Veterans Interview: Dennis Boyd interviews Gordon Schulthies
Dennis Boyd interviews Gordon Schulthies, who served 38 years on active duty in the U.S. Army, serving in Korea and Vietnam.
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*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
And now back to answers for elders as we honor our military veterans. Carriage is the proud sponsor of our veteran segment hosted by former ctle Seahawk Dennis Boyd. This is Dennis Boyd at Patriots landing in Dupalm, Washington, and we’re here at the Patriots slanning retirement community and we’re talking to Gordon and Gordon, correct me if I’m at how to pronounce your lasting Schiltz Shiltsi stroll tight. There we go. I’m sorry. It’s a famous bar in Berlin, Germany. Ah, very good, but we’re here today to talk to Gordon and talk about he had spent thirty nine years, thirty eight years, excuse me, in the army. How did you go from is it bountiful Utah, into the military during the Korean War? I was in the National Guard there and I was working for the air force and the airman had a new car and I couldn’t afford one, so I volunteered to go to on active duty and ended up in Korea with an old car. Didn’t fix the problem that? No, I did not. I didn’t realize that those airman still owed a lot of money on the cars that they had. But if it looked good though, right, Oh, you could always saw full the neighbors. So where did you do your basic I was at Fort Ord, California’s where. I went through there, okay, and did you any came out. And then from there, where we stationed, I went to the First Armored Division in Fort Hood, Texas, and were uppertone shardened there for a while and when they moved the third core from Fort Macarthur, California there and it reactivated the Fourth Armored Division, they split the First Armored Division up and about that time I got order to go to Korea. So the way I went Korea was probably one of the first engagements that was never officially a war, by I mean it was a war by those the men and women that are on the ground, but I think it was a politically, politically a conflict or a disagreement between as a I was a combat engineer and well, on I first got there they told me that I would. They were happy that I arrived because I wore their striped over there. The guy that was in the unit with me, if I could get you butched, I would get he would get my striped. That was a hell of a Repton. Welcome to good into a unit and that was the only time, shortly after that, that I was ever knew that someone is shooting at me. We were working in the roads and I got it. I knew the shot had been fired at me. I jumped in a ditch and I crawled until I got a shame to myself and got out and it never bothered me after that and thirty something years on inactive duty, I never fired my rifle once as every once. So I guess that’s a you could say I was a peaceful warrior. Well, it’s something that I know in talking to other people that it does affect you when you have to take a life like that. Sorry, no doubt I would. I had people in my unit that died. My last tour in Vietnam. My Italian commander which killed shot down. I was supposed to have been on the helicopter with him that day, but they big kicked me off because they wanted to take along the lieutenant to be the layous on officers the next Shire headquarters and I’d hit my thumb with a hammer that morning. I didn’t want to be on the helicopter. Anyway, for ten minutes after they took off they were all dead. Said, I’m it was a lucky day for me that I got bounced off of the trip. It was a good time to be an enlisted man. That I mean. Well, the command sartain major is a I’m it’s supposed to be with the commander at all times and he’s the only enlisted man in the unit that answered directly to the commander. So Huh, okay, that’s it’s something that the old soldiers from World War Two would not recommend. Red Recognize that part of a the sergeant sartain major in reaching years. That’s the command sartain major dre deals directly with the commander of an organization from but tie into well, sortain major the army is same. Shame. Job Off and your role as the sergeant major is to be the adviser to the commander and represent the soldiers of a unit. So you’re down, you’re in with the the basically the guys on the ground, and you’re kind of giving them feedback, as you hopefully you’re you’ve got the confidence of the fellow noncommission officers in an organization and your are able to get a sense of fields or unit, the morale, what things are bothering him, how they how how think you’re going in the unit, show that you can talk to the commander about problems that may exist or possibly could could exist. So you if you, you and your commander are close, they don’t work real well. If if he doesn’t trust you or you don’t trust him, it’s not going to work out that well. Yeah, well, it’s just you almost. You need to have that position there in order to be able to understand what you can and can’t do. And it changes every time you have a different commander. Yeah, I was battalion starden major of five different battalions before I was elevated, and every time I had a commander or a change of command, things were different. Commander had he wants to run the outfit his way. He’s commanding it and is a his sordain. Major, you sometimes run it for him. WHO’s your bet? Who Do you think, in your mind, was the best commander that you served on her I did you have, if just I guess was a lieutenant general, Bill Richardson, who was a commanding general of the Combined Arm Center Fort Leavenworth. Kansas. MMM, he was so smart that he was scary to talk to him. He talked to you today and then six months later he would could recall the conversation in in great detail, what he said and what you said to answer him. He was amazing. He ended up with a fourth star and commanded the training and doctor and command of the army does. You’re a great guy. So what attributes is I mean, you’re in a unique position to see these men in leadership as a commander and see how some of their their actions affect the people on the ground in cities. there. Are there any unique features or common characteristics? You saw that. What you know? It made a great commander. I don’t think that commander of military unit is all that much different than be a coach of a football team or a baseball team. He’s he’s got to in still or gain the confidence of the people that is that he’s supervising, it would commanding, and if they trust him and trusted judgment, he’ll be a good commander. Yeah, and he got to be concerned about them, but and be able to inspire him to accomplish. A mixture that you’ve been given and most of them that I’ve dealt with, with one or two exceptions, had those qualities. Yeah, well, that says a lot about the army as far as it bringing up out, you know, quality people. They the army has improved a great deal from the days when I first came was around, where the Shane or noncommission officers many cases couldn’t read or write properly with very little education. And now we have a certain major’s academy down at Fort Politz Texas that teaches shaneior noncommission officers all the things that they should know, and many of them already do know in order to fulfill the position that they’re at, that they’re that the army is entrusting them with. Gordon. When you look back and we tell people or ask people, as you look back and for the generation or two that may look back and see he there’s my great great grandfather. What would you want them to know about you and your military service? That I was a good trader, that I inspired and trained my fellow soldiers and my subordinates to take the position that I held. I trained my replacement many times that and I my grant great grandfather was a correction. I my grandfather, my mother’s father was came from Germany as a my mother always said he came to United States to study music, but that wasn’t true, because he you went from German here to Germany to study music. I think he came here to because it’s his father remarried after his mother passed away and he needed to have our chew is new. The father’s new wife needed some room about the place, so we get rid of him. Shend him to the America and he ended up retiring from the United States Cavalry Twenty years later. Amazing. You quite a lineage then. Thank you, Gordon again. Thank you for your time in your thirty eight years of service to this country. We appreciate them both. Gordon, I want to thank you very much for your time. It’s been a pleasure to get a chance to sit and talk and and hear that some of the history of this country that you helped make. This has been a special honoring Veterans Presentation of answers for elders brought to you by carriage. 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Originally published June 24, 2017