Notes
Note N3746
Index
Lansdon, 1714 Parkwood, running stop sign, $15. Chris Angeles, Rt. 1, allowing, minor to drive, $15. William David Hester, 1700 E. Spruce flailing to wear eye protective device, $15. William Clinton HenreJl, Rt. 1, running stop sign, $15. Robert Perry Brewer, 627 Olive, speeding 40 im 20. school zone, $30. Ronald Floyd Byerly, 401 E. Kansas, speeding 37 in 30 zone, $15. Kyle Edward Fairbaim, 1505 Hackberry, speeding iO in 20 zone, $20. "Roy Buck LEOTI Roy Buck, 52, Leoti, died Sunday at his home after a heart attack. Bom March 19, 1920, at Redfield, he married Vardie Downs May 1, 1946, at Leoti. He was a farmer and had lived here since 1940. He was a member otf the Presbyterian Churcih, Masonic Lodge, Isis Temple, Salina, OES, and VFW."--26 Sep 1972, Garden City (KS) Telegram
Notes
Note N3747
Index
"As a child, a young German orphan followed U.S. Army Soldiers on maneuvers in Gelnhausen, a small rural town outside of Frankfurt, Germany. Collecting C-rations and chocolate, the young boy never thought he would one day serve as an American Soldier. By 1967, that same boy, now a U.S. citizen, completed his first combat tour as a platoon sergeant assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, at Pleiku, Vietnam. Twenty-one years later, Command Sgt. Maj. Hans Liebrich assumed responsibility as the senior enlisted leader of the “Ivy” Division at Fort Carson, a position he would hold until he retired in 1991. Liebrich said that during his career spanning three decades of service to the nation, he has seen many changes in the institutional Army, yet “taking care of Soldiers,” remained the one constant throughout his commitment to serve and defend the people of the United States of America. “My platoon sergeant sat me down and gave me a little spiel about the military,” Liebrich said. “He was a master sergeant. He was a good platoon sergeant; I learned a lot from him and the squad leaders … he looked out for his Soldiers and squad leaders and made sure they did their job, which was taking care of Soldiers. “And that stuck in my head a long time, even when I made sergeant major. Taking care of Soldiers and their Family was about the most important thing I ever did.” As a child, Liebrich moved from one foster home to the next, working farms, trade jobs and eventually becoming a baker’s apprentice. Liebrich said he always had a dream to move to the U.S. and eventually had the opportunity to get a job in Montreal. When he was 20 years old, Liebrich applied for a visa and acquired sponsorship from an uncle, who helped him move to Boston where he worked at a restaurant in a country club. Drafted into the Army in 1961, Liebrich completed Basic Combat and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Dix, N.J. He remembered being in disbelief of being drafted since he was not even an American citizen. The draft board assured the young man he in fact had been drafted into the U.S. Army.
Traveling by boat and train, the new private reported to the 38th Battle Group, 3rd Infantry Division, in Schweinfurt, Germany. It was during this time Liebrich met his future wife, Mathilde, whom he married in March 1963 after he made the rank of specialist fourth class. “We could not get married (in my unit) if I was not a (specialist) 4,” he explained. “I made sergeant the same year … my wife sewed all the stripes on.” Liebrich said the Army could not send him to Vietnam unless he was a U.S. citizen, so before his first tour, he was escorted to a courthouse in Macon, Ga., to take the Oath of Allegiance. According to Liebrich, the judge asked one question; “Who was the first American president?” “‘Man, that’s easy, judge … Washington,’ and the judge said, ‘Good, you passed,’ and two weeks later, I was back on orders to Vietnam,” said Liebrich. Liebrich’s duty positions during his career included his line time as an infantryman; service as an instructor at officer candidate school; an ROTC instructor; garrison command sergeant major at Wildflecken, Germany; and command sergeant major of the 4th Engineer Battalion. The senior noncommissioned officer said his success as a Soldier and the opportunity to carry the division standard stemmed from the platoon sergeants and squad leaders who raised him through the ranks. Liebrich, who retired in July 1991 after completing his stint as the 4th Inf. Div. command sergeant major, said that as a young NCO, he strived to continue their example, mentorship and counsel throughout his career, all the while working to take care of Soldiers. “I was really honored to achieve the rank of command sergeant major, and I never forgot the mentors I had throughout my career, the NCOs who brought me up through the ranks,” he said.
In 1999, he took a job as superintendent for approximately 323,000 acres of maneuver space at Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. Supervising nine contractors, Liebrich was responsible for constructing several of the Mountain Post’s live fire ranges, and said that after 9/11 he spent the next seven years training conventional and unconventional forces at Fort Carson for deployments in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Retired Col. Bob Stack, Liebrich’s former range officer and commander of the 1st Bn., 22nd Inf. Reg., 1st BCT, 4th Inf. Div. from 1979-1982, said the push to train deploying units required the staff to expand Fort Carson training grounds, working 18-hour days to ensure forces were combat ready. He also noted how Liebrich built improvised brush trucks out of Humvees to respond to flash fires on the training ground. “He is a great Soldier,” said Stack, who also served with Liebrich in Vietnam. “He was dedicated to the wellbeing and taking care of the American Soldier. A real American patriot - one of the very best Soldiers I have ever known. A self-starter and innovative, I never had to push him to accomplish the mission. He just got the job done.” Liebrich acknowledged the Army’s mission has changed greatly since the days when he soldiered during the Cold War. “The Army of today is more knowledgeable,” he said. “The Soldiers today get better equipment, they get better training. Going to Iraq and Afghanistan, Soldiers are better prepared than when we went to Vietnam.” “And they are volunteers, so they want to be in,” he added. “In the 60s, most were drafted. Back when I came in, guys did not want to be in the Army. I mean we had lawyers who got drafted. They were smart but they did not want to be in the Army.” The Army as a whole has worked to improve quality of life and support for Soldiers, especially since the beginning of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said. Liebrich told about his tours in Vietnam; how it took six months for the paperwork for an allotment for his wife to go through, and especially remembered the lack of communication with home during his first 12-month tour. No e-mail or phones at the forward bases during those days, Liebrich said he used a radio to make maybe two phone calls the entire year and wrote
many letters that his wife said she received several months later. He especially noted the difference in the public support Soldiers receive today from their community versus the animosity Vietnam veterans faced in the late 60s and 70s. “It was a hard time for all of us,” he said. During Operation Desert Storm in 1990, leaders began to realize to maintain an efficient modern warfighting force they would have to allocate resources to improve services for both Soldiers and their Families, said the retired sergeant major. As the wife of a senior enlisted leader, Mathilde said she worked day and night to help Army Families in need during the deployment.
Mathilde explained there was a stigma amongst the Families to report their problems to Army Community Service, so she operated a Family support center, known as “The Little House” for Fort Carson spouses. She started a food locker to assist spouses who could not or would not get assistance from ACS while their Soldiers were deployed to the Saudi Arabian desert. She also collected money to assist Families with the help of all the sergeants major. She remembered one morning, during physical training, a brigade of Soldiers ran by The Little House, each delivering foodstuff and canned goods for the food locker. “Most of the wives back then did not know what the Army was all about,” said Liebrich. “They never got taught, and they felt ACS had too much red tape to go through to get something done.” The Army has changed for the better now, said Mathilde, reiterating that she often heard the old adage, “If the Army wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one,” during her husband’s many years of service. “It is important to take care of the Family and the Soldier,” she said. “You get a better Soldier if the Family is taken care of.” The retired command sergeant major lives in Colorado Springs with his wife of 47 years. They have two children, Mary-Anne and Thomas, and three grandchildren, who live near Sacramento, Calif."--19 Feb 2010, Fort Carson (CO) Mountaineer