was becoming an …, became a squad leader. I had kids under me. So I, you know, we had the room inspections. Keep your equipment [in] excellent shape, make sure everything worked. Make sure you had everything, especially when it came to the backpack like I told you about, Fort Polk. ‘I can’t find this, I can’t find that,’ but we also helped out the ones that were lagging behind, that’s what the Vietnam vets taught us. You don’t leave nobody. No matter what. So even though you went through something a thousand times that day with a certain person, you’re still helping ‘em. And so we – even out in the field we always had two canteens with us, with our gear. You have water in your canteen. It’s one of the things they’re always preaching, do you – make sure you have water. Then it got to the point, these new guys – the new privates. We’re getting after them, and… but then [in] the back of your head you’re still hearing the older guys, and… like I said, with then, with the older Vietnam guys – lipped off to one of ‘em, he might not �do nothin’ in front of you, minute you cross that corner he’s got you. And he would drill, ‘you don’t lip off, you listen.’ Cause you didn’t listen, you got so-and-so killed. … something sneak in. Nighttime, out in the thing, perimeter, these guys would wig out over the perimeter. When we had to string up Concertina wire in our area – this is when we were still having C-rations in cans. ‘What’s all this for?’ And when it’s time [for] posting guards, ‘don’t go to sleep, don’t go to sleep,’ even though it was Germany! And sometimes I think they were reliving their experience. Interviewer: “Probably were.” (1:26:39) And.. but still, the training. You gotta make sure you look out for your men, cover your men, and – like I said, then toward the end, lot of ‘em were gone. But then I guess you could say the new generation, we inherited their ball. And it was an honor, really. Interviewer: “So we were kind of talking about, kind of the later stages of your military career and your time in Germany, the point where you’ve kind of become the old guy, the Vietnam generation has gone out. How do you characterize the kinds of people who were joining the Army and coming in after you, in terms of their backgrounds or aptitudes or..” The people, [who] I went in with, from basic to probably about middle-time, we were all the same age group. In basic training [you] might as well figure you had your eighteen-year-olds and your nineteen-year-olds, maybe a couple seventeen-year-olds sprinkled in. I still remember we had twenty-year-olds and a couple Vietnam guys came back in, and so we were – except for some of the twenty-year-olds, us – the younger guys, we’re all still in the same mindset. High school, that big football game, that big pass that you caught and all this, or dating a cheerleader, or ‘my car is this fast,’ and all that. And there are small-town guys, still hung out together, you know. Still the same mindset. And even in Germany everybody was still almost in the same age group. You know, you were stationed with people from different parts of the US, and – but still the same mind group, except for what - the training. We were starting to take things a little more seriously, and I guess you could say it’s more or less going through college: freshman year, you’re green, you’re running around banging your head on ‘which direction do I go, what am I doing, what did I do.’ By the time your sophomore year, ‘okay, I know not to hit that wall no more, cause it’s gonna hurt.’ But you’re listening more to instruction. Following the direction. Now by then the older kids – I would say the Vietnam vets, for me, were starting to.. ‘okay, this guy’s alright.’ They will lead you through that – to get you going in the right direction, but they’re not gonna hold your hand all the way, they’re gonna let you fall. Same thing for college. By the time you hit your junior year, if you haven’t figured out what you’re gonna do or get your assignments on, you’re gonna fall. Well, in the Army, after… for me, I think the sixth year I knew where I was heading in the Army. Toward training, toward leading troops. It was all because that senior grabbed me by the neck, ‘it’s gotta be done this way,’ and his thing – I remember one of the Vets told me, ‘The Army’s been doing this for 150 years, they’re not going to change because you think it’s a better idea. Forget it.’ And once I got my five and I was, like I said, put into a squad leader position, then the ones that I was with – they were gone, out of the Army. �Same age group, they did their four years, three years, two years, they were gone. By the time I was twenty-six, I was considered the old guy – except for my senior NCOs. Then, I’m dealing with eighteen-year-olds, nineteen-year-olds. And trying to teach them what I was taught – by then the Army was changing their ways, where discipline-wise, wasn’t as harsh. (1:31:31) Interviewer: “Okay.” And so… you’d sit there and talk ‘em through more stuff, hold ‘em through more stuff. And I still remember a smart-aleck kid, I was climbing out of the turret of a tank and so help me, every bone in my body cracked, cause I twisted a certain way - goes, ‘Man, you’re old!’ I’m only twenty-six! ‘You’re an old man!’ When he said that from that day – like you know … came through PT, doing.. trying to prove I can still do more things than he can do. I can still take that ball and run, later that day, once I got back to the barracks, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna die, shoot me now!’ These guys were (breathing heavily) ‘til it dawned on me and my roomie, we were talking – we were like that too, young and stupid. And.. but it was a different era, came in. We had suicide problems. Young guy, with sticks in my head… young kid, he was from Iowa, I won’t say his name – and we used to call him ‘Opie,’ had a girlfriend, he was the high school quarterback, by then the Army was teaching us to get more involved in your soldiers’ [lives]. Leave your door open, if you have a problem, talk to ‘em. Now this was getting away from working on tanks and running through the woods in Germany and all that, so... had this kid, and [he] got a Dear John letter – got used to getting Dear John letter[s], get the guy drunk as you can or take him to Frankfurt. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Frankfurt – at the time there was a red light district. You know, everybody always paid out of their own pocket to make this kid happy again, and we did everything with this kid. And the girlfriend, Dear John letter, and I guess they’d been together for god knows how many years. And one day he walked in the motorpool, and he hung himself. I didn’t see him do it – actually, nobody did. Then one day somebody was walking through the motorpool, MPs were showing up, ambulance and first sarge grabbed me, and let me know what’s happening, he’s growling at me. ‘What happened with this kid?’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know!’ ‘Why did he hang himself?’ I didn’t know. And my door was open, but it was the way I was taught – you had a problem, you worked it out. And… I let that one slip through my fingers, not knowing. And took that one hard, and first sarge had been a Vietnam vet, 2nd 11 Cavalry. He said, ‘You know, this hurts worse than having one get shot.’ And so, still had [an] open-door policy but I wanted to walk up to you if you had a letter from your family, ‘lemme read it!’ And ‘specially if you had got a Dear John I doubt… if you let me read it. Of course we did give the big brother advice, if somebody did get a Dear John, ‘oh, to heck with that girl, you can do better, let’s get drunk.’ And you know, try to make ‘em feel better. (1:36:05) Interviewer: “Alright, now were there any women coming into your unit yet, or?” �We had women in our unit, the first time no women. Second time, that’s when the Army – we started having segregated barracks. And that was – I’ve personally, myself, never been in college – but I can image what college dorm room life was like. With females. They still couldn’t work on the tanks, the armor – but they mostly were for supply, paperwork, administration. And couple of ‘em did small arm repairs, and they’d beg and plead, ‘can we go out there on the tanks?’ ‘No, no, no, you can’t, you’re a girl.’ Interviewer: “Mhm.” Well that’s the worst thing to someone who’s hellbent on… okay, got permission from platoon sergeant, had her come out there and help us. Small girl, figured after a couple days lifting all these components out, then all of a sudden she could get in these areas where us big guys were struggling to get in. She loved it! Every minute of it. And we had a howitzer that needed the fuel cells replaced – diesel fuel cells, they’re bladders. Not ever worked on the artillery pieces ‘cept for the sights. One of the guys says, ‘Do you think you she could climb into that fuel cell and start pulling it out?’ Everybody else was too big. ‘Okay fine, no problem.’ She got into that thing, started busting her butt – we nicknamed her Mouse. She – everybody was in, the big guys were in love cause she could squirrel through that thing, and she was puttin’ some of the regular guys to shame. And.. but she loved it. And when she reenlisted, she reenlisted to be a mechanic. And.. but to this day they still don’t let women go into artillery brigades, or tank brigades. But the two I saw, oh yeah they’ve been great. I saw female truck drivers, could wheel around some of those deuce and a halfs - deuce and a halfs didn’t have power steering, these are still the manual steering. I don’t know if you’ve ever drove a manual steering vehicle, you know, lifts you out of your seat when you try and turn. Some of these women I saw were palming the steering wheel like it’s… ‘Okay sister!’ And they could hold their own, but still having a barracks of women, that was really weird. Extremely weird, couldn’t get used to it at first. But like I said, then it [became] college dorm life. It was fun. Interviewer: “Okay. So you kind of adapted to that, so it wasn’t a great morale problem to have the women there or?” (1:39:29) No! Still had some hardcore NCOs – female and males, they didn’t like it. And the younger guys, oh it was paradise to them. I mean, so... guys are sneaking down to their floors, girls were – my roommate was notorious, [would] always bring a girl in the room. I would wake up and see a toe from underneath the blanket, ‘alright that’s not his toe.’ Cause he better not be wearing red nail polish! But you know, just blew it off. Our, when new girls would show up at the barracks that had been assigned to us, I think every window of the barracks was open and these guys were like, ‘that’s gonna be mine, guarantee it.’ So yeah. Interviewer: “Do you know if there were problems with harassment or guys pushing things too far?” �If there was, it was taken care of in the barracks – it was nothing like that big Navy scandal in the ‘80s – Tailhook, I think. Interviewer: “Tailhook, yeah.” No, there was – I mean, if somebody did cross a line either they stayed away from each other very well… being an NCO I never heard nothing, nothing like it was with the drug issue. But usually you would call the – that’s what I was just telling Cody, my neighbor that brought me. A military romance, after a couple weeks, move on. Interviewer: “Alright, now were drugs an issue in the Army in the ‘80s?” Yeah. Everybody would leave Frankfurt, go to Amsterdam – hash. And cocaine was starting to make a big deal. Somebody would bring back pot and they would get laughed at, ‘why I got hash here! Why would I want to smoke pot?’ ‘Course drinking was a big issue. Still had your annual urine test, and then couple days later all the sudden MPs [would] be lying down in front of the barracks, calling names, or they would bring the dogs in. And guys would, had brilliant ideals on throwing the scent off on the dogs, they swore up and down, black pepper and all this. But once the dogs came in, searched your room, and – but like I said, the urine tests – but yeah, drugs were a problem. Interviewer: “And did you see occasions where it sort of affected anybody’s job performance? Or was this really kind of an off-duty issue?” Off-duty issue. We had one guy, flipped out – turned out he was doing coke. And flipped out in the motorpool, somebody was doing something and flat-out caused him to flip out. But in the ‘70s, I think, since you’ve been doing Vietnam vets, drug problems, very bad. So the military kind of got a handle on it – what to look for. I don’t know if any of your Vietnam vets told you about – with their NBC mask, their carrier. They used to have a EpiPen with them. And the EpiPen was speed that you would jab in your leg, if you had a chemical attack. So they were using their Vietnam – that EpiPen left and right, left and right. Well the military decided to take that EpiPen out, so by the time the ‘80s rolled around, we still had the same gas masks and all, no EpiPen. Cause the Vietnam guys would get stoned off the thing. Being speed. And… but then they got really hot and heavy with the drug testing stuff. Interviewer: “Okay. Now were there racial issues at all in the ‘80s?” (1:44:00) No. As you and I talked earlier about my southern drawl, when it does come out – basic training, where I’m from back home there was no African-Americans, no Hispanics, no Asians – all-white community. For high school football, we played this one – our first all-Black football team. We didn’t know what to do. And coach was getting after us, ‘They’re people! Hit ‘em! They’ll hit you back!’ And all that stuff. And man, these guys could run. Could never catch ‘em. We got our �butts handed to us. First time experience with African-Americans. Now, growing up, TV, you saw the protests with the fire hoses and all that. That was left at that, we go into other towns that had African-Americans, you looked at ‘em, all this. And you hear the violence on TV. Well, basic training starts. We had a mixture of… couple Asians, lot of Cubans that – their families escaped. And the boat people. Interviewer: “Right.” ‘Course, African-Americans. So [I was] assigned this bunk, guy sittin’ above me, and his name is Roro, black – a black man. Blackest man I’ve seen! He had his shoes and socks off, he’s sitting above me and his feet… and I just couldn’t keep from staring, and I kept staring. And staring, and finally he looked over his bunk – ‘Never been around a black man before, have you?’ And I’m like, ‘oh yeah, yeah.’ ‘What you staring at my feet for then?’ And the bottom of his feet was the whitest, as white I’ve ever seen my whole life. First words out of his mouth, ‘you’re a hayseed.’ ‘What?’ So he broke down hayseed – okay, and we became good friends during basic. And yeah, we had problems – we had the boys from the South, there was a couple fights in the barracks. And it got nipped in the bud real quick, and you right away knew who was racist. White and black. So basic went through, there was no major shooting, behind doors, yeah you heard the N-word quite a bit, from both sides. And I could never understand why a black man would call another black man the N-word. But I asked ‘em, ‘Why can you do that and I can’t?’ They’re like, ‘well you just can’t.’ ‘Why?’ I never got a definite answer. So I made it through basic training, AIT, same thing, everything smooth as silk. Then when I got assigned to 19th Maintenance, I had a four-man room. By then they were starting to segregate the rooms, white and black, white and black, white and black. No more all white, no more all-black. Interviewer: “So they’re de-segregating the rooms then.” (1:47:42) Exactly, thank you, de-segregating. And so this corporal took me to my room, he goes, ‘Good luck with your roommates,’ and he opened the door, guys were sitting there, all three of ‘em were black. One of ‘em said, first word, ‘hell no!’ And I… oh my lord, I’m… so got in there, introduced myself, they introduced themselves. Two of ‘em [were] from Detroit. That one was from Los Angeles. And got settled in and all that, these guys made me feel comfortable. And after a week or so, once we really got to know each other, just imagine being stationed, or in a room with two Eddie Murphys and a Chris Rock. Cracking jokes all the time, everything. There [was] more laughing and giggling in that room, and these guys – especially the two from Detroit, and finally they’re calling each other the N-word – they looked at me, ‘long as this stays in this room, you can say it.’ I was like, ‘what?’ Well, okay… well then it was… everybody was the N. Now once we left that room, go to the mess hall… and then other black guys would show up into the room and the N-word was floating around, and I finally said it – well these other black guys – “Ohhhhh, well here we go.’ They’re like man, ‘that’s not cool, that’s not cool.’ So… but yeah, the guys from the South still – you could tell the ones that walk around with a big belt buckle and the stars and bars and everything. Now the thing in Germany, everybody bought �stereos. The biggest stereo you… I bought one. Now I’ve always loved country music, well actually, a variety of music. And I bought this Lynyrd Skynyrd decal, and it was stars and barsstyle. But instead of stars it said “Lynyrd Skynyrd.” Well then the… Lewis, that’s the one from L.A. – he could’ve been a diehard Malcolm X. There was days he would flip flop. Walked into the room, he [was] playing my stereo – we had to have headphones – he’s just sitting there listening. Walked over to see what he was playing on the turntable, a Willie Nelson song. Goes, ‘This is pretty cool!’ (laughter) And you know, back in the ‘80s all the rhythm and blues are African-American groups, you know, you had Peaches and Herb and… then they got me listening to music, and Gladys Knight. And Aretha Franklin, the Commodores, and Stevie Wonder, so the music thing, you know, by the time I left, the first time? My variety of music, instead of country, was [expanded]. But those three guys made my first tour in Germany great. And before – if I would not [have] gone into the military, if I would’ve seen three black men… I would’ve steered away. Honestly. But these guys – like I said, they’re the ones that, when they told me about life in Detroit, [at] first I thought they were yanking my chain. Since I’ve lived here in Michigan I was like, ‘Wow, that was rough.’ That was almost a war zone itself. But… and then Los Angeles, Lewis – that’s happened right at the time of the riots in L.A.— Interviewer: “Yeah, the whole Rodney King thing and—” (1:52:34) Exactly. And ‘course that was covered on AFN – Armed Force Network. And you could see the gears in his head just turning, and… I got concerned, cause right away he said, ‘See how you F’n white people are?’ And I’m like, ‘Not everybody’s like that.’ ‘Aw, bullshit.’ And then that’s when the Malcolm X side, slash… the one gentleman who wears the bow tie, Farrakhan. Interviewer: “Yeah.” That side came out. So we got into a discussion about it and all this, and by then the other two guys came into the room, and they heard him just going off and all this about whites. The other two guys yelled at him, and that’s when the N-word… go outside, play on the Autobahn, we don’t care. That’s over there. And ‘course I wanted to stand up and say the same thing, and you know… ‘Keep your mouth shut Dave, keep your mouth shut,’ but the other two guys… so he got mad and he took it out of the room, probably went to the club. Those guys [were] saying yeah, ‘People from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, [they’re] different.’ And… but that’s, that was the hesitation. You heard behind the doors, ‘Oh, you’re after me, you’re out for me!’ But no, no… then I had to be careful on how I talked, with that drawl. Picked my words very carefully. And then I, when I got orders those guys were – the two guys were gonna head back to Detroit, work at the plants. They had family working at the plants. One was Ford, one was Chevrolet. Now with Lewis, I know he was heading back to Los Angeles, I don’t know what his plan was. I had orders to go back to Louisiana, and… Louisiana, where I was stationed there was more whites than anything. Now we did have the African-Americans from Louisiana tripping people [out], believed in voodoo. They’d touch that little bag around their neck. But racism was bad in Louisiana, they were still burning crosses. You didn’t really wanna get caught if you walked �downtown Leesville, that’s just outside of Polk – walk with a black guy, they look at you and you feel the hair on the back of your neck, and so it was… and I fooled around – this is way before I met my wife – starting dating a girl in our company, and she was black. She was from Jackson, Mississippi. It was good times, very good times. Her dad, mom, fantastic people in Jackson. They welcomed me into their home, they were drilling me, where I’m from. All this, and… they were very open-minded. Now her brother, on the other hand, [thought] ‘what was I doing in their house?’ Oh they used to get after him for one into another. And so this girl I was dating, things were getting pretty hot and heavy, and the thought of reenlisting wasn’t going to happen. ‘Nope, I’m with this girl.’ Well by then her enlistment was coming up, but she wanted to go back to Jackson. Well then that reenlistment NCO put a bug in my ear, and that’s when also, he guaranteed Fort Knox or Fort Campbell. Well I could finish my career [in the] military close to home. So this woman and I, or girl, talked about it, nope, she’s getting out. She wanted me to get out with her. And I was going to, then like I said, reenlistment NCO – and then too, the Army was throwing money at you too. Okay, wow. She got mad when I raised my right hand. So, that’s when I got orders. I knew for sure, Evans… you know, in that general area - Germany. (1:57:51) Interviewer: “Yeah, alright. Now Germany then, you’re kind of coming to the end of the reenlistment period. And at this point are you ready to get out?” I was… I was looking [forward to] becoming staff sergeant. All the sudden, there was a point freeze. And there was a freeze, they said it’s going to be a long freeze. And so I wanted to be a staff sergeant. Did everything possible [to] get my points up but still, there was that freeze. And so then they started plucking through the ranks, to be warrant officer. And actually my first platoon sergeant – he was a staff sergeant, very first one I ever had in Germany. He became a warrant officer. And he was talking to my roommate and I, he said there’s one slot open. He said, ‘I want you two to become warrant officers, forget about being staff sergeant.’ Mark and I, my roommate – like I said, we’re laughing and giggling about it, and I figure, ‘Aw heck, he’s not going to be [a] warrant officer,’ cause by then he was becoming anti-Army. Anti-government, everything. Alright. So [without] even pursuing it anymore I figure it’s gonna be a shoo-in. And so my warrant officer, he’s chief warrant officer three. ‘Still serious about being a warrant officer?’ ‘Oh yeah, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.’ ‘They’ll send you back to Aberdeen for warrant officer school,’ dadadada. ‘Okay.’ I left it at that. Week later my roomie was acting really weird, the conversation of warrant officer wasn’t brought up no more and I still didn’t think… he came out, he said, ‘I’m going to be a warrant officer.’ ‘What?’ ‘I want to take that position.’ ‘What the—’ You know, we’re both the same rank, had the same points, I said, ‘You? You’re anti-government, you hate the Army, everything!’ ‘Nope, I want to take it.’ ‘Aw,’ just… by then, just imagine, you know the sound a semi makes when it’s locking up its tires? So saw [the] warrant officer, chief, went ahead and I said, ‘You got that position?’ Then he looked me dead in the eye, ‘You want to be a warrant officer?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Well why didn’t you say something?’ Well I said, ‘You said to Mark and I…’ He said, ‘Yeah,’ So I said, ‘Well,’ and I told him, ‘I figure Mark wouldn’t want the position and it [was going to be] easy walking.’ He goes, ‘I waited for you to say something but your roommate said [he wanted it.]’ And this is the guy who hated the Army, every time we had an �alert— (unhappy noises) Hated rules and regulations, and he took it. And so then being a professional babysitter, I was starting to get frustrated, because when you’re telling a grown man – and this is when we still polished our boots. ‘Dude, you gotta put polish on those boots.’ They expect you to spit-shine your boots, put on a clean uniform. Make your bed. So, that’s when the old-school discipline, by a couple years, out the window. You’re writing up action reports. And I’m writing up this guy left and right, spending time in my room, writing him up and explaining to him, trying to tell him… still. And it wasn’t [just] him, it was a couple of guys. When we got called out on alerts, first thing I always say – make sure you’ve got water in your canteens. Well we’d get where we had to go, all of a sudden one of them’s crying, ‘I don’t have water.’ ‘Why don’t you have water?’ ‘I forgot.’ Still I’m dealing with this guy that didn’t want – you know, his room was always a mess. That’s one thing they still flipped out, out in the military – they want polished floors, nicely-made rooms. And it was getting old. Then he pulled a stunt on me – when I went to the first sergeant, first went to the platoon sergeant then the first sergeant. ‘Discipline him, discipline him.’ Their version of discipline was talk, not physical. He pulled a stunt where after chow was over with, we were heading for formation, started complaining – ‘I didn’t eat.’ ‘Why didn’t you eat?’ ‘Didn’t have time to eat.’ ‘What were you doing?’ Gave me this big him-haw story, I said, ‘You know, there’s that snack bar going toward the motorpool.’ ‘Are you refusing me to eat?’ ‘There’s the snack bar.’ And I left it at that. Someone else said, ‘There’s a snack bar on the way.’ They served hot dogs and chips and pastries. Later that day, he went to Chaplin, told Chaplin I refused to let him eat. He said, ‘He denied me – where I couldn’t eat at the mess hall, said I couldn’t.’ Well, then Chaplin listened to his story, got a hold of my first sergeant. First sarge is like.. by then, battalion commander found out, sergeant major found out. I got a phone call to go battalion, and my platoon sergeant was there, company commander there, and my first sergeant. ‘Why are you denying so-and-so to eat?’ I’d forgot all about [it.] Then, I said, ‘We were marching to the motorpool – he told me he didn’t eat,’ I said, ‘there’s the snack bar,’ we always stopped off at the snack bar. And no, mess hall was closing. And they said, ‘Would he have had time to eat at the mess hall?’ ‘No,’ cause you marched out at that time. And they said, ‘If he would’ve eaten, could he [have] caught you guys marching?’ I said, ‘No, we’d probably been at the motorpool by the time he caught us.’ Well, sergeant major was just going off on me and my first sarge, like, ‘yeah yeah yeah yeah,’ my platoon sergeant… didn’t ever getting after him and by then I was the last one. And I explained to these men that I was having problems with this guy. Only thing to do to this guy before the mess hall incident was court martial him, but that was out of my powers. I suggested it, have charges brought against him – for unbecoming a soldier. Well by the time all this thing with the mess hall and all this, I got written up. And… for not following through. But the reason why is how I was trained, for… over the years. Cause the NCOs I had from over the years were the Vietnam vets, couldn’t stop that war cause you didn’t eat. (2:07:18) Interviewer: “So is this moving you into a direction toward thinking it’s time to hang ‘em up?’ �Yeah. Cause my best friend was becoming a skilled craft ink-pen, which is a government inkpen, and a Webster’s Dictionary. And plus you know, getting everybody in line, that’s why I use the term heavily - babysitter. Well, I came home here to Michigan, my mother moved up here. And so I came home to visit her, and my mother met this waitress. And so a couple years [later], my mom was badgering me about this waitress. ‘You have to meet her!’ ‘Okay, whatever, just…’ So finally it was time to take leave, and the guys were going to gunnery, my roomie that got accepted [to] warrant officer school, he was gone, so… and feeling kinda bummed out, kicking a rock around, you could say. Still doing my duties. Then they stuck me in headquarters. And usually when you start copping attitudes they stick you in headquarters. But the headquarters was in charge of maintenance, so they stuck me upstairs. Then I got to wear my nice pressed fatigues, and spit-shined boots, feeling pretty good. And they said, ‘This is going to be your job. We want you to find parts.’ ‘What kind of parts?’ ‘Anything dealing from tanks, trucks, jeeps, anything.’ Cause it was headquarters’ job to make sure all the parts came in, and make sure everything got done at a certain time. Okay, fine. They put me at a desk, this lieutenant tossed me [a] United States Army phone book, of Europe. ‘Start finding parts.’ ‘Okay, what the hell.’ So my first duty station was Hanau, and actually it was also the Army junkyard of – every vehicle you can think of that’s been destroyed some way or another, collision or… But they needed truck parts. And called up Hanau maintenance, you know, explained to them what I need, ‘Well you gotta try this Corps because they’re running the junkyard, call them,’ and all a sudden, ‘Yep, we got those parts and all this.’ Went to the major that was running headquarters, told him, ‘Fine, how long’s it going to take you get down there? Sign out your deuce and a half.’ Gotta go back to Hanau, which … completely direction. Got the parts, brought back, all a sudden, ‘Can you find these parts?’ ‘Okay,’ called up. And it was nothing like … ‘I’ll trade you for … rows …’ cause believe it or not we had to pay for these parts. So then I knew about Mainz, Mainz was the civilian repair. And I got to know them fairly well while I was in headquarters. So we had to get parts from them, but we had to purchase the parts, even though it was going to U.S. military equipment. So that was going back and forth, Hanau, then we dealt with German contractors. I went to John Deere and I went to Volvo, carrying jacks and all these. And getting parts, that’s how I finished out my last year. I never touched a M1, had people come up to me, ‘How do you work— we got this problem, dadada,’ and they used to get mad at headquarters. I don’t know how many times I tried to make a great escape to the motorpool. All the sudden I hear on the window, cause headquarters [was] above the motorpool. I hear on the window, ‘Get back! Get back!’’ So I’m at a game, they’re start— they’re purposely walking back, slow. ‘Get your truck, we need these-‘ Okay. Then like I said it was becoming fine, cause also headquarters, when we’re out in the field, that’s how they’d go to the different mess halls and check out the food preparation so… the one lieutenant did so we went to the different mess halls out in the field, you know, got to eat already, soups and pastries. Then we had to pick up fresh produce from a German market. Which was fun, and then I seen a couple of guys again from – I worked with during that whole eighty-eight I had, they’re looking so tired, I’m looking so nice and fresh— we had showers, cause then when we had showers, if they brought out showers to you. Well in headquarters where we stayed there were showers. Living it up, honestly. And I got a medal for that job also, but getting back to my wife. (2:13:10) �My mom met my wife. And when I got home on leave, my mom handed me a piece of paper, ‘This is her phone number, don’t screw it up.’ ‘Alright.’ Well when you have a mother that’s hellbent – she wants [a] daughter-in-law and a grandchild. My wife already had a daughter from her previous guy, she was a little girl. So called up this – my wife, I said, ‘is Martha home?’ She goes, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I’m Dave, I’m Sharon’s son. Would you like to go out on a date?’ So I’m already figuring, I heard it in the conversation in my brain, ‘No that’s fine, that’s okay,’ and I remember telling her, ‘Thanks’ you know, figuring, she goes, ‘Yeah, I’ll be glad to go out on a date.’ Well by then my wife’s like, alright – her dating scene was zero, because she already had a little girl. And my wife came from a very.. a Catholic, Hispanic family. So she’s already in hot water because she had a child, but still, very strict Catholic and Hispanic. So I met my – then, [I’d] say new girlfriend, and we went out on a date. Couple dates. It was third day on my leave, I asked her to marry me. Where that came from… she looked me dead in the eye, she goes, ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yeah! I’m sure.’ She said yes. Now, what was I thinking? It just [slipped out.] ‘Okay!’ Went back to my mom, and my mom’s like, ‘Oh, great,’ cause she loved Martha already, which is my wife’s name. And Martha’s daughter, Amanda, she was two at the time. So after I realized what I did, okay. But like I said, we still dated while I was home on leave, and right away people thought Martha and I were married cause of Amanda. And all the sudden those thirty days – pew, gone. Head back to Germany. Then things just.. wouldn’t click, it did not feel right. And we had a big inspection. So we still had to get all the guys together, get all their stuff together, make sure things – the same routine over and over and over. Then I heard, ‘Can’t find my tent!’ ‘How do you row this?’ ‘How do you pack this?’ ‘Why do we-‘ It was like, oh my god… in the process I was thinking about then, my fiancée, and her daughter. This isn’t fun no more. Honestly. Time [came] around to enlist. Eight years under my belt, twenty-seven years old. Still thinking of Martha. And Amanda, cause when I was home with Amanda, the two-year-old, damn she was fun! You could tell her to do something, she would do it! No question, or tell her find something? ‘I can’t find..’ God, this is fun! Like I said, people were already thinking we were married. Well I was still staying at my mom’s house, there was no staying at Martha’s house – like I said, her mom and dad, very Hispanic. ‘Better be a wedding ring on that finger before you stay in our house.’ I mean, I’m getting out, so I called her up, ‘Martha,’ I said, ‘I’m getting out.’ ‘When?’ ‘Well, I still have to talk to the reenlistment NCO,’ and they brought down the battalion reenlistment NCO. ‘I’m getting out.’ ‘Why, you got a career in the Army!’ And… said, ‘Go to Lima, Ohio, guarantee you’ll be hired in a tank plant.’ I’m done. That’s all I told him, ‘I’m done.’ I had sixty days of leave accumulated, that’s back then – reason why no one really went home, cause you still had to pay for your airline ticket, compared to today where they have free flights. (2:18:24) I saw all of Germany that I wanted to see. Dachau, and Munich, Berlin, got to go to East Berlin, which was very scary and unnerving. Cause being to me, was like walking into a black-andwhite movie. Still war-damaged. Interviewer: “And this is now like 1987 or something?’ �Pardon me? Interviewer: “This is still like 1987?” No, this was 1985. Interviewer: “Okay, so a little earlier, but not that much—” Before I went to Fort Polk. Interviewer: “Okay.” They were offering tours by then, go to East Berlin, there was forty of us. We had to take the troop train to go over there. Went through checkpoint Charlie, most of our uniform – all of our uniforms, we had to wear dress greens, everything from our ribbons, nametags, and our battalion insignias, and our patches had to be taken off. Here’s the rules. Don’t start no trouble, if you start trouble you’ll cause a war. Visit, go to a guesthouse, look around. Okay, we did that. Once we got through checkpoint Charlie and on their side, there was no color. I swear to god there was no color. Everybody looked depressed, they were so war-damaged. And we were told, ‘You’re gonna be spied on right away, there’s cameras around. They’re gonna be looking at you, please don’t do nothing stupid.’ So we went to the guesthouse, we’re all hungry and… the German that was running it, East German, she was glad to see us. One, she knew we had money, and we had exchanged our money for East German marks. But she knew we had money. And got into the place, and noticed there, still for the longest time, there’s still the same people sitting in there. And told that to the NCO that was in charge, he goes, ‘That’s KGB. So don’t talk about your job, if they ask you about your job, just tell ‘em you’re in the United States Army. Don’t tell ‘em you worked on dadada, you know, or poppin’ pimples. Don’t tell ‘em nothing, don’t tell ‘em what state you’re from.’ And they didn’t.. off the street somewhere, ‘You have a cigarette?’ They.. for American cigarettes were black marketed over there. But they would exchange you East German and Russian cigarettes. You ever heard this old slang, ‘A certain part of your body will get knocked to the floor,’ I’ll tell you once we’re done here, I did smoke a Russian cigarette. Remember Granny from Beverly Hillbillies, way she drank the moonshine, the smoke, and… aw. But we ended up having soup, drank beer, we walked around East Berlin, and they were still showing us war damage, very little rebuild from after the war. Then we saw Russian soldiers, they were around, but they knew we were Americans, but we were there for a day. Just walking around, just absorb— but everything just, we saw the Russian cars, saw the sickle and hammer everywhere. And still was able to see the Berlin Wall and if you’re on the west side you see nothing but graffiti along the west side. On the east side, grey concrete, and blocks. And barbed wires. And you saw the barbed wire where it was a gap, then another section of barbed wire, then the fence. There was mines, and you saw the gun towers. So when our time was up, went back through checkpoint Charlie, exchanged our marks, we all had McDonalds in Berlin. We had two days in Berlin, we partied. But then you always heard people complain about how much they hated the U.S., you saw it on the news at the time. ‘I hate the U.S.,’ especially when they started burning the flags. We used to say, if you hate it �that much, East Germany will take you in a heartbeat, Russia will take you, move there. You got it made! And cause if you spoke negative of the communist government, you’re put in prison. Or disappear for good, so when I heard Americans complaining, ‘Go to Russia!’ And said that one time when I was home, to a friend I went to high school with. ‘Go to Russia! What’s holding you here?’ ‘I’m not gonna go over there.’ ‘Go! They’ll welcome you with open arms.’ (2:24:15) Interviewer: “Alright, okay. So you, then that was a useful sidetrack there but it’s basically you, basically you’d seen Germany, you were done with that, you were done with the Army, so you go back home, so you have your sixty day’s leave, so you get to leave essentially early?” Exactly, early. Plus with cash. And so I out-processed and I got orders for Fort Dix, New Jersey. And so there [were] a lot of people at Fort Dix out-processing, which is a process [of] getting out of the military. And get all your paperwork filled in, then you’re cashing in your leave, and they’re counting out how much money you got and all this, which turned out to be a nice, some pocket money. You get one more physical, get your teeth cleaned, eyes examined, and everything. But you’re in such a hurry where… I want out. And they run you through, past the reenlisting NCO. ‘Still got a chance to stay in,’ and my biggest beef was the – I knew the warrant officer chance, that was my own fault for not jumping – but what still hurt was staff sergeant, the points, the freeze on the points. Still, there was no letting up on the points. And he said, well, the reenlistment officer or NCO at Fort Dix, told him my MOS, he’s looking through, he said, ‘Change your MOS.’ ‘To what?’ ‘Go to a combat, be combat.’ ‘A grunt?’ ‘Guarantee you’ll make your rank.’ He’s rambling off different MOSs, MOSs – now what I learnt in Germany? No. I was tired. I didn’t want to go to back through AIT again. I mean, I knew guys who got out of the military then came back in, and they were very fortunate to get into their MOS. No. So they put us all on the bus, we had our papers, and everything. We were free. Didn’t look back, get to the airport in Jersey, there was another reenlistment NCO there – for all of the branches. Climbs up on the bus, ‘is this the Army bus?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘Who wants to reenlist, who wants to stay in?’ He’d come up to me, ‘I know you want to stay in.’ ‘Sit on your— NO. No.’ Already in civilian clothing, nope, nope. Cause I was tired. Not… I was physically, emotionally drained. Cause the fun was gone, I know being in the military’s not supposed to be fun, but… when you have to watch out for other people, ensuring they do things, when you have somebody commit suicide and you know, you saw the training accidents that were going on… but there was my wife. And a little girl. So got out, got out in May. Then we, my wife and I, well, we always include our daughter, got married [on] September 7th, 1988. Got a handshake from Fort Dix, New Jersey, ‘Good luck!’ That was it, good luck. (2:28:22) Interviewer: “And then did you go work for General Dynamics or what did you do after that?” �No. Cause had some money left over, I frogged around in Holland, we got married, started an instant family with [a] little girl. And after a while I had to get a job cause money didn’t last long, learning to live with a little girl in the house, that’s a different animal. I learnt how to shut bathroom doors. There was no bathroom doors in the barracks, especially in the latrine. So when you got a little girl [who’d] be bopping around through, ‘Dad’s at the bathroom door!’ ‘What are you doing Dad?’ ‘I’m urinating.’ ‘What is that Dad?’ And now I’m shouting, (laughter) and I was still a clean fanatic. Bathroom and all it, couldn’t get used to after she’s brushing her teeth, spitting in the sink, that was a no-no in.. especially in the latrines, you’d clean up after yourself. Finally my wife said, ‘She’s a little girl, a three-year-old little girl, she’s not a private.’ Cause I was still in that military mindset, everything had to be set. So I got a job, busting down truck tires. I had a tire shop, I knew how to do that already and… these guys… I was still disciplined military for work, get it done now. Do it right the first time, get it done. Then we can play later, first [time] working with civilians. They moaned, they groaned, they cried, and I’m thinking of the days working on those tanks in wintertime in Germany, didn’t get to complain. Your best friend in the wintertime, trying to unlock a vehicle, is a cigarette lighter to thaw out that lighter. These guys were complaining here in Michigan, being cold, had to work out in the cold. I remember helping busting down track down in snow, reattaching track, pulling barrels off.. and just, then the drug use. If there was overtime they would complain about overtime. We were on call 24/7 you could say, in the military. And I discovered I hate working with civilians. Then also, I’m this happy guy with [a] handful of medals. And certificates, I mean medals and certificates. Went to my father-in-law, said, ‘Why don’t you go to the, join the VFW? There should be other military people you know, guys you could talk to – you know, tell lies and all that.’ Went to the local VWF, told ‘em I’d like to join. Right away, that post commander said, ‘What years were you in?’ I told him, ‘Were you in a war?’ ‘Yeah, the Cold War?’ ‘Did you fire a shot?’ ‘At a enemy, no?’ ‘You can’t join.’ ‘What?’ ‘I did eight years!’ ‘That’s great, that’s nice, you can’t join. Cause you were not in a conflict.’ The Cold War was not considered a conflict. Now more than likely the post commander was a Vietnam vet, I respect that. You know, ate the same food he ate. (2:32:44) Interviewer: “It is Legion versus VWF, American Legion if you’re in military.” Same thing. Interviewer: “Well the Legion would take you, wouldn’t they?” Nope. Interviewer: “Really?” Nope. Cause American Legion is a foreign war. Now they said, ‘You can join auxiliary but you gotta pay.’ Auxiliary? I can’t go stand at that bar and shoot the breeze with… cause a lot of those Vietnam vets, either once they got out of Vietnam they went home or if they still had time on their – they went to Germany or Korea, or Japan. And when you’re told, ‘No, you can’t join.’ �And I had these medals and the certificates, and you had these Vietnam veterans, fifteen months at the most in the country, twelve months, might as well say I did six years. And so, when— so I told my wife, my wife knew I was… and so I kinda put it on the back show for years, and when Memorial Day rolled around, I… Veterans’ Day, not going to participate in nothing. And when my kids were going through school they always say, ‘Hey, have the veterans stand up!’ I would sit down. Cause, all because I [was] not good enough to join the VFW and the American Legion. And the thing was, I never ran across a Cold War veteran in Holland. And I guess they’re like me, just kinda low-profile. Then when 9/11 happened, and then all the sudden that patriotic feeling hits you in the gut and all that, and well even with the first Desert Storm… and I did receive letters, I got a notification from the local recruiter office, just be prepared, just in case. Well, nothing came out of that. Then when 9/11, and how they were welcoming back the troops. Like heroes. And you know, they get the free phone cards, free flights and all this, I’m like, ‘why didn’t all this happen with us?’ Then reality kicked in, what about the Vietnam guys? Of course World War II, but how they make a big ordeal then… where I lived in Holland, we’re next to Tulip City Airport. The jets, drive past there and all a sudden one of the jets [was] idling, and there was a kerosene smell [that] hit me. Cause on the M1 tanks, they were diesel. They had turbine engines, has that same exhaust smell. ‘The hell?’ First year my wife and I were married, being by Tulip City Airport, and National Guard helicopters used to land there. And they were Hueys, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been told, Huey – the Huey helicopter has a certain sound with its props. Once you hear it, you know it for life. Then Cobras, the same thing. I would run out the front door and look, tell my kids, ‘that’s a Huey UH-1, I rode in those,’ which I did. And no matter what the weather was, could’ve been cold as hell outside [in] Holland, I would run outside since I heard that Huey. Or I hear a Chinook. (2:37:02) But then ten years ago I tried to commit suicide. I… it was that fast-paced life from the military, Germany. So this kid, walking through our neighborhood, looked like that kid that took his own life. And my kids, my boys were playing Call of Duty. Then the smell of the exhaust, and seeing this kid. Already pulled the trigger, then my wife and kids flashed in my head. So I spent some quality time at the hospital, and then the V.A. got involved, and I had to go talk for a while and… but the things that I learnt while I was in the military, especially Germany, like the chemical issue, and radioactive fallout, and that stuff stays with you. And they didn’t tell you how to shut it off. Interviewer: “So you had your own version really, of PTSD?” Yeah. Interviewer: “And this came back to you at that moment when all those things came back together.” And then that’s what the V.A. diagnosed me with. But I kept telling them I didn’t fire a shot, and then they explained… so, and right now I have a son, my youngest – the one who used to make �fun of how I used to talk, I have a southern drawl – he’s in the Army. He’s been in for six years, and he’s going to reenlist. [Of] all places he’s stationed in Germany. And one of the training centers, so I was asking him all kind of questions, and of course, how many alerts, and all that stuff we went through. ‘We don’t do that stuff over here.’ ‘What?!’ ‘Not chemical?’ ‘No.’ ‘What’s an alert, Dad?’ Oh my god, he’s in Germany! Now he came from Fort Lewis, Washington. And they were very busy at Fort Lewis for being MPs. Now where he’s at, Hohenfels, they nicknamed it Mayberry – because it’s so slow, nothing. At Fort Lewis, speeding tickets, burglaries, assault, drugs, and he’s just sitting there going, ‘I’m at Mayberry.’ But still, you got that training area back there, ‘You guys ever go out [to] Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels?’ ‘No.’ ‘Okay.’ But I have to admit though, it’s the honest truth – I did grow up quite a bit. Now to this day, could I go – if I could go back to that small town where I came from? In a New York minute. Cause I know everything that was farms or either subdivisions, they redid a portion of the highway, I know the place I grew up on – gone. But that lifestyle, you know when you hear these old country songs, pickup trucks and all that? But the experience I learnt in the military? I would never trade that in. Interviewer: “Alright.” I mean, there was a lot of laughing and giggling, there was a lot of crying. There was a lot of anger. But the people I served with, I haven’t seen in thirty years. I still think of ‘em. Especially my very first roommates from Detroit. Still think of ‘em. And.. trying to hook up with these guys, you know the horror story after college, after you met your friends in college, you guys go your own way. Then they’re involved with their lives, you get things going in your life, then it’s… you know, but the memories are good. Interviewer: “Alright, well, the whole thing makes for a pretty remarkable story, even if you didn’t get shot at. And I’d like to close this out by just thanking you very much for taking the time to share the story today.” Well thank you very much for having me, I should’ve warned you though – being from the part of Southern Indiana, we do have a knack to yak. Interviewer: “Hey, well if we were still using tape I could say to you right now, tape is cheap. But anyway, thank you very much.” Well thank you very much. [END] � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchererD2287V Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Scherer, David Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-11 Title A name given to the resource Scherer, David (Interview transcript and video), 2018 Description An account of the resource David Scherer served in the U.S. Army from 1980 until 1988. He served as a sergeant in the 19th Maintenance Battalion, 302nd Maintenance Battalion, 705th Maintenance Battalion, and the 3rd Infantry Division. He was stationed primarily in Germany and the U.S. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States—History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975—Personal narratives, American Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401. Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/35e693b7a4cf525455455a1062ec549e.jpg bda79fd83763b86f885ad00dcc6783b4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ScherffJohn Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1979 Title A name given to the resource Scherff, John Description An account of the resource John Scherff, Maintenance Supervisor Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng 1979s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d968c5aa11e9d7b447c0f149fed29856.m4v ec0b25e4e6b5876013586d921efa0098 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/67020648cb9cd8105bf6d42141d3578a.pdf e247fa1e841b2da27ecd85e0ccd4eb97 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans’ History Project Lee Scherwitz Vietnam War 1 hour 25 minutes 53 seconds (00:00:03) Intro -Born on October 9th, 1946. -Entered the service in 1965 as a career airman. -Left the service in 1991. -His highest rank achieved is senior master sergeant E-8. (00:01:10) Early Life -Born in Teaneck, New Jersey. -Father was a tool and die maker. -Mother was a homemaker at the time. -Four other siblings. He is the second youngest of five. -Family moved a few times. Grew up mainly in Pearl River, New York. -About 20 minutes from NYC. -Desired to become an auto mechanic. -Not interested in college. -Someone offered him money to operate an auto repair/carwash station. -In 1965 the military recruited at his high school. -Those that already secured entrance to a college were dismissed. -He did want to go into the Navy. -In his youth he went through the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Sea Scouts. -Brother was also in the Navy. -Navy recruiter told him he already met his quota. -It would be two years before he could get in. -At the time he didn’t know the Air Force existed. -Thought it was part of the Army Air Corps. -Already had his draft card. -He knew drafting was inevitable so he wanted to just do it and get it over with. -Air Force recruiter convinced him to enlist. -Turned 18 the October before. -Already took his aptitude test. (00:05:00) -Being an aircraft mechanic sounded interesting. -When he was very young he would repair lawnmowers. -Graduated in June, 1965. Basic Training, Aircraft Maint Training, and Tech School in the US -On July 6th he was formally enlisted. -He was flown to the Lackland, Texas Air Force base for basic training. -The barracks were from WWII; boarded up and condemned. �-They were put to work to refurbish their own barracks. -Many on his flight to the base were from New York as well. -He already had a sense of a military outlook from his scouting experience. -Enjoyed his training ultimately. -After basic training, sent to Shephard Air Force Base in Texas. -Trained to maintain aircraft. -Studied in the one/two engine section of the school. -Worked on F-86, F-84, F-100s, and T-33 planes. -Learned to take pumps on/off, doing basic maintenance. -Next, his first duty assignment was at Selfridge Air Force base in Michigan. (00:10:00) Selfridge Michigan -Started out with a brusque introduction to the base. -Became more friendly after the initial stages. -Shown an F-106 for the first time. -Selfridge was part of the NORAD system. -At this time he is a 1-striper, Airman Third Class. -Much of the higher ranking recruits were being sent to Vietnam. -He worked under a 3-striper. -Designations of levels of training: -He had his 3-level from his current training. -Higher than that there was a 5-level. -7-level was for an NCO. -A 9-level was the supervisory level. -Took the advice to take every opportunity. (00:15:00) -Learned to drive a de-icing truck. -Arrived at Selfridge in the later part of 1965. -He was assigned to the 94th Tactical Interceptor Squadron. -In 1967 he “Flying Fists”, the 91st transferred from Selfridge to Richards-Gebaur Air Force base in Kansas City, Missouri. -He transferred to Richards-Gebaur in January 1967. -He continued to work on the F-106 planes. -He had earned his second stripe and had more responsibility. -“Crewing” on his own without supervision. -Running an expediter truck. -It’s purpose is to monitor resources of the planes to ready for their flight. -Not long after transferring received orders to go to Southeast Asia. -But he did not have the training to work on the Phantom planes there. -So he was required to go to tech school at MacDill Air Force Base in Flordia. -While at Selfridge he had met a girlfriend. -They married on July 28, 1967. -Coincided with the Detroit riots. -His tech school journey was their “75 day honeymoon”. -Classes at 4am to noon. -They were teaching classes 24 hours a day to get everyone through quick and out to Vietnam. �-Took place in the Tampa Florida region. -He finished the tech school training at MacDill in October 1967. -Next, he was sent to San Francisco to fly to Thailand. -While there he had two days until his flight left in California. -Visited Haight-Ashbury and the “typical” tourist areas. -Received some disapproving looks and “snubbing” while wearing his uniform. -But not as bad as some military would receive. (00:20:00) Ubon, Thailand -Flew to Bangkok, Thailand. -Next, flew on a C-130 plane from Bangkok to Ubon, Thailand. -Reported to the 555th Tech Fighter Squadron. -They used F-4 Phantom planes. -Took some training for about two weeks before working on his own. -The pilots there would fly for 100 missions, and they could be discharged. -Others had to stay for a year minimum. -He was part of the 8th Fighter Squadron. -Known for Daniel “Chappie” James, the first black four-star general. -He interacted with him and was well liked among the recruits. -At that time Chappie James was a colonel. -A 12 hour work day was typical. -They had one day off for the week, and which day it was varied. -“Cannibalization” of parts occurred. -When parts are taken from a broken airplane and used to fix another. (00:25:00) -When larger parts were needed the entire assembly would be transferred. -Legal and illegal “cannonballs” the process was referred to. -They went through three Crew Chiefs that were fired. -He was given a new role as Crew Chief. -They desperately needed a craft to be fixed and gave him wide authority to do so. -Because of cannibalization the craft required constant guard to prevent taking its parts. -At this time he is a three-striper rank. (00:30:00) -Given a phase dock crew to work for him to complete their goal. -Spent most of his time searching for parts, requisitioning them. -On the 90th day of repair they ran a taxi check. -Finally on the 120th day the plane was in flying condition. -Once it was finished he was able to go to Chiang Mai, Thailand as a reward for hard work. -Stayed for three days. -After returning to base, he went back to crewing and launching planes. -All the planes he launched returned. (00:35:00) -The Seabees built all of the infrastructure for use by the Air Force. -At Ubon he resided in a concrete two story barrack well built to protect against weather. -A house boy polished their shoes and cleaned their clothes. -The house boy used ironed clothes with banana leaves. �-The starch would seep into the uniforms. -Caused uniforms to “foam” if caught in the rain. -Workers on the air base would bring their children. -One would babysit while the other was cleaning. -(Seemingly these may be local people). -Requested his wife to send little toys or gifts for them to have. -Beer cost only 5 cents, while a Coka-Cola cost 25 cents. -His preference: wine or Popov Vodka. -Popov was only 90 cents. -They would take the “baht bus” in to town. -Baht is a Thai currency. -Drink ice used in town was made from local rivers. -Used the vodka to pour over ice to sterilize the water. -It was not a war zone. (00:40:00) -At that time no air bases had been attacked in Thailand. -“A shopper’s paradise.” -American’s boosted the local economy. -One of his purchases: a set of bronze ware utensils with rosewood handles. -Another: gave them his black and white wedding photo. -A craftsmen recreated it enlarged and in color. -Souvenir temple rubbings: cloth with crayon rubbed over the surface of the temple carving. -The town was about 15 minutes drive away from the base. -Spent 13 months in Thailand. Udon, Thailand -In May, 1967 the 555th Tech Fighter Squadron relocated from Ubon to Udon, Thailand. -Significant special operation activity in Udorn base. -He and his crew were the last to be picked up in the relocation. (00:45:00) -Packed up the base flag to relocate, and still owns it. -Took on a new temporary duty. -Working in the control room on a night shift. -Managing the fleet of planes. -A “frag order”. What the mission requirements were. -Ensure all the operations were done in sequence. -Kept track of all the maintenance going on. -Temporary role turned long term because he excelled at his new role. -They desired having someone familiar in the control room. -Soon he was transferred to the 432nd Tech Recon Control Wing. -His job with them as a maintenance controller. -Managing the fleet of planes being maintained on the flight line. -In this role he interacted with many special operations. -Interacted with Air America. -Gave him a “big picture” view. -Air America was a CIA operation that used planes to deliver rice/supplies to Thailand, Laos, �Cambodia, and South Vietnam. -Public affairs. (00:50:00) -Moved special ops to places marked planes couldn’t go. -Supporting locals also provided them with intelligence. -Training local Thai and Laos how to fly small, short range craft to go on missions. -Lima Site 85: -A US base in Laos was overtaken by enemy troops. -About 11 were able to be evacuated. -Required the base to be bombed and napalmed to prevent information and technology from use by enemies. (00:55:00) -The largest Air Force casualty of the War. -Most memorable moments were when someone would make a “MiG kill”. -A celebrated event. -Planes would fly in spirals and use phosphorous lights in celebration. -Also memorable, the Bob Hope Show. -Raquel Welch was along with them. -He grew a handlebar mustache for the occasion. -He was picked out of the crowd to be interviewed by Bob Hope. (01:00:00) -It was a sit-down video recorded interview. -He was raised Lutheran. -Married into the Catholic Church. -At Ubon he was taking a confirmation class. -Through the local church he heard about a nearby school with a barebones hut to teach in. -They used foam missile cases to insulate the structures roof from the hot radiating sun. -Took about 4 days’ time. -The local mayor (called the Puyabon) invited them to come participate in a local social gathering. -Dancing, lots of food and rice wine. -They used red ants for food seasoning. (01:05:00) -Red ants are citric like a lemon. -Australians were also part of the military force at the Ubon Air Force Base. -They participated in a number of CIA missions. -They used a MARS station to communicate by radio and phone to the US. -The communication was set up and funded by Barry Goldwater. -Mail and audio reels as well. (01:10:00) -On July 27th, the Udon base was attacked by sappers. -They attempted to blow up a C-141. -About 10:30 pm. -Several casualties and damage to certain planes. -His tour was supposed to end in October, 1968. -His replacement didn’t come for another 30 days. �End of First Military Enlistment, New Enlistment at Homestead, and Misc. -Relieved to be out of the military. -He had a free day in Bangkok before his flight left. -He was offered an assignment to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida. -The job market at that time was very weak. -So he chose to take the assignment on a 4 year tour in the US. -Returned to the US in San Francisco, California. -Had to re-enlist to accept the assignment. -A tax incentive to those that were in or flew over Vietnam was offered. -A month tax-free. -Upon re-enlisting he took up the journey to Vietnam and back for this purpose. -Flew to Okinawa, then a civilian flight to Taiwan, to Ching Chuan Kang base, to Bangkok, and then finally back to Ubon. -Upon his return to San Francisco the climate was hostile with hecklers. -Flew home to Michigan from there. -Had a 30 day home leave. -Took a slow trip to see family and travel to Homestead, Florida. -They put him to work in the control room as his experience were very desirable. (01:20:00) -At Homestead, the structure was still assumed under a squadron mindset. -At the time the US was friendly with the Shah of Iran. -Iran was being supplied with Phantom planes. -He trained maintenance officers to maintain the fleet. -Experience that was very useful for future use. -Reflecting on military experience: The best thing he’s done. -Advice: Entering the military with education as an officer is much higher paying. -Enlisting in the military and getting education with the GI Bill shaped his life. -He took college education for aviation business management. -Now he is an airport manager. -Discovered he enjoys managing people more than manual mechanic work. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_ScherwitzL1023V Title A name given to the resource Scherwitz, Robert Lee (Interview outline and video), 2009 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-11-12 Description An account of the resource Lee Scherwitz was born in 1946 in Teaneck, New Jersey. He entered the service in 1965 and his military career primarily concerns management and maintaining aircraft for the Air Force. At Lackland Air Force Base in Texas he undertook his basic training. Next he worked at Shephard Air Force Base in Texas to maintain aircrafts. By late 1965 he arrived at Selfridge Air Force Base in Michigan where he worked on the F-106 planes. Eventually in 1967 he transferred to Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base in Missouri with the "Flying Fists". After receiving orders for Asia he was flown to Ubon, Thailand with the 555th Tech Fighter Squadron. In 1967 his Squadron was relocated to Udon, Thailand. With the 432nd Tech Recon Control Wing he worked as a maintenance controller and interacted with Air America missions. Re-enlisting in 1968, he went to Homestead, Florida where he worked in the control center once again. Eventually Lee would leave the service in 1991 after the Gulf War. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Scherwitz, Robert Lee Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brock, Rosemarie (Interviewer) Lest We Forget Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Language A language of the resource eng Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5fbe5b83ee9ebe5600e2d364f8f90490.jpg f23efbc054fb7b0eb65be99e978f50a2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ef263979cb75a706d86fd17a1cbffdb3.jpg 34da6facf46dff01d1949faf598e0826 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Insel-Bücherei Series Description An account of the resource The German publishing company Insel Verlag was founded in 1899 by Anton Kippenberg in Leipzig. In its early years the firm only printed expensive, beautifully-produced volumes, until demand led to the publication of the more modest Insel-Bücherei series in 1912. Relatively inexpensive but with the same careful sense of design and typography, these smaller-format books reprinted shorter works from a variety of German, European, and world authors. The series numbers considerably more than a thousand titles and is still being issued. The Digital Collection contains the scanned covers of 140 titles held by Grand Valley State University Libraries. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1904-1987 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource ger Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05_IB0464 Title A name given to the resource Schiller und Seine Welt Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1934 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Description An account of the resource Cover of Schiller und Seine Welt, by Eugen Kühnemann, published by Insel-Verlag, 1934. Insel-Bücherei Nr. 464 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books. Insel-Bücherei. Z315.I5 B83 no.464 Language A language of the resource de Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f93a8aaa42290caa91d2999494f34aee.mp4 1356836e9df481f7cd69f807bc5f3a2a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/71edca456b3f76f48acf4924712a0c1a.pdf fa0e69912a717badc49a26e7fc2e50a7 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project Clarence Schipper World War II 1 hour 28 minutes 4 seconds (00:00:12) Early Life -Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 29, 1924 -Grew up in Grand Rapids -Went to Davis Tech for high school -Father worked as an auto mechanic -Had worked out west as a cowboy before moving to Grand Rapids -Owned Schipper Brothers Garage -They had work during the Great Depression, but had to incorporate a barter system -For example, men would trade a chicken for an oil change -He was the oldest child in the family and had a brother and sister (00:01:41) Start of the War -Turned on the radio and heard the report that Pearl Harbor had been bombed -Followed Hitler's rise to power during the 1930s -Heard his speeches on the radio -Knew U-Boats were sinking American merchant ships before the U.S. entered the war -Surprised that Japan attacked first as opposed to Germany -17 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked (00:03:02) Getting Drafted -Received his draft notice after he turned 18 in January 1942 -Reported for duty shortly before his 19th birthday in 1943 -Friends enlisted, and he considered that route, but wanted to get his high school diploma -Graduated from high school in December 1942 -Reported for duty in January 1943 -Reported to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Rapids for a general physical -Sent to Kalamazoo, Michigan for a more thorough physical -Army was weeding out men unfit for service -A lot of men were getting processed -Sent home for two weeks after the first part of processing -Sent by train to Rockford, Illinois for further processing -Issued Army clothing -Three days of intense training -Took tests on every topic possible -Purpose was to sort out recruits and see where they would work best -His tests indicated that he would train as a radar operator (00:07:10) Basic Training -Sent to Atlantic City, New Jersey for basic training -Assigned to a room on the 17th floor of the Ritz-Carlton hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean -Had never traveled that far from home before -Experience he'll never forget -Received training on how to march and rifle training -Two hours a day of intense calisthenics -All of the men training there were destined for radar duty �-Trained with men from all over the United States -Exposure to different accents and backgrounds -Never ran into anyone that he knew from Michigan -A lot of focus on discipline and following orders -Adjusted well -Had been part of a National Guard unit in high school, so he understood it -Father was a WWI veteran and told him what to expect -One man couldn't cope with it and committed suicide by jumping out of a window -Days started at 4:30 AM -Had decent food -Not allowed to use the elevators in the hotel -Had to run up and down the stairs to get to and from the 17th floor -Basic training lasted six weeks (00�:12:45) Training in Florida -Boarded a train in Atlantic City -Passed through Washington DC -Went to Myakka River State Park, Florida -Received radar operator training in Florida -Practiced with a small radar unit -Received Jungle Training in Myakka River State Park -Cut down brush and set up a camp -Focused on how to survive in a jungle -Dealt with alligators in the swamps and thousands of mosquitoes -Had basic, unpaved roads for foot travel -Received First Aid training -How to treat snake bites and minor injuries -Went on 20 mile hikes -Trained in Florida for ten months -Went to Drew Army Air Field for radar training -Hands on operator training -Reading the scopes and understanding how to mark planes -Couldn't tell the size of the object, but could follow it -Had downtime in Florida -Got one furlough back home -Visited Orlando and Fort Myers -Saw segregation -Remembers an old black woman stepping off the street to let soldiers pass -He stopped her and told her she didn't have to do that for him -Segregated drinking fountains, bathrooms, and restaurants -Saw the abuse of black citizens and he wasn't used to that -Grew up having black friends th -Part of the 624 while in Florida -Note: Possibly a signal aircraft warning battalion (00:20:58) Deployment -Near the fall of 1943 they went to Boston -Shipped out of New York City aboard the RMS Empress of Australia -Carried 5,000 troops -Sailed with a huge convoy -Ships as far as the eyes could see �-Changed course every five minutes to avoid U-Boats -Remembers ships dropping depth charges -Took 12 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean -Weather was good at first, then it turned bad -Had to share his bunk with two other soldiers -Got to use the bunk for eight hours at a time -After a while he decided to sleep in a stairwell -Voyage wasn't bad until men got seasick -Difficult to feed all of the men on the ship -Only got two meals a day -Had liver and onions for breakfast -Evening meal was better (00:24:40) Stationed in England -Landed at Glasgow, Scotland in mid-January 1944 -Got off the ship and took a train toward London -Greeted by the elite Coldstream Guards -Couldn't keep up with them -Went to Henley-on-Thames -Part of Company B of the 573rd Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion -Received training with British radar equipment -More advanced than the American equipment he previously trained with -Transferred to the 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion -Traveled all over England during the first half of 1944 receiving additional training -Received gas mask training -Allies feared Hitler would use poison gas in continental Europe -More target practice -Stayed in England during D-Day and for a while after D-Day (00:29:50) Landing in France -Went to Southampton on June 27, 1944 to go across the English Channel -Note: May have been earlier on June 12, 1944 -Boarded a large ship without amphibious capabilities -Had to climb down rope ladders into landing craft to go ashore in France -Landed at Omaha Beach -Set up the unit as quickly as possible -Had to convince American pilots to cooperate with the radar operators -British pilots cooperated without fail or pause -Able to see enemy and friendly aircraft on the radar scope and track them -After the British pilots got a few kills then the American pilots listened to the radar operators (00:34:03) Advancing through France -Followed the 2nd Armored Division as it moved through France and the rest of Europe -Moved into northern Europe over the course of 1944 -The higher they got, the better they could “see” with their radar -Always stayed two and a half miles behind the front -On July 17, 1944 the Americans launched their attack on Saint-Lo, France -Remembers bombers passing overhead to bombard the German position -Most destroyed city that he had ever seen -Drove through on a jeep -Army bulldozed a path through the rubble to create a makeshift road -Moved rapidly after they broke out of the Normandy area �-Close to the front a lot of the time, but never directly on the front -Always had a ring of antiaircraft guns around the radar unit -General Quesada of the Ninth Air Force always made sure the radar units were protected -Remembers being in a tent one night when the antiaircraft guns started firing -Grabbed his helmet and rifle without thinking about it -Unit never took any casualties -Saw some of the French civilians -Remembers French farmers in the area beyond the Normandy beachhead (“hedgerow country”) -Despite the war going on around them they still tended to their cattle -Grateful for the American soldiers -He didn't smoke, so he always gave his cigarettes to French civilians -Came close to Paris, but didn't go into Paris -Entered a small town near Paris -As they advanced the Germans retreated without firing a shot -As a result, the townspeople considered them to be the liberators of the town -There was a wealthy couple in the town that treated his unit to dinner -First time he ever had escargot -The husband was French and the wife was American -Meant she could translate for the soldiers th -The 555 Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion was an Army Air Force unit -Attached to the 2nd Armored Division (00:44:34) Radar Operations -Usually had a basic Quonset hut to work out of -Had four or five radar scopes in the hut -Had a six foot by ten foot board with a gridded map of Europe -Used it to mark the positions and altitudes of aircraft -Sometimes he worked on a radar scope, and sometimes he worked on the board -Pilots notified them if they hit their target(s) -Used codes to communicate with pilots -For example, “How many oranges?” means “How much fuel do you have left?” -After a pilot's 25th mission he came to the radar unit to direct his squadron -Had to do that before returning to the United States (00:48:46) Advancing into Northern Europe -Moved into Belgium in late summer/early fall 1944 -Prior to the Battle of the Bulge they were on the Rhine River -Keeping German aircraft from getting across the river -While stationed there, no German aircraft got through the radar screen -Moved into Aachen, Germany in October 1944 -Americans were shelling one part of the city, and the Germans were shelling another part -His unit was in the middle of the shelling -First German city they helped capture -Not allowed to talk to the German civilians they encountered -Allowed to talk to the Dutch and the Belgians -He was able to minimally communicate with them (00:53:58) Battle of the Bulge -Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944 -His unit was on the northern edge of the German offensive, just outside the Bulge -Saw American artillery returning from the front -Strange, because usually the artillery went ahead and stayed until they advanced again �-Learned that the Germans were advancing west -Saw a lot of American troops and vehicles headed away from the front -His unit was not allowed to retreat until they had permission -Once they received orders to retreat, it only took them two hours to pack up and move -Heard that the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division were called up to stop the Germans -Those units fought in the Battle of Bastogne which helped stop the German advance -Reestablished their radar a little farther from the front -Every available German aircraft was being used in the offensive -Only saw one German jet during the Battle of the Bulge -So fast that the radar could barely track it, and American planes couldn't catch it -Couldn't believe that such an aircraft existed -Slept in pup tents until they received larger, six-man tents -Never slept in houses -Had never been so cold in his entire life -Constantly lost feeling in his feet and lower legs during that winter -Fortunately, he never developed frostbite or got sick -His unit was always busy during the Battle of the Bulge -They only had to retreat a few miles from the front when the battle began -Operating in an area near the Belgian cities of Liege and Verviers -His radar unit helped shoot down 102 German planes during the Battle of the Bulge -526 German aircraft over the course of the war, so nearly one fifth of all confirmed kills (01:01:58) Advancing into Germany Pt. 1 -In late February/early March 1945 they advanced into Germany -Moved south and crossed the Rhine River on a makeshift bridge -Made out of sunken river boats and bridge panels laid down by the Army Engineers -Somewhere north of Remagen -Things got quieter after they crossed the Rhine River -Able to advance ahead of the infantry units -Faced no German resistance -At the end of the war they advanced to an area near the Czech border -Saw parts of Germany virtually untouched by the war -Refreshing to see intact buildings and landscapes after months of devastation (01:04:14) Buzz Bombs -Germans used “buzz bombs” (V-1 Flying Bomb) during the Battle of the Bulge -During the battle the Germans fired hundreds of them -Remembers one landing about 100 yards from his position -Didn't explode, so he and a few other men decided to go look at it -Had a camera, so he took a picture of the unexploded bomb -Not technically supposed to have a camera, but his officers didn't mind (01:06:18) Unit Personnel -Had the same personnel throughout his time in Europe -There were 30 men in his immediate unit, and 65 or 70 in the rest of the unit -Had good commissioned (lieutenant and above) and non-commissioned officers (sergeants) -As civilians they worked in technical fields -One sergeant worked at a radio station (WBBM) in Chicago before the war -Another sergeant had done oil exploration work as a civilian -They were good men (01:08:08) Advancing into Germany Pt. 2 -Saw German civilians as they advanced �-Forbidden to talk to them -Saw Buchenwald concentration camp -Made an impression on him -If the Germans allowed an atrocity like that he wanted nothing to do with them (01:08:45) Post-War Duties & End of the War -Disarmed German civilians after Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945 -Went door to door collecting shotguns and hunting rifles -Guarded German prisoners of war for 30 days -Planned on being sent to Manila then probably onto Japan for the invasion -Atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in early August, then Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 -Prisoners of war looked like regular men -Shocked -Kept the prisoners in a simple camp -Chance to see that the average German soldier was no different than an American soldier -Allowed him to see the Germans as human beings as opposed to the enemy (0:11:01) Photograph in Belgium -Shortly after the Battle of the Bulge he got a picture of Belgian children sledding in the winter -They were sledding past the wreckage of German tanks -Showed him the resilience of children in war torn countries (01�:12:06) Leave in Switzerland -After Germany surrendered he received ten days of leave in Switzerland -Chance to get away from Germany and evidence of the war -Able to let his guard down while in Switzerland -Refreshing to see shops and civilians acting normal (01:13:03) Coming Home & End of Service -Originally went to Marseilles, France to board the ship bound for Manila -With the war over in the Pacific Theater those plans were canceled -After Japan's surrender the unit was broken up -Men were being sent home on the point system -Points awarded based on length of service, rank, dependents, and combat seen -He had spent 23 months overseas and 11 months in the U.S. and saw 5 or 6 major campaigns -He had 87 points at the end of the war -Needed 85 points to go home -Sent home with other soldiers with a high number of points -Got home on October 28, 1945 -Sailed back to the United States on a Liberty Ship -Seas were rough -Ship was cheaply made and rattled in the rough water -Pulled into New York City -Sent to Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania to be discharged (01:15:27) Reflections on Service Pt. 1 -Taught him to appreciate things more -Will never forget the time he spent in the Army and his experiences overseas -Learned to cherish the freedom he has in America (01:16:12) Life after the War -Returned to Grand Rapids, Michigan -Siblings were still at home -His old room was unchanged -Had a hard time readjusting to civilian life �-Didn't know what to do with himself -Walked the streets of Grand Rapids at night -Just wanted to get into a fight to relieve the tension he felt -Had a hard time concentrating -Became a die maker -Worked for Keeler Brass in Grand Rapids as a tool and die maker -Worked there for 42 years (01:18:08) Reflections on Service Pt. 2 -Came back a different person -Went in as a young man and came out as a man -Affected him, whether it was for better or worse -Believes that it was for the best (01:18:44) Spirit of Grand Rapids Honor Flight -Went on the Spirit of Grand Rapids Honor Flight on May 16, 2015 -A former colonel in his church convinced him to go on the Honor Flight -On May 15 he and the other veterans went to Thousand Oaks Country Club -Treated to dinner, entertainment, and a photo op -At 5:30 AM on May 16 they went to Gerald R. Ford International Airport -Served breakfast -Hundreds of people in the airport waiting to shake hands with the veterans -Amazing experience -Two fire trucks gave them a water salute as they departed -Arrived at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C. -Greeted by servicemen and servicewomen thanking the veterans for their service -Had a police escort through Washington D.C. -Stopped at the Air Force Memorial -Saw the Iwo Jima Memorial and the First World War Memorial -Visited the World War Two Memorial -Emotionally profound moment that deeply touched him -Visited the Vietnam War Memorial -Found the name of a young man from his church killed in action during the Vietnam War -Saw the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -Visited the Korean War Memorial and the FDR Memorial -Served dinner in a vintage WWII mess tent -On the return flight they were given letters of appreciation from home -Letters from friends, family members, church members, and local school children -Event concluded at East Kentwood High School -Greeted and saluted by police officers, paramedics, and firefighters -3,500 people of all ages waiting to welcome them home and thank them for their service -Never experienced a day like that in his entire life � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_SchipperC1923V Title A name given to the resource Schipper, Clarence J (Interview outline and video), 2016 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-02-18 Description An account of the resource Clarence Schipper was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on January 29, 1924. He registered for the draft in January 1942 and reported for duty in January 1943. He received basic training in Atlantic City, New Jersey then went to Myakka River State Park, Florida and Drew Army Air Field, Florida for Jungle Training and Radar Operator Training (respectively). In late 1943 he crossed the Atlantic Ocean and was stationed in England from January 1944 to June 1944 where he trained with Company B of the 573rd Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion. He was reassigned to the 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion and went over to France, after D-Day, in June 1944. His unit was technically part of the Ninth Air Force, but followed the advance of the 2nd Armored Division through Europe. He passed through France, was in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, and took part in the advance through Germany. After Germany's surrender he helped disarm the German population and watch over German prisoners of war. In October 1945 he went to Marseilles and returned to the United States. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schipper, Clarence J. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/44c68c0550b32ce422b78a1c4052bae6.mp4 7955c0b081f31bb6cb85d134e7f8b83f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6827d6f6a47bc19ab9eb34c8a49d7eed.pdf 12e0ec4422f2558accb4b6221f33acf5 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Harold Schipper (00:39:00) (00:07) Introduction: • Born in Holland, Michigan • Worked in freight warehouses. • His father worked in a print shop. • One of his brothers was in the service before he was. • He finished school at eighth grade to begin working. (01:28) • Received his draft notice in early 1944. • Was chosen to be a Marine while being sworn into the service in Detroit. • Spent 8 weeks in San Diego, California for basic training. • During basic, the men would regularly go for thirty mile hikes. • He did not have any problems with his drill instructors. • After basic training he was able to go home. (03:45) • After a visit home, he was shipped to the Solomon Islands. • He had never been on a ship before being sent to the Pacific. • He could not swim, so he was afraid of being in the ship. • He did not become seasick on the trip. • The weather was very nice, took 30 days to get to the Solomon Islands. • 3000 men were sent on the transport. • They had to watch for mines. • The ship was alone, not a part of a convoy. • Landed fifty miles away from Guadalcanal. • When he landed, he was assigned to his regiment. • His name was not called off during the original assignment list. • Assigned to the quartermaster’s office. (09:25) • Had to care for the supplies. • Also had to care for the officer’s mess hall. • The men would have to set the table and serve food to the officers. • He was able to eat much better than the other men, because of his assignment. • Assigned to the 1st marine division. • Waited for the marines to come back from Peleliu. • Many of the men returning from Peleliu were badly injured. (11:20) • The men would work with the native population. • They would search for special stones while the marines would give them cigarettes. �(11:50) • Had no idea where he was going when he was about to be shipped to Okinawa. • The weather was good for the trip from the Solomons to Okinawa. • Part of a very large convoy. • Recalls being able to tell the depth of the ocean by looking at the water color. • Was still part of a supply detail while on the ship. • Battleships and destroyers were part of his convoy. • Many of the men on his ship were suppliers. • The convoy was attacked by Japanese bombers, but American destroyers took them out. • The men would get out of their ships with nets onto Higgins boats to make it over the reef. (16:45) Okinawa: • Remembers a large sea wall with machine gun placements. • The Japanese were not directly behind the seawall, they were further in the hills. • He had a very routine daily schedule. • He would receive orders in the morning and would have to fulfill them by the end of the day. • At times, the men would have to build bridges for the troops. • Remembers his officers being much older and experienced than he was. • He forgot to destroy a pair of ruined lieutenant’s pants, and was in trouble when the colonel came and saw them. (22:00) • Brought supplies in a jeep to the front lines. • This was the only time where he saw the front lines. • The Americans were doing most of the attacking, with Japanese trying to defend. • Doesn’t remember being too far in from shore. • He did not have to go to the shore to receive shipments; it was all brought to him. • The same group of 20 men stayed together the entire time. (25:00) • The men would stay on the camp while they had time off. • Did not receive a lot of information about what was happening on the front lines. • He never saw the casualties coming back to camp. • Remembers being in an outhouse when the first atomic bomb was dropped. • When the war was over, the men had just been loaded up on ships. • A small typhoon hit the island when they were finishing loading up. • The men were sent to Tientsin, China. • They spent six months in Tientsin. • He has no idea why the men were sent to China. • Remembers the city being very dirty and poor when he was there. • While on liberty in the city, the men would throw money out the window so the poor could receive some. • Inflation in the city was terrible. (31:00) �• • • Was sent on a garbage scow when he finally left China, because there were no ships for them. He stopped in Hawaii. While on the ship, he was hanging in a hammock when someone cut the ropes and he fell. He was not allowed off the ship when they stopped in Hawaii. He landed in San Diego, California. He was sent to Great Lakes for discharge. • • • (34:40) • He was so glad to be back in Holland. • He began working in a freight warehouse, unloading boxcars. • Feels he was well taken care of and disciplined while he was a Marine. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchipperH Title A name given to the resource Schipper, Harold J. (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schipper, Harold J. Description An account of the resource Harold Schipper served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946. After training in California, he was sent to the Solomon Islands, where he joined the 1st Marine Division as a replacement after the invasion of Peleliu. He took part in the landing on Okinawa, where he served with a supply unit, moving supplies from the harbor to positions inland. After the war, his unit was stationed in Tientsin, China, for six months, where he noted the extreme poverty of most of the inhabitants. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Marine Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-12-06 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/68841ac6d0d2dcb9937413eaf7cc3562.jpg 5a790fb34f71175b2de826d60175d35b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchippersPenni Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1979 Title A name given to the resource Schippers, Penni Description An account of the resource Penni Schippers Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng 1979s https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d12e7017bc67b6dfbc7d3472f3404455.mp4 5d498411e580ea6281796f5cc0e210c7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1d8f6c3f82cff2901c034d1d61f1fa27.pdf 04815c16a8999d354497497ec37d665b PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: World War II Interviewee: Cecilia Schlepers Length of Interview: 00:56:56 Background              Cecilia was born in Byron Center, Michigan. She is the daughter of Dutch immigrants who moved here after WWII. Her father was Johannes Martinus Schlepers. It is a German name, as his parents and grandparents were from Germany, which is quite close to the town where he was born and raised. He was born in 1911 and became part of the army in 1931. Her father’s family worked as farmers and owned a store. When he joined the army is was a national obligation. It was required that all firstborn boys join the service. He would serve for half a year in 1931, and was called up as reserve for 3 or 4 years following that. In August 1939, the soldiers began to mobilize. Despite the fact that the Netherlands were a neutral country, they saw what was happening around them and they needed to be ready, in case something happened. During the time in between his service, he worked at home on the farm and he also worked on created new land from water. It was a lot of shovel work and hard labor. But he didn’t mind it, as he loved to do that kind of labor. Her father was not married until after the war was over and he moved to America. As a boy, he followed the Roman Catholic religion and he would attend catholic school until 8th grade. After the war, he did a correspondence course, for a diploma for someone who works at the border, in an office. She has that diploma as well. He was always helping at home. At that time, it was during the Depression. They were careful not to make any mistakes that would lead them to bigger problems. Mostly they just lived off of their own produce. Her Mother (6:25)       Her mother was born in Friesland and was the 5th daughter in a family of 12 children. Her father was a farmer and they rented a farm. He was able to have hired hands for odds jobs around the farm. They had a more difficult time than her father did. One time, their entire cow herd developed hoof and mouth disease, and all of their animals had to be quarantined. They ended up selling what animals they could and killing the rest, losing the farm in the process. They ended up moving to another place near a canal. Her mother worked on the farm to prove herself, to show that she could do what the boys were supposed to do. She was always quite proud of herself for that. �                       She had a grade school education until 7th grade. Her mother loved reading. While they were in Friesland, they grew up with the Frisian language, so when she went to grade school, her mother had to learn Dutch as well. She loved that as well. She would also attend a choir class, which was part of the schooling there. Her mother would, for one class, win a reading contest, and as the prize, she was given the book “Robinson Crusoe” and it has been her favorite book ever since. (10:00) Living on the canals, her mother loved to ice skate. Her mother would participate in a speed skate contest, and would win against a famous speed skater. She shows her mother’s skates and how they worked. Eventually, her family needed money, so she was hired out to work for farmers around the area; she ended up working for awful people and she went home. After explaining things to her parents, they understood. And some time later, those same farmers sent a car to pick her up and bring her back. They were a lot nicer from then on. She would be there for a year and then she would go work for her aunt for a year. It was during this time that she realized that she had a calling for the vocational life. So she went home and talked to her parents about it and joined a convent in 1934. She was 19. It was hard to adjust to life there, but she wanted to make it work, so eventually she made it work. She would find her niche in the choir there and would eventually help direct the choir. She and a few of the other women would attend an Economics School and got her diploma; equivalent to a high school diploma. While she was at the convent, she would use a scythe to cut the grass on the convent and she was good at it. She would remain there for 6 years, when the war began. Eventually she would conclude that the convent was simply not for her. So she left for home to help her family on the farm. She would live as a companion with her aunt. Her sister would also live in the village and she would help her sister out as well. (20:10) Her grandparents became self-sufficient and would help out the townsfolk as well. Her brother would come and visit and bring a spindle, to spin wool for knitting and clothing. The Netherlands did not manufacture things anymore since the Nazis took over. She would work under the cover of night in order to not have what she made taken away by the Nazis. During this time, the Germans would round up people and have them go to the German labor camps or factories to work. So two of her younger brothers were in hiding, and so were some of the others from their town. They managed to stay hidden for the whole war. Her father’s brother did end up working in these camps. And when he got his weekend to go home, he decided that he did not want to go back. So he spent some time hiding, and he was eventually caught. He would spend the rest of the war in a Dutch prison. Her mother did not discuss the Germans much, only that they were very hated. �       You always had to be care of what you said and who you said it to because of collaboration with the Germans. She would listen to Queen Wilhelmina on the radio, who had escaped to London at the outbreak of the war. She would give broadcasts from London to let the people know what was going on. It was the only communication from the outside world at the time. (26:00) Having the radio was illegal in itself. One night German soldiers demanded some money from some livestock they sold. Her family would soon realize that they were neighbors dressed as German officers, demanding money. Her grandfather would give them some, but hid the rest in the barn. They would look for it but with no luck. Also at one point, her grandparents’ farm went up in flames, though her mother was not in town at the time. The grandparents would live with some neighbors and the farm was eventually rebuilt. The boys would have to live elsewhere for the time. After the war, one of the sons would take over the farm, which was in an area that was under German control until the end of the war. Her Father (31:30)              Going back to her father, he was called off to active duty in 1939. He would serve as a gunner in the infantry, stationed at Velsen, which was on a river. He would run a ferry there as part of his duties from August until May. On the early morning of May 10th, he and the others were surprised by all the planes flying overhead. He vividly remembers that because he was so surprised. Up to that point, they thought that they were good. But once they saw all those planes, they knew they were in trouble. He and the others there were told to surrender, while some distance south, there was fighting for 5 days. The general of the Dutch army would surrender after 5 days of fighting and her father would spend the rest of his time as a prisoner of war. They would stay in Assen, which is the capital of Drenthe. Her father did not talk about his time there a great deal. In fact, during her time in the Netherlands, many of the veterans did not want to talk about it. They look at it as a black mark on their past and they do not like talking about it so much. Because the Germans viewed the Dutch as little to no threat, many of the soldiers were allowed to go home right away. This would exempt him from being taken to the labor camps and factories. He would eventually make it home to do everything he could to help his family, neighbors and friends as much as he could. (36:05) He would spend the war bringing his brother, who was in hiding, food, clothes and other things. He would have trouble making sure that the Germans did not find out about what he was doing, or else he would get in a lot of trouble. �   Her father did not say much about what he thought about the Germans either. She only knew of a deep hatred that existed. Food was not a problem for her father’s family, so they shared with the community as much as they could, while still hiding it from the Germans. Although her father’s family did not hide any other allies from the war, she remembers her mother’s neighbors were hiding an English ally. Post-War (41:50)                   When the war ended, the war had left the country in ruins. They wanted to start a life, but how could you do that when you have nothing. So her father decided to go to America. Her mother was thinking the same thing, and put an advertisement in the newspaper asking for a traveling companion to immigrate to America. She got 6 letters, and photos, and her neighbors helped her choose which one to go with. It turned out to be her father. They met at the train station, and had coffee. They ended up going for a walk and ended up at a church. After some walking and talking, they decided to meet again, which began their blossoming romance. They would marry a year later, in September 1947, in order to go to America to work on a farm. They sailed to America in October of 1947, on a ship. The men and women were separated. Her mother was having some hard time, thinking she would never see her family again. Her mom told her that they would walk the decks of the ship and smoked, in order not to become sea sick. That was the time her mom picked up that habit. Her mother would also participate in singing on the ship as well. They landed in the New York Harbor. When they saw the Statue of Liberty, it was very emotional for everyone on board. They would work on a farm in Maryland for a year, to work of the debt of those who sponsored their trip there. It was a lot of hard work. After the year was over, they moved to Hudsonville, Michigan, where some of his friends were that they made on the boat. They ended up in Grand Rapids, and her father got a job at a furniture factory. Eventually, some of her family would make it to the USA, and move to Michigan as well. (52:00) Her mother took a correspondence course in artwork and loved it. She would eventually do a lot of commercial sign painting and truly flourished in her job. Her father worked at the furniture factory for the first 5 years and then got a job that he had to quit because he was allergic to the saw dust. From that point on her father had a hard time finding a job, but eventually got into metal work in Holland, Michigan, and worked there until his retirement at 65. Her parents would go back to the Netherlands. Her mother would go back 10 years after immigration, and her 10 years after that, her mother and her and her sisters went to visit family in the Netherlands. � She love it so much that 2 years later, she would eventually go back and would be there for 27 years, marrying, and having four children. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchlepersC1080V Title A name given to the resource Schlepers, Cecilia (Interview transcript and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schlepers, Cecilia Description An account of the resource Cecilia Schlepers is the daughter of two Dutch immigrants who lived under German occupation during the Second World War. She talks about what life was like for each of her parents during the war. Her father's family worked on a farm and her mother's family lost their farm during German occupation. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-02-15 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9952be6d25ded7e75180bb2205151ccb.mp4 5bff361b0ec7b0b4da0d0e81df9411dd https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7f8cef76f746b91a63c596f06bf0ca27.pdf 433d0bbacb376f43e60549f1e1cd64fe PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Cold War/Persian Gulf Era James Schmehil 41:58 Introduction (00:11)          James was born on February 25, 1963 in Virginia. Growing up, his father worked as an electronics technician working on the equipment used in the production of television shows. His mother is an accountant and owns her own business. James has always wanted to be a pilot, and he planned from a young age of joining the Air Force and attending the Air Force Academy. His father was also in the Air Force and it was his influence, along with James’ uncles who also served in the Air Force. (02:21) The largest influence in his decision to join however was his wanting to fly. The astronaut program is something that every aviator aspires too, but his immediate goal was to become a pilot. After high school, he joined the Air Force, but decided not to attend college first. He enlisted in July 1981 and he went to basic training in October 1981. In between, he performed odd jobs to earn extra money before he left. (04:17) Air Force Training and Enlisted Service (04:20)          Basic training was difficult and challenging but not what he thought it would be. It was not as physical as Army or Marine Corps basic training. The focus of their training was not hand-to-hand combat. The first night he was at basic training, they had been bussed on base in the middle of the night and were called ‘Rainbows’ because they did not yet have their uniforms. He was 18 years old when he went in the service. When they first met their TI (Training Instructor) he put great fear into all the men there. (06:35) Their training also had an academic element that put emphasis on following rules and directions. James was taught a certain way to fold his clothes and how to keep them in his locker, they were inspected to make sure it was exactly right. He finished basic training in the beginning of December and went on to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas and began schooling to be a missile crew member. (08:39) From December to April 30, he was in Tech School, which consisted of him being a Missile Systems Analyst Technician. He learned how to manage the launch sequence for the Titan 2 Missile. The Titan 2 Missile is an ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). �        The crew for this missile system consisted of four men, two enlisted and two officers (commander and deputy commander). James handled the launch sequence and the guidance computer. He would also back up the commander in the decoding of the messages that would come from the launch control center. (10:17) The coding was simple, but cryptic and top secret, which required him to have a top secret security clearance. He did that for two years. Missile crew tours were for 24 hours. At 7am they had a daily briefing that told the men what was happening around the world and the current threats they may have. They would then drive forty five minutes to an hour out to the site. He was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base with the 374th Ballistic Missile Squadron; James arrived at that post in 1982. He would be on site at 8am, and they would relieve the on duty team and perform system checks and maintenance operations. After a year of being there, James applied for the United States Air Force Preparatory School and was accepted. He started school in July 1983. The application process was much like a college application; he was required to submit his high school transcript, SAT and ACT test scores. (12:50) The purpose of this school is to prepare candidates for the Air Force Academy. They had high emphasis on math, science and english. James stayed there for one year and graduated in 1984. A month later he entered the Air Force Academy as a freshman. James graduated with a degree in physics. He participated in the Soaring gliding program and the parachute program and earned his jump wings. He also had survival training. He graduated in 1988. At that point, he stayed in Colorado Springs until his pilot training slot opened up, which he began in October 1988. Pilot Training and Officer Service (14:25)          After beginning his pilot training in October 1988, he finished a year later and was selected to be an instructor for the T-37. He went to the training school in San Antonio, Texas from 1989 to 1990. In 1992, James was sent to Barksdale Air Force Base and continued his service as a flight instructor as part of the ACE Program (Accelerated Copilot Enrichment). At this school, he worked with co-pilots and trained them how to support their pilot and to give them hands on experience as a full pilot. Once they were qualified, they would allow co-pilots to fly across country on they own. (16:12) In 1995, James was selected to join the C-130 program and was sent back to Little Rock Air Force Base. He was stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia. James flew many missions in the C-130 which consisted of dropping paratroopers, dropping cargo, delivering cargo and carrying people. A C-130 can land on a landing strip only 3,000 feet long, which is about a half-mile. (18:23) In 1996, James was deployed to the Middle East and flew missions out of Muscat, Oman. He was there for about a month before transferring to Saudi Arabia. �               He flew out of Al Kars, which was a new base in the city of Dhahran. The United States contingents were staying in condo like buildings there and a month before James arrived they were bombed and many Americans were killed. When James arrived, they were staying at Al Kars and living in tents. Since the base was so new, they did not have the facilities that a normal base would have. They did have air conditioning and a chow hall. (20:47) He was given a ten minute phone call home each week. When he left home, he had a three year old child and a five month old baby. Saudi Arabia is sandy and it gets everywhere and in everything. They had to replace computers every few months because the sand would cause them to fail. (22:23) Flying there was nice; they did a lot of missions around the Arabian Peninsula and up and down the coast close to Yemen. They resupplied the troops that were also stationed around. While there, he learned that camels come in different colors. He was flying a low level mission at 500 feet and he had canceled his IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) and used Visual Flight Rules. They saw some black, white and brown camels. In the distance they saw a tent in the middle of no where. Parked outside the tent were a stretch limo and other beautiful cars. They quickly got out of there because they did not want to get involved with whatever they were doing out there. (24:41) James spent Christmas in country and returned home in January. On his way home they flew through England and Iceland. While flying out of Iceland, they flew into the sunset and the sun did not move because they were flying high enough and kept up with the rotation of the Earth. Once they made their descent towards St. Johns, Canada the sun dropped instantly. They landed in Boston and stayed the night before returning home to Moody Air Force Base. (26:48) When he got home, his five month old was now nine months old and she did not know him. He spent a total of four months overseas on that deployment. In Saudi Arabia, James learned that his squadron, the 52nd Air Lift was closing, so he had to start searching for a new job. He chose to go back to the T-37 training school in San Antonio, Texas. He became an instructor that taught pilots how to become instructors. (28:43) After being there for several years, he was selected to be part of the initial cadre in the T6 program, which was the joint trainer for the U.S. Navy, Air Force and the Canadian Air Force. It replaced the Air Force’s T-37, the Navy’s T-34, and the Tutor for the Canadian Air Force. James was stationed in Wichita, Kansas at the Beach Aircraft Company. They wrote all the regulations, procedures and rules that were necessary to form training programs with the T-6. He stayed with the program for a couple years and was successful in creating an effective training program for the new flight crews. After that he took a one year remote assignment from 2001-2002 in Honduras, and served with Joint Task Force Bravo, in Soto Cano Air Force Base which was about an hour outside Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. (30:35) His job there was to serve as the director of operations (second in command) for the squadron and was basically the air field manager. His duties involved running the weather operations, the civil engineering support, the refueling operations and all the �    support people worked together to complete their mission. He also coordinated with the United States Army and the Honduran Air Force. They supported the anti-drug operations that were going on in the area. (32:30) While there, he lived in a wooden hooch with air conditioning but no running water or bathroom. He had a golf cart as his vehicle. After his year there, he went back to San Antonio and returned to the T-6 training school and again acted as an instructor. James retired from the Air Force in 2005 after serving for twenty four years. (34:48) Thinking Back (35:02)     James remembers back in the Persian Gulf War in the early 90s. He was an instructor at Del Rio, Texas. He had mixed feelings about the war, because he wanted to be out flying missions and serving his country overseas instead of staying in the United States and training others to fly. He felt like he should have been doing more. The best thing that the Air Force taught him was teamwork. Everyone has their job and when everyone makes their contribution to the bigger picture everyone wins. No one job is not important. (37:35) He also strongly supported the defense of the Constitution and saluting the American Flag. It gives new meaning to certain things. (39:17) The biggest sacrifice that he had to make was having to leave his family during his Middle Eastern tour and his year in Honduras. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchmehilJ1518V Title A name given to the resource Schmehil, James (Interview outline and video), 2013 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schmehil, James Description An account of the resource James was born on February 25, 1963 in Virginia and grew up in an Air Force family. His father and his uncles all served in the Air Force, and when James graduated from high school, he too joined. He enlisted in July 1981 and left for basic training in October. After basic training, he became a Missile Systems Analyst Technician on the Titan 2 Missile system. After two years he applied for the United States Air Force Preparatory School and later attended the Air Force Academy. He graduated from the academy in 1988 with a degree in physics. James became a pilot and flew C-130s and also was a training instructor for the T-37 and the T-6 aircraft. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Schmehil, Marie (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2013-05-29 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c09644b97dfe4a0f977f8863913b8371.pdf eefb1d4e88f75bd26e0e26e6d9d8550b PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project James Schmehil 2nd interview Peacetime – Gulf War & War on Terror 23 minutes 36 seconds (00:00:10) Early Life -Born on February 25, 1963 in Virginia -Had one brother and one sister -Lived in Virginia for two years then the family moved to Chicago -Grew up in Chicago (00:01:01) Enlisting in the Air Force -Enlisted in the Air Force in October 1981 -Father had served in the military for three or four years -His uncles had served in World War II and the Korean War -He aspired to be a pilot -Made a 24 year career out of the Air Force -18 years old when he enlisted (00:02:35) Nuclear Missiles -From 1982 to 1984 he was a missile crewman for the Titan II nuclear missile -Had to know how to carry out a launch sequence and the guidance system (00:03:09) Air Force Academy -He was accepted into the Air Force Academy Prep School -Studied there in 1983 and 1984 -Completed the Prep School and went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado -Studied there from 1984 to 1988 -Graduated and was commissioned as a lieutenant (00:04:04) Service as a Flight Instructor -Went to Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, for pilot training -Program took a year to complete -Stayed at Laughlin AFB as an instructor on the Cessna T-37 training jet -Served as an instructor from 1989 to 1992 -Trained pilots to fly jets in the Gulf War -Effectively served as an instructor until 2005 when he retired -Only three years when he flew C-130s and was assigned to Honduras on a remote assignment -Rewarding to serve as an instructor -Had six months to teach a cadet how to actually fly a plane -Had six months after that to teach a cadet how to fly a plane like an Air Force aviator -Sometimes, new pilots didn't understand certain dangers, or why something was dangerous to do -Likens it to a teenager driving a car for the first time -Some of the cadets simply were not capable of being pilots -Had some challenges with cadets that were unacceptable for flight -Flew the Northrop T-38 trainer at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana -Flew with copilots of the aircraft stationed at the base -Cheaper way to get the copilots flight time so they could become pilots (00:10:01) Flying C-130s -In 1995 he was assigned to Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, where he flew C-130 supply planes -Carried paratroopers, personnel, and cargo �-Got a remote assignment to Saudi Arabia -Stationed there from October 1996 to January 1997 -Flew supply missions to bases in the Middle East -Picking up and delivering cargo (food, equipment, and weapons) -Serviced outlying bases that relied on aircraft resupplies -During one intelligence briefing they were told militants were taking potshots at American planes -Saw some planes come back with bullet holes in the fuselage -No one ever shot at his plane (to his knowledge), and he never returned with any damage (00�:12:55) Returning to Service as a Flight Instructor -In 1997 he returned to the United States and was assigned to Randolph Air Force Base, Texas -He was back in the T-37 teaching pilots how to be instructors -He would act as the student on training missions and deliberately make mistakes -Taught the pilots how to correct mistakes -In 2000 he became a trainer on the new T-6 Texan II trainer -Trained at Beechcraft Corporation headquarters in Wichita, Kansas -Did his remote assignment to Honduras in 2002 and returned to the States in 2003 -Continued work with the T-6 Texan II from 2003 until his retirement in 2005 (00:14:38) Personal Relationships in the Air Force -Met his wife at the Air Force Academy during a Valentine's Day Dance -She was the sister of one of his squadron mates -Became incredibly close with the people he trained with and lived with -Sought out people from similar backgrounds with similar personalities -Gained new friends wherever he was assigned -Still in touch with a lot of his friends from the Air Force -Most of them live all over the country, only one lives in Michigan (00:16:53) Life after the Air Force -Moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, after he retired from the Air Force -Excited to move back to a northern state where there were four seasons in a year -Briefly lived in Canada after retiring -Adjusting to the civilian workforce was the most challenging part of returning to civilian life -Lack of accountability with workers -Workplace politics -Works for National Heritage Academies (chartered school system) -Headquarters is in Grand Rapids, Michigan -81 private schools in eight different states -Works as a computer programmer at headquarters -Department IT and developing software for the schools for use by the students -Laptops, digital projectors, and smartboards are becoming more common (00:21:50) Reflections on Service -Air Force career was a great time in his life -Doesn't regret his service and he would do it again -Great adventure -Taught him teamwork -Everyone has abilities and talents to contribute to the larger effort and reaching a common goal � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_SchmehilJ1822V Title A name given to the resource Schmehil, James G (Interview outline), 2015 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-05-25 Description An account of the resource James Schmehil was born on February 25, 1963 in Virginia. He enlisted in the Air Force in October 1981. From 1982 to 1984 he served with a Titan II nuclear missile crew, and from 1983 to 1984 he studied at the Air Force Academy Prep School. In 1984 he attended the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and graduated in 1988 with the rank of lieutenant. He received pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, and served as an instructor there from 1989 to 1992 and at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In 1995 he was assigned to Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, where he flew C-130s, and from October 1996 to January 1997 he flew C-130s out of Saudi Arabia. In 1997 he served at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, teaching pilots how to be instructors and in 2000 began working on the T-6 Texan II trainer. From 2002 to 2003 he had a remote assignment to Honduras. Upon returning to the United States he continued working with the T-6 Texan II until his retirement in 2005. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schmehil, James G. Jr. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Salinas, Jacob (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2d5a257cd911c5addeec3f4e46dc8e77.mp4 94190aae19952ad93b2a902db4cb96fe https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/858136ff0a95df5f9805c821ac08e759.pdf 8e2dec30823b7dc96c933911aea116ea PDF Text Text Eugene Schmidt (1:01:09) (00:04) Background Information • Eugene was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1918 • His father was in plumbing and heating • He graduated from Catholic Central High in 1936 • After graduation Eugene worked at a grocery store and was a book keeper for his uncle • Eugene signed up for the National Guard in 1935 • He was assigned to the wire section and worked on telecommunications • They had drills once a week and they used WWI rifles • He had summer camp at Camp Grayling • He was federalized on October 15, 1940 (5:17) Training • Eugene was sent to a camp in Louisiana by train • They did a lot of hiking and there was a lot of mud • The mosquitoes were bad and they had to use netting on their tents • In September1941Eugene’s enlistment was extended indefinitely • He heard about Pearl Harbor on the radio while living off the camp • His battalion was moved to Georgia and then to Fort Devens, Massachusetts • They were told they were going to ship off to England, but at the last minute they were sent to California on a train (16:40) Deployment • They crossed the Pacific on a converted luxury liner • The weather was good, but some people still got seasick • It took a long time to get to Australia because they had to go east of New Zealand and then to the southern part of Australia to avoid U-Boats �• They landed at Port Adelaide, Australia • They had to eat a lot of mutton when they first got there • They later moved to Camp Cable in Brisbane and then traveled up the coast in Queensland • He got along well with the Australians (24:45) New Guinea • They left Australia and went to Port Moresby in southern New Guinea • On the trip over they hit a storm and some fuel barrels broke loose so Eugene had to help secure them but, one of the barrels hit his knee and bent it backwards • Because of his injury Eugene had to stay in the rear echelon instead of going over the Owen Stanley Range with the rest of his battalion because of his injury • Moresby was small and its population was mostly women, children and elderly people (29:55) Back to Australia • On January 15 his division was relieved from Buna and sent back to Australia • They went back to Camp Cable for rehab and to reequip • They went down to Newcastle for Amphibious Assault Training • His battalion lost a lot of men and some were sick with Malaria and Jungle Rot • They were there until May and then went to Saidor (34:18) Saidor, New Guinea • Eugene was put in charge of a squad and went on an amphibious assault • He then returned to his HQ company • The jungle wasn’t pleasant • He learned from his experienced friends that he needed to use a machete at times to get through it and to watch out for the people around him • He was a Supply Sergeant when supplies came in • Eugene felt that one job wasn’t really any different than another, just with different duties �• The Japanese were trying to get out of New Guinea at the time he was there (45:20) Aitape, New Guinea • The second amphibious assault was on Aitape • They had to cross two rivers and it was very difficult • Australian engineers were trying to build a bridge, but they were taking too long so the Americans crossed with ropes tied to the other side • They didn’t see many Japanese soldiers (50:42) Returning Home • He went to Finschaefen for 3 weeks • Eugene was assigned to a tent with a friend that had joined the Army with • They traveled back to the US together in October of 1944 • When he got back he moved around some and then was assigned to be an MP in Detroit, Michigan • He didn’t do much and they didn’t arrest anyone with overseas stripes • He was discharged at Fort Sheridan in July of 1945 (55:32) After Discharge • Eugene worked at a service station, at Fisher Body as a maintenance welder, sold life insurance, and then went to work for Kerr Glass selling fruit jars • He retired from Kerr when he was 60 years old • The military gave him a better understanding of how to get along with people � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchmidtE Title A name given to the resource Schmidt, Eugene (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schmidt, Eugene Description An account of the resource Eugene Schmidt was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1918. He joined the National Guard during high school and was federalized on October 15, 1940. Eugene was assigned to a Head Quarters Company and he was deployed to Australia. Then he was sent to New Guinea and was injured by a loose fuel barrel on the way over. He had to stay in the rear while his company went to Buna and after they were done he met up with them in Australia for amphibious assault training. They went on 2 assaults in New Guinea at Saidor and Aitape. In October of 1944 he was sent back to the US and was assigned to be a MP in Detroit, Michigan. Eugene was discharged in July of 1945. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-07-23 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d0d8ee3d9904b28748233c7db844f076.mp4 2631edce9e3b2cdbeead0322468d7f38 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/806546b6d32ce607ee08381dfd6a3ccd.pdf 452bf7b1deacd6f8db346a215b772088 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: World War II Interviewee: Louis Schmidt Length of Interview: 00:57:40 Background                    He was born in Allegan County, in Door, Michigan. He was born November 20, 1926. His family worked on a farm. They raised pickles, potatoes, corn and anything that they could. It was a hard time. His father had this thrashing machine. It was slow moving and he would work until the snow fell trying to get things done. He got on WPA, it did not pay so well. He got the job right in Dorr. They also raised pigs. His stepfather would bring them home lard and pork sandwiches. He loved his stepfather more than his own father. If it wasn’t for his mother, his first father would have beaten them to death. He would get blood poisoning and die at the age of 29. He was too stubborn to go to the hospital until it was too late. His mother raised the kids, 140 acres and 72 heads of cattle. She did a great job. She would later remarry to his stepfather, who was a wonderful guy. He would go to Sycamore School. The school had 29 students. Since then it has been rebuilt. He really liked his last teacher. When he would go get water, his teacher’s boyfriend would come around and she would send him inside to check on the class. It took them a while, but the kids finally caught on to what was happening. He would go to school until 8th Grade. He finished around 13 or 14, and when he was 16 he wanted to join the military when he was 16, but he had to be 17 to join. He would also lack a birth certificate. There were 13 kids in his family and 17 kids in a neighbor’s family. They would all just take care of themselves. The war had started by then, in 1941. He was too young to join at the time. Instead, when he was 14, he would get a job a local store. His mother had to make a certificate stating that he was 14 so he could work there. He would work there for 3 years. While he was working there he would get paid 48 cents an hour. Then, that was a lot of money. When he got his first check he made $2. He ended up going to the office because he thought they overpaid him. They had not. He would then start working there more and still he thought they overpaid him. When he came in the next time, they threatened to fire him if he kept coming back in. When he turned 17, he would enlist into the Navy. The people at the store told him that he would not have a job when he got back. He did not care. He picked the Navy so he had a clean bed to sleep in, instead of a fox hole. He didn’t like ships, because he hated the water. He had never learned how to swim. He took his training at Great Lakes, in Chicago, Illinois. Training (7:50) �              He had 13 weeks of basic training and spent much of the time learning to identify different planes. It was fast paced and they had to learn quickly. Learning to swim was part of the Navy rules. They could not keep him in unless he learned how to swim. He would wait until he was 12 weeks in before even attempting to learn to swim. He would go to the recreation pool and attempt to learn to swim. His superior would stand over him all the time and tell him to quit crying. He was upset because he thought he would not be allowed to go home with his company and he really wanted to stay with them. So, to show this guy what he could do, he dived into the pool. He did not come up. Instead his superior saved him with a hook. He would pass this test for his efforts in trying to learn. He was so happy he could have kissed the man. To this day, he does not know how to swim. While he was there, he really had to learn “Sir!” While he was getting processed in Detroit, they were really nice. He didn’t have to call any of them “Sir.” When he got on the train to go to Chicago, things were very different. But he learned quickly. While he was putting his 13 weeks in at basic, he only made one mistake. When he was dressing himself, he had to fold the crease in his pants a certain way. One morning he woke up late and did not pay attention. He would have to run around the compound for an hour, holding his rifle over his head for punishment. He thought it would be easy, but he could hardly keep his arms up after that. From then on, he learned how to dress properly. He would also be warned for when he was supposed to come to attention. You were supposed to have your feet close together, so you can click your heels. His superior wanted to hear that click ring in his ears. His job there was to keep the fire going with gravel-sized coal pieces. He thought he was alone, but he was wrong. He clicked those heels together and that officer was not satisfied. He threatened him with running around with the rifle over his head again. He learned very quickly. They did not get to graduate on time because of poor behavior. They were watching some Navy WAVES graduate from basic and they whistled at them. Their company was held for one week. After they graduated, he got a 14 day leave home. He was then shipped to San Francisco. Active Duty (14:00)   They stayed in San Francisco for a couple of weeks while they waited for a ship to take them over. They finally found a carrier to take them to where they needed. It was the Prince Williams. �  He wasn’t even out of the San Francisco area when they got a submarine scare. He did not know if it was Japanese or Russian, but he heard the siren go off and a red light come on and all the soldiers had to go topside. They would stay there all night. The next morning, they would take off. The trip would take 29 days to Brisbane, Australia. The food was not that good. Australia (15:20)                When they got there they would go to a AATC, Anti-Aircraft Training Center. They would train with 3-inch twin 40’s. They would train by shooting on at a sleeve on the back of an airplane. The man in charge told them to shoot the tail off if they would want to. That sleeve got tore up, only the cable holding the sleeve was left. There was a general on base, no one knew he was as he was dressed as one, who had heard about this. He would have the man in charged called down for a talk. The man never came back. Schmidt thinks he was court martialed. Going back to the crossing, he was sick the whole way across. He remembers on another ship, he could not use the bathrooms on the ship. So the guys had to squat over the side of the ship and let it fly. They were not given any paper to clean themselves with, but the waves were so big they came up and washed them off anyway. He also remembers that he was given a small amount of rations that were supposed to last him 14 days for the trip. He and some others ate it the first night and would take food from other people in order to eat. One guy would trip the man and the other would take his tray of food. And when they got the food it was grilled chicken with the feathers still on it. Since they would not allow him and the others to use any of their stuff, they did not wash, shave, brush their teeth and they were starving. When they got to Brisbane, the first thing they wanted was food. Their superior at Brisbane asked them what had happened. They told him. He even told the man that on Christmas, one of the ensigns had thrown them some beer, but when it hit the floor there was no beer left. He said they had about committed mutiny. The officer told them not to tell anyone back home about what had happened. It would be the first thing Schmidt told his family. He would stay at Brisbane for 12 months. While he was there, he was running with an officer on a beach. Suddenly his back went out down low, by his hips. He was taken to a hospital to see what was wrong, but he never did find out. Even to this day, he still doesn’t know. While he was in the hospital, he had to make a choice. He could both go on an operation and possibly become a cripple or he could stay at the hospital. He would decide to stay. He thinks he made the right decision, because today he can feel whatever it was happen in his back now. (22:00) He would be in the hospital for another couple of weeks and then sent him back to the base. While he was in Brisbane, his main job was gate watch. They had a perimeter that he would have to walk around at night, to keep people from sneaking in. �                There was a lieutenant commander there who would keep him on his toes. If you did not salute him, he would find out why soon enough. While he was on gate duty, there would be women who would come to the gate, but couldn’t get in. Sometimes you would stick your hand through, though not all the way, as the holes weren’t big enough, just so you could hold their finger. He knows there was a lot of hanky-panky going on down there. If someone ever got caught, they would have been court martialed. He really liked it there. They would stay there for a year and a half and would then move to the Philippines. While he was in Australia, whenever he had liberty, he would go to Brisbane. While he was there, the Red Cross would give the soldiers a place to stay and food to eat. It was first come, first serve. He had a fun time over there. The beer was really strong, as he was only 17 when he got over there. He got back to base and he had stayed up all night. When he got in the shower, he was there for 6 hours because he passed out. If his mother would have seen him, she would have disowned him. The native Australians did not like the American military there. One of the American soldiers was with the wife of an Australian soldier who was fighting in New Guinea. When he came home, he found out and he and some buddies of his got on an elevator with the American and beat him. By the time the soldier got to the hospital, he had no teeth left. The Australians would also write letters to the Navy office, telling the American soldiers to take care of the kids who they happen to have while over there. There was a lady that he met who would only go with sailors, not marines, army or anything else. He really wanted to take her home, but she wouldn’t. She was a really good looking. His mother said he was lucky he didn’t bring her home, or she would have kicked them both out. She always told him that if he ever got a woman pregnant, he would have to make his nest right there to take care of her and the child. Coming from a home of 13 children, he understood. The one thing he did not like about the Navy was that he could not swim. He had a belt that had an inflatable tube on it and he would wear it everywhere. He would wear it to church, while he slept, when he went into town. He never knew what was going to happen. One day and officer told him not to wear it everywhere like he did. He told the officer he couldn’t swim. That was a mistake. The officer told him that he was going to learn how to swim before he left for home. Schmidt still does not know how to swim. He’s an ice fisher and has fallen through 10 times, once even taking the truck with him. It’s a miracle that he is alive today. Manus Island (27:00)  Although he spent most of his time in Australia, he would also travel around a lot, transporting to different bases. Manus Island would be the main stop for traveling soldiers.  Although he was a plumber, 3rd class, but he drove truck all the time. �    One time when he was driving, he was pulled over by the shore patrol. Some of the soldiers he picked up were sitting with their legs over the tail gate, and others yet were on top. The shore patrol said that he could get court martialed for letting those soldiers sit on the tailgate. If someone ran into him, their legs would be ripped right off. Instead, he was given a ticket and a warning. It was strange that there was no problem with the soldiers on top. While he was on Manus, the only thing that was going on was he was transporting soldiers from the docks to about 10 miles in, and when they were done at the shooting line, he would transport the soldiers back. He and some friends made it into a race. After he went to Manus, he would spend some time in the Philippines, and that was a whole different story. The Philippines (29:50)    He got there and he was waiting for orders to go down to the Indian Ocean for an invasion. It was the closest he had ever got to combat. When he heard the news about joining the invasion, he was really bummed. He remembers it was a Sunday and they were all packed, and then they got the news that the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. They were then ordered to get their gear off the ship because they were going home. Going Home and Reminiscing (31:00)         On the way home, they had a pool going about what time the anchor would drop in San Francisco. There was about $300 in that pool. When they got there, he was summoned to the captain’s quarters. He thought that he was in trouble or that they were going to try to get him to sign on again, which they eventually did. When he got to the captain’s quarters he discovered that he had actually won the pool for guessing the correct time the anchor was dropped. He told them to keep the money until he got on land. He was afraid that if he had kept in in his locker someone would steal it. He had won $310. He got a 34 day leave. Afterwards he was called back to Chicago Great Lakes, where he was discharged. He had to dress up in a suit and when he got his discharge medal, he was saluted. He did not know why, as he was only a 3rd classman. He didn’t know, so he just saluted back and went on his way. Back to when he was in the Philippines, he was at a base. There were huts put up, and they would stay there, until they were needed. They were more or less just getting ready to go out to the China Sea. When the bomb went off, the plans would change completely from there. He did not travel at all and did not see any of the local population. The Japanese would bomb the heck out of that place and there was a lot to take care of there. When they left, they would leave behind all the vehicles because they were too expensive to ship back over. Instead, they would place the vehicles in a 40 acre slot and torched them. �             He tried to take some pictures to bring home, but they had checked his camera and took the film out of it. He would have liked to show some of those pictures to the President to show him where all of the tax money was going. He did not think anyone would believe him since he didn’t have any pictures He said the place looked like a war zone. He also remembers a group of Marines torched a Philippine town without any warnings to the people there. He thought that was a real dirty thing to do, especially since the Filipinos had worked for the American soldiers. They were paid in rice, which the people loved. Everything there was outside. Eventually they built a two-seat outhouse and everyone would share it, both the locals and the soldiers. There was a huge problem with STD’s. If a soldier got or gave an STD they would have to pay a $300 fine and be put in the hospital for 30 days to be cured. After they got out of jail, they would go right back to it. He said the line for STD’s at the hospital was 10 miles long. Everything was cleared up eventually. He really learned a lot when he joined the Navy. He especially learned how to do all different kinds of knots. He was very sick of seeing knots, but they come in very handy for him at home. Of the different ships that he rode on, the LCI. The best, in his opinion, was the carrier. Once he was on an LST, a flat, long ship, whose end comes down so they can get onto the beach. The end had snapped of while they were at sea, and he thought they were going to drown. They ended up closing off the hatches before taking on too much water and they made it to shore. When he went back to the states, he took a cargo ship back, so they could feed everyone on there. There were about 700 people on that ship. They made pretty good time going back compared to the trip there. He was sick all the time. But now they gave him a pill that would help him with it and the also put something behind his ear too. He would eventually get used to the ship after being on land for almost 13 months. It seemed like the weather down there was always windy. You could see these huge whales come up right next to the ship. It seemed like there was no end to them. He would also see these flying fish that had wings on them. They would go for 50-100 feet before going back into the water. Post Duty (43:10)    Once he was out of the Navy he tried to find a job. He tried to go back to the store, but they did not let him have it back. He ended up going to a union that would help him get his job back. By then, he was making $2-$4 and hour He would work there for about 4 months, when he found out about another job opening working for a refrigerator company. He applied for the job and the man told him that he needed to get a pair of steel-toed boots and he could start that afternoon. �                  He ended up getting them the next day but did not have seniority to stay there. So he would work there for 30 days as a temp and if he was a good worker they would let him keep his job. He ended up moving from one shift to the 11-7 shift. He didn’t like what he was doing and often felt himself nodding off. One guy told him to stick his head in the freezer, which would wake him up. He was freezing! They had asked him to stay and extra 4 hours and he did now that he was awake. On the way home however he was blasting the heat and he was falling asleep. Then the guy at the store tried to offer him daytime hours. The union didn’t like that and told him that he did not have seniority. What he really wanted was the hi-low job, which the guy who was running that had been there for 5 years. He was barely there two months. He would eventually get the hi-low job 10 years later. He really enjoyed that. He was working at the job for 25 years, when one day, he got into it with his boss. She was mad at him because he wouldn’t look at her when she was speaking to him. Instead, he was always looking up at the ceiling because it was always full of pigeons. Well, he got snotty with her and she fired him. He would work with the Union and his supervisor to try to get his job back, and he did. He said it was a beautiful place to work and he put 31 years into it. His time in the Navy definitely changed him. (49:00) He went in as a boy and came out as a man. While he was there, they tried to get him to resign, but he didn’t take their offer. He said that the discipline he got kept him out of trouble. He didn’t get into fights and was really good. He remembers a time when they were on an island and he and another guy thought they heard someone on the island. They raised the alarm and the Navy that was there came running out, guns at the ready. Everyone went around trying to put all the lights and an officer gave him a Thompson Sub gun and he accidentally discharged 30 rounds into a hut where the American soldiers were staying. Luckily, no one was in there. He should have been court martialled and discharged but he wasn’t. He had a lieutenant felt badly and knew it was an accident, so he was assigned to do other work for what happened. Turns out the noise that started all this was coconuts falling from their trees. He feels he had it pretty easy in the Navy. The only time he made a mistake and he froze on the trigger. He never could stand the ships, but he’d like to go back on a ship to visit. He wishes that he would have stayed in the reserves. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SchmidtL Title A name given to the resource Schmidt, Louis (Interview outline and video), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schmidt, Louis Description An account of the resource Louis Schmidt served in the Navy during World War II. He was sent to Australia after basic training and trained as an anti-aircraft gunner, but served mostly in support units. He served for about a year in Australia, and then went to Manus Island and to the Philippines. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-09-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4a87e701f50fe75fc743bcf0d84c73bb.mp4 f8250560ccd16a526ea5ba44847776f4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b987a8e505602ebe7b1d14dd20e5405b.pdf 169b0154bdee38812d9046cd02df02e7 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran's History Project World War II – Pacific Theater Robert Scholz Total Time (01:19:57) Introduction (00:00:08)  Robert was born January 16th, 1918 in Quincy, Illinois (00:00:22)  His father owned a grocery store and his mother was a nurse (00:01:27) ◦ Robert worked in the Navy Department as an a offset printer in Washington D.C.(00:03:59) ◦ Prior to the attacks on Pearl Harbor, he mentions his work was very busy and filled with young people (00:04:55) ◦ Robert was having a late Thanksgiving dinner with friends when he found out that Pearl Harbor had been bombed (00:07:00) ▪ He was drafted after Pearl Harbor happened and ended up at Camp Grant in Illinois; from there he went to Ft. Leonard Wood for basic training (00:09:16) Basic Training (00:09:16)  Robert and the group he trained with stayed in barracks at Ft. Leonard Wood; they had a corporal and sergeant assigned to each barracks (00:10:21)  He mentions that the men in charge would do everything to make you miserable like run in the rain without boots or coats but overall it wasn't too bad (00:10:53) ◦ There was an incident where the men had to dig two man foxholes and have a tank run over it which was pretty scary for him; two men were buried alive during this exercise and wound up dead (00:13:48) ◦ Basic training lasted over six weeks; he then trained to be a combat engineer (00:16:38) ◦ He did bridge construction and was taught how to use explosives during engineer training (00:16:58) ▪ Robert's wife and son came down and visited Ft. Leonard Wood once when his son was four months old (00:18:40) World War II – Pacific Theater (00:19:13)  Robert and the other men left from Ft. Leonard Wood on a train to Camp Stoneman in California to a replacement depot(00:20:29)  From Camp Stoneman he left via a ship and was put on guard duty (00:22:16)  They stopped for refueling after about two weeks at New Hebrides; from there they went to New Caledonia off the coast of Australia (00:23:03)  They arrived in Leyte in the Philippines and as they were jumping overboard into the landing craft, an alarm sounded and Robert was told they were being bombed (00:27:18) ◦ As they got to the other side of the island and Robert met a civilian couple who used hemp to make everything because the Japanese took all of their clothing (00:29:49) ◦ There wasn't much fighting going on as they were crossing the island of Leyte (00:31:05) ▪ The geography was mostly swamps and Robert recalled it being terrible; they had to chop down trees to make roads (00:31:30) ▪ Robert was assigned to the 13th Engineer Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division as a combat engineer (00:33:14) �  This unit was assigned to be the first assault unit at Okinawa, Japan; just before they hit the beach- everything went silent and arrived on the beach to find hardly any opposition at first (00:36:17) Robert remembers a loud explosion as he was trying to sleep in a foxhole as it was his first experience with a Kamikaze attack (00:37:38) ◦ Part of their duty was to fix bridges and cover up roads to keep them open as Robert remembers and jokes the protection of the equipment, such as bulldozers, were more important than the men (00:40:44) ◦ He remembers quite frequently that his brakes would go out in his vehicle; they had no lights for protection and drove in the mountains as he had to keep down shifting to brake on time (00:42:52) ▪ The unit was in water most of the time from the constant rain and Robert always wonders why he never got sick or a cold (00:43:58) ▪ Robert was able to write home quite a bit about the specifics of what was going on in Japan (00:44:56)  After the campaign was over, Robert remembers sleeping in a cot for the first time in months (00:47:43)  Robert never really encountered any Japanese prisoners or any of the Japanese civilians (00:48:42) ◦ After the island was secured they didn't really experience anymore Kamikaze attacks (00:50:03) ◦ Robert and his unit headed to Korea after the island of Okinawa was secured; they took a ship and landed at Inchon in Korea (00:51:42) ◦ They did not see much of the Japanese while they were in Korea; the United States took over the Japanese barracks (00:54:03) ◦ He remembers the Koreans being hospitable towards him as he went out to dinner with a family (00:55:33) ▪ Robert remembers seeing Russians while in Korea; he went to the 32nd parallel with a few other men and the Russians saluted them and wanted to have drinks with them (00:58:15) ▪ They were in Korea for a few months til about Christmas time after arriving in August (00:59:33) Back to the United States (01:01:30)  Robert was discharged at the Jefferson Barracks Military Post; from there his wife met him in St. Louis, Missouri (01:02:42)  Robert and his family decided to move to Grand Rapids, Michigan; they stayed with a couple as their apartment wasn't quite ready yet (01:04:41) ◦ He worked for a company that made fly paper; the army offered up help to adjust to civilian life and Robert remembers it being a mistake that he didn't take it at the time as he had a tough time adjusting to civilian life again (01:06:14) ◦ Robert's second child was a boy with special needs, he had cerebral palsy; a doctor talked to Robert and his wife to plan for another child to help the oldest sibling get through the tough time of having a special needs sibling- Robert had two more sons after that (01:09:44) ▪ He moved around to different jobs; he worked in a lab as a quality control manager and went to night school as well (01:12:49) ▪ After some schooling, Robert became a plant manager and went to different companies �in different locations- he enjoyed his work to the fullest (01:15:21)  The Army taught him how to work with people and that's the biggest thing he learned while he served (01:16:03) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ScholzR1586V Title A name given to the resource Scholz, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2014 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Scholz, Robert Description An account of the resource Robert Scholz was born in 1918 in Quincy Illinois. Before Pearl Harbor he worked as a civilian for the Navy as an offset printer in Washington D.C. He was drafted after Pearl Harbor happened and did his basic and job training at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. Robert became a combat engineer in the 13th Engineer Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division. Robert and his unit left on a train to Camp Stoneman in California and from there they departed to New Hebrides via ship for refueling. From there they went to New Caledonia and finally arrived at Leyte, Philippines. His unit later took part in the initial landings on Okinawa, and after the war went to Korea before returning home. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-03-20 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a95e67f635187625c27e4ecf07cf9ca5.jpg b8a7979ea28175b77a94388cf7af882a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1980s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_000781 Title A name given to the resource School of Education summer program Description An account of the resource School of Education summer program for gifted and talented students, 1981. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Students Education Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/142edcc9da5f649a600e93351c732c76.jpg 4d1431f052ef3fe954c1234ec4a18639 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s-2000s Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1980s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_000782 Title A name given to the resource School of Education summer program Description An account of the resource School of Education summer program computer class, 1982. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Students Education Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo