Korean War veteran and aircraft mechanic takes flight at 97

At 97 years old, Don Schumacher, of Delano, has lived a lifetime surrounded by the sound of roaring engines and the sight of aircraft taking flight. This past Sunday marked a unique and special day at Buffalo Municipal Airport, where Don experienced something he hasn’t felt in a while — the rumble of takeoff and the lift of flight. 

Don boarded a Beechcraft Bonanza with a V-tail piloted by Paul Teunissen, from Moorhead, who volunteered to take Don for a trip around area skies before landing back on the airport runway. The flight brought back many memories for the Korean War Veteran, and a chance to bring a life-long passion full-circle. 

Military Service

Don recalled the days of his military service with great memory and perceptive detail. 

In January of 1949, at age 20, Schumacher was sent to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, for basic training. “After basic training, we had to do those little tests, put the round peg in the square hole, by doing that, they determined where you should go in the Airforce. I had several years of experience as a mechanic. When I was fourteen years old, I started working at the Chevrolet Garage in Delano. I had my fingers greasy a few times.” 

After basic training, Don was stationed at Chinook Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. “It was strictly a training base. I think there were 17,000 of us recruits on that base. KP duty wasn’t much fun on that base,” Don laughed. “I went through aircraft fundamentals and engines, which was a training course that lasted four to five months.” From there, 13 servicemen were selected to continue on with a specialist course on the Pratt & Whitney R-2000 engine. “The people in the know-how knew that the Korean War was coming, and they needed to transport things from the United States to Japan and on to South Korea.”

Don shared that as his training and education courses were wrapping up, operations with the Berlin Airlift (which utilized C-54 planes for supply and personnel transport) were winding down. Don was part of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) whose home base was in Great Falls, Montana. 

“The C-54’s were coming back from the Berlin Airlift and were pretty beat up from hauling coal and running supplies. We were repairing the airplanes on all ends and putting in new engines.” 

Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana functioned as a hub to supply the Korean War effort where troops and equipment were loaded into refurbished C-54’s before making their journey overseas. 

“The C-54 required refueling along the way,” shared Schumacher. “We had to have bases along the way where we could get fuel, and the first stop was Anchorage, Alaska, at Elmendorf Air Force Base. From there, planes would fly to Shemya Island (part of the Aleutian Islands), before reaching Tokyo. “It was called the Great Circle. We took equipment over there, people over there, we brought people back, we brought the deceased back.” 

After ten months stationed at Malmstrom in Great Falls, Schumacher was sent to Elmendorf in Anchorage. “Elmendorf was not a MATS base. It was more or less a fighters and bombers base that was established to protect the Russians coming into Alaska. MATS begged for a corner of the base, and we set up our equipment at the back end of the base. We used their runway, but we did not have a hanger. We did all our work outside under the sunshine, and the snowstorms, and the wind, and the thirty-below.” 

Don was appointed to serve as crew chief and flight engineer for Elmendorf’s C-47, which was utilized by flight officers who needed to log a required amount of flight hours each month. “It was a great duty for me. I loved it.”

Civilian Life

After his service in the United States Air Force, Don stuck to his mechanical roots and worked largely as an automotive mechanic. Today, Don enjoys spending time with his sons who are restoring a 1928 Chevrolet that Don bought in 1958 and has owned ever since. 

Don stayed and worked in Alaska for a time, living with his first wife, Yvonne. The couple were married on Elmendorf Airforce Base in 1952. “One day she said to me, ‘We should go home for Christmas because I want to spend a little time with my folks.’ We came back to Minnesota and never left.”

Don mentioned that he lived for a time with his second wife, Beverly, in Montana, before eventually returning to Minnesota where he’s lived ever since. 

Don Schumacher was a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force who served nearly four years. “I naturally went in as a nobody, and I never asked for rank, and I never suggested that I should have any, but my rank just kept coming. If you put your nose to the grindstone, it just happens. I was that kind of a guy.”

Editor’s note: Don Schumacher’s flight was made possible through the support of Suz Bedell (along with her staff) who owns Under My Wing Professional Services, LLC, which serves Wright County and the surrounding area.