Page 40 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2020- Online Magazine

Mendell Schelin
The Value of a

Purple Heart
as told to Jane Bromley

traps left by the NVA killed two of
their own but only inflicted minor
injuries on the Americans.”

Mendell was born in Maryland
in 1950, the only child of hard-
working parents. He attended
elementary school in Littlefield,
Texas, junior and senior high school
in Lubbock, and graduated from
a patch of Monterey in 1968. He enlisted
bamboo. My
" y company left side was in the Army at the age of 18 and
commander, peppered with completed basic at Ft. Bliss. After
MCapt. (now shrapnel and passing the test for OCS (Officer
ret. Lt. Col.) Roger powder. The Candidate School), he became
Iacovoni, called it a ‘cheap Purple company medic behind me also got an artillery FDC (Fire Direction
Heart’, and he was right. But, as the part of the blast. One of the medics Center) specialist and 2nd
years have gone by, it seems to have bandaged us up, and the “Dust Lieutenant.
become a bigger deal. The state of Off” (ambulance helicopter) was After serving almost three years,
Texas gives me a special license called for the two of us. A Huey 1st Lieutenant Schelin left the active
plate; I get to park for free at the from the 237th medical detachment duty Army in 1971, attended Texas
airport; and I get to drive for free on showed up overhead and lowered Tech, and by 1974, he had a BBA
Texas toll roads.” the jungle penetrator. We were in Accounting and a new wife. He
lifted up to the chopper for the trip married the former Laura Best of
That’s how Mendell Schelin to the EVAC hospital in Quang Tri,
begins the 50-year-old story. “The escorted by a Cobra gunship. Pampa. She taught high school
event occurred when I was an FO Math for 29 years (many of those
(Forward Observer) for B 1/11 “I spent a week at the EVAC at Shallowater High School), and
(Bravo Company First Battalion hospital. A doctor dug the bigger the couple have two daughters,
11th Infantry) in April 1970. 1/11 pieces of metal out of my leg and Tiffany and Deidra, and two
was one of the three maneuver put them in the pill bottle that I granddaughters. Mendell became
battalions of the First Brigade, Fifth still have as a souvenir. Then it was a CPA in 1976 and went to work
Mechanized Infantry Division. It off to my new assignment as a fire for Texas Instruments in Lubbock
was the leg (foot soldier) infantry direction officer for C Battery 5/4 for 17 years, then for the City of
battalion. Artillery. My injuries were neither Lubbock for six years. In 2000, the
serious nor particularly painful. Schelins moved to Amarillo where
“My time as an FO was coming In retrospect, I was very, very Mendell was the controller for the
to an end. B 1/11 was operating in fortunate that the grenade was not Region 16 Education Service Center
the mountains and jungle west of one of ours. Had it been one of for 12 years.
Quang Tri in Northern I Corp. We ours, I would’ve probably received
were going through an NVA (North my Purple Heart posthumously. He is a member of several veteran
Vietnamese Army) camp which had organizations and is active in the
been deserted. Unfortunately, the “The booby traps did kill two NVA. Amarillo MOPH chapter and the
NVA left booby traps behind. As we We found their bodies during our OCS Alumni Association. The
moved through the huts and trails, I sweeps through the camp’s huts. OCS reunions have allowed him to
was following a grunt (foot soldier) It appeared they were paymasters, reconnect with nearly everyone in
who tripped a vine connected to a as one had a large satchel full of the class of ’69.
“chicom” (stick) grenade. I heard North Vietnamese money. Captain Laura Schelin appreciates her
it pop. I thought at first it was a Iacovoni gave me one of the bills husband’s honesty, integrity, and
trip flare until the blast put me in as a souvenir. It’s ironic that the “money sense”. She says both of

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