Retired Green Beret inducted into hall of fame
For Columbia Falls resident Gerald Schumacher, it’s been a long trip from scrappy kid on the south side of Chicago to induction in the U.S. Army’s Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame.
“I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks,” he said about first enlisting. “I was 17 and knew I had to get out of there.”
Schumacher’s father flew on B-17s in World War II, and his uncle fought in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill during the Korean War.
“So I had a little family influence,” he said.
Schumacher had great career in the Army, and after 32 years of active and reserve duty is now an author and a military analyst on television.
“The military will provide recruits with all kinds of opportunities,” he said. “I knew I needed the self-discipline to stay out of fights, and I put my hand up every time an opportunity came up.”
That included volunteering as an enlisted man in Korea to help the Secret Service develop security for a presidential visit near the DMZ. Schumacher was a wireman with Army communications at the time, but a new career path was opening up in front of him.
He completed his high school degree while in Korea, and when he was offered a chance to go to college, he jumped at it. He applied and was accepted into the Army’s Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant.
Shortly after his promotion to 1st lieutenant a year later, he assumed command of a mechanized infantry company in Germany.
Schumacher’s military career took another turn in Vietnam. As a captain, he was assigned to the Military Assistance Command Civil Operations for Revolutionary Developments, where he trained and accompanied local militias on combat missions in remote jungle villages. He later coordinated and supported Vietnamese, Korean and American combat operations in Vietnam’s central Highlands.
There, his responsibilities included the defense of his compound and the entire Vietnamese Distric,t which included working closely with the co-located Special Forces Operational “A” Detachment. Fighting side by side with the Green Berets would later influence his career decisions.
Another important career path opened up after he returned to the U.S. The Army was facing some difficulties switching from the draft to an all-volunteer service. Schumacher instituted new training concepts at Ford Ord, Calif., with exceptional results. Gen. William Westmoreland invited him to Washington, D.C. to explain his methods.
Schumacher didn’t join the Army’s elite Special Forces, the Green Berets, until after he left the Army and later returned as a reservist. This marked another career path for him — and a busy one.
“My reserve unit performed as many as 18 overseas operations in a year,” he said. “The active Green Berets had respect for that.”
As a Special Forces Battalion Commander, Schumacher found himself in hot tropical jungles or the freezing Arctic. During the annual winter Brimfrost exercise in Alaska, he directed his unit’s rescue response to a Canadian C-130 crash at night with temperatures exceeding 60 degrees below zero.
Schumacher later became involved in research for defense against biological warfare. He served in that capacity during the first Persian Gulf Conflict and later aggressively lobbied on behalf of veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome.
His published books include “To Be A U.S. Army Green Beret” and “A Bloody Business: America’s War Zone Contractors & The Occupation of Iraq,” both by Zenith Press. He is currently working on “Holding The Line,” about the U.S.-Mexico border.
On April 28, Col. Gerald Schumacher (Ret.) was inducted into the U.S. Army’s Officer Candidate School’s Hall of Fame in Fort Benning, Ga.
He now lives in rural Columbia Falls with his wife Alice Clay and their two Akitas, Kuma and Tora. Alice’s parents live in Somers. In addition to writing, Schumacher is an accomplished photographer and shoots commercial photos for a clothing company. To learn more, visit online at http://geraldschumacher.com.