D2 | Wednesday, January 27, 2021
GENERATIONS
West Central Tribune - Willmar, Minn.
Air and land worthy Sherman Schueler flew combat missions in Vietnam but a crippled jet and love of farming brought him back to earth BY SHERMAN SCHUELER
Willmar Junior College was brand new and its easy availability was a break. I was in the second graduating class and went grew up on a traditional family farm on to St. Cloud State earning a degree in north of Svea. Dairy was the main economics with a minor in accounting. income but we had pigs and chickens With the Vietnam War ramping up, too. My Dad, Oscar, came out of the a roommate who was a Naval Reservist Depression and Dust Bowl-era with a told me I should talk to a Navy recruitstrong work ethic. I was right in the mid- er. My love of operating machinery dle of eight children. enticed me to test Our mom, Irma, was for both the Navy a homemaker. One and Air Force to thing unique about enter their respecher is she insisted on tive pilot pipelines. seeing both sides of I had tested into an argument. the Navy Air proMaybe that’s gram but had not why I got the name committed when I Sherman Lee. While visited with the Air training in MeridForce recruiter. He ian, Mississippi, I told me if the Navy met a Marine from would accept me I the South. When he should accept, but if learned my Christian I didn’t get in their name was Sherman air program, the Air Lee, he said “From Force would be a now on, you’re Lee!” better choice since I loved operating it had more career the farm machinery. Sherm & Karen’s 50th wedding choices. I took my The summer before anniversary picture in June 2019. Navy physical in I started first grade I Minneapolis spring hauled a load of oats of my senior year and left for Pensacola, back to the farm with a small B Farmall. Florida, July of 1967. I’m sure I was a pain to my older brother, Jerome, because I was always pesterUpward bound ing him to let me drive the tractor. I was the last graduating eighth-grade The humidity at Pensacola was so bad I class from the Svea schoolhouse. In high felt I needed an air tank. school I maintained around a B- average People yelled at me as soon as I without much effort. I tested into the entered the INDOC building. I was naive accelerated classes but the teachers soon enough to think as a college grad I’d be realized I wasn’t willing to put in much appreciated. But the harassment lasted work, especially homework. the next week as they tore us down. It I remember meeting with a counselor felt like prison. following a battery of aptitude tests. A bright spot came the third day at Looking at my test results, he asked if I mail call. It was a letter from my former planned to go to college. I said I did not girlfriend at college. I had ended our because I was afraid I couldn’t make it. relationship because of the dangerous I had come to believe college was much missions I might be involved in because harder than high school, and anyways, I of Vietnam. Well, she’s now been my was more interested in farm work than wife for nearly 52 years. homework. He said my test results were Pilot training consisted of three phases. exceptional adding that “If you can’t First a fairly traditional piston airplane make it, who can?’ which was a modified Beech Bonanza.
I
as told to Rand Middleton
Photos courtesy of Schueler family
USS Shangri-La, Vietnam cruise July-December 1970. Sherm heads out to A-4 Skyhawk to fly bombing mission.
You don’t have to live with pain. Total joint replacement with a local, experienced team of orthopedic specialists. “If you think you need a knee replacement at some point, do it now while you’re still active.” -Roger I.
See Roger’s story at: CarrisHealth.com/orthopedics
