LeClaire woman wife, mother and grandmother to veterans

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By Mary Louise Speer | Sunday, June 22, 2008 |

A granite marker at Bettendorf Veterans Memorial Park has nine new names.

The late George Schwerdtfeger (1930-2007) and his older brother, Glenn Edward Schwerdtfeger, ignited a family tradition of military service during World War II and the Korean War.

Extended family members will view the new engravings and names of other family veterans during the Schwerdtfeger-Morris reunion at the park today. Having the names added to the memorial was a late Mother’s Day present for Dottie Morris of LeClaire, Iowa.

“I really think it all began because Glenn was in the service. George joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves a few years after Glenn died at Iwo Jima,” said Morris, who was George’s first wife and is married to his first cousin, Chester Morris.

“It was all a personal choice by the boys. They all wanted to serve the country,” she said. “If you want to have a life that’s exciting, try having five sons in Vietnam.”

Fortunately, not all at the same time, she added.

“None of us were drafted. We all joined voluntarily,” son George “Joe” Schwerdtfeger Jr. said.

Thomas was the first to enlist during the Vietnam era and he joined the U.S. Navy. Joe, Ronald and John all followed suit but Randy and Steve, George’s son with his second wife, Arlene Schwerdtfeger, and Steve’s wife, Theresa, joined the U.S. Air Force. The brothers occasionally sparred over which branch was the best, Joe said. John’s son, Sean, is deployed in Iraq as an Army Ranger.

“When I joined during the Vietnam War, I decided I would join the Navy so I wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam but I ended up going there anyway,” Joe chuckled. “I tried to get out of doing the right thing, but I ended up doing the right thing at the wrong time.”

He served between 1969-73, an era when deployed troops kept in touch with their families through handwritten letters and rare phone calls. Dottie recalls getting a letter from Joe and staring perplexed at the words. “I knew it wasn’t his handwriting. So I fired a letter back wanting to know whose handwriting it was,” she said.

The letter was penned by someone else, he confessed. His boat was blown up while patrolling Vietnamese rivers for river craft carrying weapons and his hand was injured during the incident. He mailed a photo of himself back so Dottie would know he was all right.

“I spent a lot of time seeing a lot of water,” said Ronald, who spent 20½ years in the Navy from 1970-90. His hitch took him to Japan and Italy and to every state in the United States including Alaska and Hawaii.

But his favorite liberty port was in Wellington, New Zealand, where 250 people showed up to greet the crew from the USS Camden, a supply ship. The New Zealanders provided a warm welcome by taking sailors into their homes.

“I liked what I did. I was an independent duty corpsman. When you’re out at sea you play doctor, nurse, lab technician,” he said.

Basically that means doing anything medical patients need from patching them up and sending them on, he said. During his three years on board the supply ship he was responsible for a seven-bed bay that was never empty.

“It was a good job and I really enjoyed it. The higher up in rank I got, the fewer patients I saw and the more desk I saw,” he said.

In 2008, it’s easier to keep in touch through instant messenger and e-mails, but today’s troops appreciate tangible reminders of home. “At Christmas time, when they’re over there, they really need packages,” Dottie said.

She sent Sean 12 boxes filled with items from beef jerky and plastic bags to foot powder and drink mix and artificial tears. “I worry about all of them. They’re all in harms’ way,” she said. “You watch the news and you watch these young men and women come out without their arms or their legs.”

But keeping hopeful is important and doing what she can to reach out to family. “It’s been an interesting life,” she said.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.