Gary Schemel: Casualty of Vietnam War

A Facebook friend my age said she had been showing her teenage son her old yearbook. “As we went through it I had to say at several photos ‘this one is dead.’ It was sobering to us both to see those young faces and know that some of them are gone now, some for a long time. But then I remembered his yearbook had two in memory pages. Some die so young and never have a chance at life.”

Gary Schemel 1946 – 1965

While looking for something else, I ran onto an obituary photo of Pfc. Gary Leroy Schemel, who was No. 22 in the photo above of the 1963-64 Conference Basketball Champions.

I remembered that Gary had gone into the service right out of school, and I vaguely remembered that he was one of the first of our classmates to die in Vietnam, but I didn’t know any details.

The Oct. 8, 1965, Missourian story was equally vague. It just gave the date of the funeral and that military rites would be conducted at St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Gary’s name is on Freedom Corner

All of a sudden, it seemed like I was running into Gary’s name all over the place.

When I photographed Cape Girardeau’s Freedom Corner honoring the war dead from World War I onward, I noticed his name.

When Terry Kitchen was telling the story about ghosts at Central High school, he pulled out some of the yellowing championship team photos he had salvaged from the dumpster, Gary was in two of them: the Conference Basketball Champs above and on the 1964 Conference Track Champions.

1964 Track Champ

Gary is the fourth from the left in the top row.

I couldn’t find anything in the Google News Archives of The Missourian about Gary, but that’s probably because of errors in the index.

Schemel profile on www.virtualwall.org

I did find this profile at The Virtual Wall:

Gary Leroy Schemel

Private First Class

PERSONAL DATA

Home of Record: Cape Girardeau, MO

Date of birth: 01/04/1946

MILITARY DATA

Service: United States Marine Corps

Grade at loss: E2

Rank: Private First Class

MOS: 3500: Basic Motor Transport Man

Length Service: 01

Unit: SUBUNIT 3, H&S CO, H&S BN, 1ST FORCE SVC RGT, FORCE LOG CMD, III MAF

CASUALTY DATA

Start Tour: ——

Incident Date: 09/26/1965

Casualty Date: 09/26/1965

Age at Loss: 19

Location: Quang Tin Province, South Vietnam

Remains: Body recovered

Casualty Type: Non-hostile, died of other causes

Casualty Reason: Ground casualty

Casualty Detail: Drowned or suffocated

ON THE WALL Panel 02E Line 095

THE VIRTUAL WALL ® www.VIRTUALWALL.org

Remembrances on The Wall

The Virtual Wall says that two remembrances have been left on The Wall for Gary:

From his niece, Ramona Hobbs: Gary Leroy Shemel was the second oldest of six children, Barbra, Daniel, Donna, Joyce and Randy. He was also survived by his mother Anna. His father passed away from cancer when Gary was a child.
A 1932 poem by Mary Frye posted by Bob Ross, a fellow Vietnam veteran:

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die.

September 9, 2010January 12, 2022

Koran-Burning Preacher Terry Jones and Rush Limbaugh: Class of 69

Rush Limbaugh USED to be Cape Girardeau’s most prominent export. One of his classmates from the Central High School Class of 1969 is dominating the news right now: Terry Jones, the Gainesville, FL, preacher who is threatening to hold an “International Burn a Koran Day” on September 11.

In 2010, Jones published Islam is of the Devil, which denounces Islam as a violent faith.

His church also maintains a Gainesville boarding school, called the Dove World Outreach Academy. The Gainesville Sun newspaper reported that students of the academy are prohibited from outside and family contact including attendance at family weddings and funerals, and work without compensation selling, packing, and shipping furniture for TS and Company, a business owned by his current and second wife, Sylvia.

(His first wife was Lisa Barker, of Marble hill. She died of a heart attack in 1996.)

Equal opportunity hater

In March 2010, Dove World posted a sign saying “No Homo Mayor,” referring to Gainesville’s first openly gay mayor; after Americans United requested that the Internal Revenue Service investigate the sign as an undue participation of a non-political tax-exempt organization in the political process, the church then changed the sign to simply read “No Homo.”

On April 18, 2010, members of Dove World participated in a joint protest against homosexuality with the Westboro Baptist Church, a group known for disrupting the funerals of U.S. soldiers. On April 21, Dove World member Fran Ingram published a blog post proclaiming the church’s endorsements of the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests against homosexuality and homosexuals.

Left, right and actress denounce Jones

Jones has done a masterful job of uniting all ends of the political spectrum. Here is a short list of people who have denounced his book-burning plan:

The President of the United States, Barack Obama
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Gen. David H. Petraeus (who says Jones’ actions will place Americans at risk, both here and on the battlefield)
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck
Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain
British Foreign Secretary William Hague
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham (who has, himself, called Islam “evil.”
Actress and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador Angelina Jolie

Actually, a list of supporters would be shorter. (I don’t know that Rush has weighed in.)

Terry Jones pitched for Cape Central Tigers

The photo above is from the 1969 Central High School Girardot yearbook.

An April 25, 1968, Southeast Missourian sports report said that “Terry Jones took the Central win with six strikeouts to his credit. Marvin Hammack’s single in the third was the only Green Dragon base hit, but Jones ran into control problems as he walked one man, hit another, and threw four wild pitches – one resulting in the Ste. Genevieve run in the second.” He batted twice, but went hitless.

[Editor’s note: looks like he had control problems even in high school.]

Jones awarded honorary doctorate

The Missourian carried this story about Jones receiving an honorary doctorate of divinity degree from California Theology School in 1993. A Philadelphia TV website describes the the California Theology School as being “an obscure school that boasts that it’s so independent it’s never been accredited.”

Former classmates remember Jones

Van Riehl noted, “I think this guy may have been on my Babe Ruth team, The Mets. Interestingly enough so was Rush Limbaugh. ”

Gregg Hopkins said, “I knew him the early 70s. He graduated from Central (I think) in 69. He was a funny, friendly guy back then, when he was dating my friend, Lisa. My how the years change some people. Every picture I’ve seen of him, he’s wearing an intense scowl. A couple of our Marble Hill friends figured out his connection about the same time I did. Sickening. His former in-laws, Lisa’s parents, are fine folks. I feel embarrassed for them.”

Rush Limbaugh High School Yearbook Photo

Here’s Rush (better known as “Rusty” back then) Limbaugh’s senior picture in the 1969 Girardot. He was on page 132. Terry Jones’ photo was on page 130. I don’t THINK they are on the same page today.

Editorial comment

Had I not been able to come up with the yearbook pictures, this is the photo I was planning to run with this piece. Terry Jones is a train wreck waiting to happen. Let’s hope his actions don’t provide the spark to ignite worldwide violence.

Frederick Douglas paraphrased Hosea 8:7: “When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.”

[Note: thanks to Bill East for pointing me to the 1969 Girardot and to sis-in-law Marty Perry Riley for dragging out her 1968 yearbook and copying a picture from it.]

“When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind.”

Frederick Douglass

July 31, 2010March 3, 2015

Cape Central High Library

At some point or another, I must have had to shoot a whole bunch of photos in and around the library. Some of the film had names on the sleeves, most didn’t. Kent Heise is pretending to futz around with a movie projector above.

No one looks happy in this shot

I have absolutely no clue what is going on in these group shots in the library. Everyone has a solemn expression. I think they must have been shot at night, judging by the windows. I’m pretty sure I can pick our Ruth Ann Seabaugh, Mike Seabaugh and Jackie Knehans.

Little kids mixed in

These little kids aren’t in high school, obviously, but they were part of the film marked “Library Series” This girl’s name must have been Kim.

Photo Gallery

Rather than making a bunch of guesses, I’ll throw all of the pictures into a photo gallery. As always, click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.

Steinhoff family doing Olympic Distance Triathlon

This has nothing to do with the library photos, but I thought I’d toss in a family update. Wife Lila and sons Matt and Adam are going to compete in a team triathlon in Miami Sunday. Adam is going to do the 6.2-mile running leg; Matt will do the 24.8-mile biking portion and Lila is going to swim .9 miles in Biscayne Bay. (It should be a piece of cake for her. She’s been swimming between a mile and two miles several times a week for several months.)

I’m going to watch them go by.

July 12, 2010November 14, 2012

A Walk On Themis Street

After we had finished touring Central High School, Linda Stone said she’d like to walk up on sit on the steps of the house where she grew up, “where Jim Stone and I played chess.” Tricia Tipton and I followed her on a walk down memory lane.

We lived at 1753 Themis when I was two years old

She didn’t know that I lived in one of the first houses on Themis Street when I was about 2 years old. Mother often talks about how the site CHS sits on was once a swampy field with a dead horse in it. The house to the east of us, occupied later by the Ravenstein family, was a low spot that had to be filled in before it could be built on.

“I played chess with Jim Stone”

Linda reminisces about playing chess with Jim Stone, who lived across the street from her. She and Tricia Tipton list off all the CHS students who lived on the street. Central was the epitome of a neighborhood school.

In an earlier email message, she wrote, “Our neighborhood was filled with kids exactly our age, so all summer a huge gang of us would play hide-and-seek until well after dark. My first-ever real date was with him (Jim) — summer of ’63, I think. I still remember scrambling to find a proper little summer dress to wear. It was a borrowed rust and tan plaid sundress. Vivid, colorful memories! He and I did not really date, we usually sat on the front porch and talked or went over to his house and looked at his home-made science lab with all his projects. Lots of fun.”

“Everybody on our block went to Central”

On my side of the street, Ronnie Marshall (’65) next door. The other side of our house next door and up the street: Sitz, Nowell, Early, Estes, ?, Goddard (the principal), then Garmes. Then across the street at the top of the hill and down toward the high school: Mulkey, Kies, Dunklin, Stone (Jim), Young (Debby), Lueders (the photographer plus Dickie and Holly (’67), Amlingmeyer. I know I am missing some.

Linda, Tricia and Jim circa 1964

One afternoon when I stopped by Jim Stone’s house, we noticed Linda and Tricia out in Linda’s front yard at 1744 Themis.

I can’t believe that Linda and Tricia let two guys with cameras get anywhere close to them while they were working on making themselves (more) beautiful. That’s Linda’s sister, Lisa, walking into the frame from the right.

Tricia’s inside attacking her hair

I have no idea what’s she’s doing. It looks painful. I am, to this day, amazed that I was able to shoot this sequence and live. The girls must have been sedated on some kind of hair goop at the time.

The result wasn’t bad

Linda went digging for her past

Linda wrote, “In prep for attending the reunion I’m digging through boxes that have moved with me from Cape to St. Louis, Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta, Dothan (AL), Coeur d’Alene (ID), Scottsdale and Durango. And that includes more than one house in St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta and Scottsdale.”

Brownie Troop 3

This picture is Brownie Troop 3 at some kind of ‘flying up’ ceremony which was held in my home at 1744 Themis St. in 1958. The girls are all from the future class of 1966. Left to right: __?__, Martha Penrod, Tricia Tipton, Pam Burkhimer, Mary Frances Sitze, Mrs. Sitze, Debby Young, Sally Bierbaum, Marsha Hitt, Mrs. Lolita Stone, Marilyn Maevers, Linda Stone (circled in ink), Prudy Irvin, Mary Lynn Nowell.

Birthday babes on Themis

This photo was taken in front of the house that was in the video. Linda wrote, “Bottom row: Jane Dunklin, Mary Frances Sitze, Linda Lou Stone, Joan Early. Top row: Mary Lynn Nowell, Sally Ann Stone, Judy Dunklin, Joan Amlingmeyer. I recognize the dress as my Easter outfit that my mother sewed for me. Since Sally’s birthday is in April and this was taken on our front porch, it might have been a party for her.”

Boomer Birthday Party

It is a birthday party for Holly Lueders, who lived directly across the street from us (in the the home that Debby Young later occupied). These are all future graduates from the classes of 1965, ’66 and ’67. Baby boomers blooming on Themis. From the bottom and proceeding clockwise: Dickie Lueders (hiding his face), Jane Dunklin, Mary Frances Sitze, Joan Early, Judy Dunklin, Holly Lueders, Mary Lynn Nowell, Linda Stone (spoon in mouth), Sally Stone, Joan Amlingmeyer, John Amlingmeyer.

Themis Street Photo Gallery

There are a few shots not shown above. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left of right side of the photo to move through the gallery.