Graduating from Eldon High School in 1962, Kelley Shoemaker went on to spend the next three years working for a local automotive parts company, eventually reaching the conclusion that the U.S. Army would not need his services during the developing Vietnam War. However, unexpected events would lead to his service in the military and solidify his adoration for the country he calls home.
"A lot of my friends who were 18 and 19 years old had gotten their draft notices and had already been sent off to the war (in Vietnam)," said the California, Missouri, veteran. "But in 1965, when I was 21 years old, I was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Leonard Wood for basic training."
While he was in training during the early summer of 1965, Shoemaker's younger brother also received a draft notice and went on to serve with the Army in Germany.
"During my boot camp, they told me that they wanted me to go to clerk school and I told them that I wanted to something else," Shoemaker recalled. "Then they said that's what I was going to do; I didn't have any choice in the matter."
Remaining at the Mid-Missouri Army post, the recruit completed eight weeks of clerk training. Upon graduating, he received orders for Korea - a country he believed would be much too frigid for his taste.
"I hate cold weather," he laughed. "But someone told me if I signed up for Airborne School, it would waive any orders that I had already been issued and I would also make an extra $50 a month."
Shoemaker was soon on his way to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he spent the next few weeks completing his airborne training and making five successful parachute jumps. He was then assigned to 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
"We got to run 5 miles every day before breakfast (at Fort Bragg)," Shoemaker chuckled. "For about five months or so, I was stuck behind a desk typing reports, but sometimes in the afternoon my sergeant would let me go down and help work on vehicles in the motor pool."
In late spring of 1966, the paratrooper volunteered for service in the Dominican Republic to get away from desk duty, but jokingly remarked that since he demonstrated his willingness to serve overseas, the Army instead decided to issue him orders for Vietnam.
Flying into Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon, Vietnam, in mid-May 1966, Shoemaker was assigned to the administration section of Company A, 173rd Airborne Brigade located on Bien Hoa Air Base, several miles northeast of Saigon.
"I pulled a lot of guard duty on the 34-foot towers," Shoemaker said. "I also did some typing (of reports) there, but I kept asking if there was any way I could get out from behind the desk. I was going nuts after only being there for a few weeks."
His wish was soon fulfilled when he was assigned to a support group operating near the Cambodian border in which Shoemaker was "used where necessary," often performing such tasks as filling sandbags for the protection of bunkers, driving in convoys or transporting supplies.
"There were times were I drove our sergeant to Saigon to deliver photographs and information for the Star and Stripes (newspaper)," Shoemaker said. "Other times we delivered intelligence reports or other important information."
Toward the latter part of February 1967, Shoemaker recalled, the 173rd Airborne Brigade participated in Operation Junction City - a major military operation involving more than 25,000 troops and intended to batter Viet Cong strongholds along the Cambodian border.
The only major airborne operation of the war, Shoemaker did not get to make the combat parachute jump with his fellow paratroopers. Instead, he explained, he drove a Jeep with a trailer onto a Chinook helicopter carrying 30 "field-dressed soldiers," who were then dropped off in support of the 82-day military operation.
"I continued to serve in a support role, doing whatever was needed," he said. "We did have two combat photographers in our group and one of them, Douglas Carl Holland, was a good friend of mine." Sullenly, he added, "Doug was killed by enemy rifle fire 21 days before he was supposed to come home and that just kind of jerked the rug out from under me."
Shoemaker was picking up supplies at Bien Hoa in May 1967 and, while at the air base, heard his name called over the loudspeaker. When he reported to the administrative offices, he was told if he could be ready in 45 minutes, he could process out of the Army and go home.
"I ran down and grabbed everything I could out of my hut and ran back to the office," he said. "Then I got on a plane and flew out of Vietnam six days early."
After returning home from the war, Shoemaker married his fiancée, Mary Lehman, and the couple raised two children. The Army veteran went on to enjoy and extensive career working for several local car dealerships before retiring from the former Mike Kehoe Ford in Jefferson City in 2007.
Reflecting on his time spent along the Cambodian border during the Vietnam War, Shoemaker affirms that there are both memories and lessons that have never diminished despite the passage of several decades.
"I can remember flying on a helicopter to Saigon and there was a body bag lying at my feet with blood running out of it," he solemnly recalled. "That's something you can never forget, something that never leaves your thoughts."
He continued, "Before I got to Vietnam, I don't think that I ever saw anyone starving, but over there you saw all of those orphans those kids that were truly hungry. They would beg you for stuff we thought was garbage but all they wanted was something to eat."
Pausing, he added, "It made you realize just how lucky you are to be in America, to reside in this great nation."
Jeremy P. Amick writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America.