8/13/19
Trinity Room, Trinity Episcopal Church
Today’s speaker was Colonel Carroll Alfred Ockert, better known as “Bud.”
Bud was born in Shelburne at the corner of Marsette Road and Shelburne Road in 1935. He grew up on Shelburne Farms, where his dad worked for Sam Webb. Bud said growing up at the Farm was a wonderful life- exploring the woods, skating on frozen ponds and sliding on the hills.
Bud attended UVM and graduated in 1957. He received a masters degree in hospital administration from Baylor University in 1968, and served in the Army until 1988, when he retired and over back to Shelburne.
After graduating from UVM, Bud was commissioned as a medical service corps officer working in the military hospital. He was in an artillery battalion in Oklahoma for 2 years, but got bored and started working in the hospital observing in surgery and autopsies.
As a survivor assistant officer he had to make the phone call to the family members. His years in the service provided him with some sad memories. One grieving father asked him “why my son and not someone else’s?”
He watched a soldier’s mother and wife fight over a flag at a funeral. He has seen strange things he’d never have thought he’d be involved in.
Bud served 3 years with Office of Surgeon General, where he was dispatched to several emergencies, such as the 1973 earthquake in Nicaragua where he ran a relief effort for 2 weeks.
He served in Fort Demers army hospital for 3 years.
He was serving at the military hospital in Heidelburg Germany as an EO in January 1981 when the hostages from Iran were released.
The German government closed the Autobahn and escorted the buses carrying the hostages from the airport to the hospital.
Bud is most proud of being recognized by the NCO- having been promoted his from Full Colonel to Master Sergeant- quite the honor as anyone serving in the military will attest!
As a hospital Inspector Bud traveled all over the world- Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany.
He considers Vietnam the pinnacle of his career.
On July 17, 1968 he went up the Macon River supporting the 9th infantry division surgical hospital. The hospital’s job was "triage stabilize and move” and the average length of stay was 3 days. Bud shared examples of shrapnel and other small arms that were removed from soldiers’ wounds.
These were hard times- Bud talked about how he got through it- humor played a part in survival, with soldiers pulling pranks on each other and trying to have a bit of fun in an otherwise horrible situation.
After serving at the surgical hospital, Bud was reassigned to a rehabilitation hospital on the south China sea, where they saw 980 patients per day. Most men had 30 days of rehab and then back to active duty.
A horrible reception awaited Vietnam Veterans when the came back home to the States.
In uniform soldiers faced humiliation- they were called horrible names and were treated badly-eventually being told by their superiors not to appear in public in uniform.
After all he has seen over the years, Bud believes we should only put our young men and women in harms way only if it is a matter of national security.
Bud asked us all to visit a concentration camp if we are in Germany- it’s important for all to see
“man’s inhumanity to man”- everyone should experience that evil.
“Some say it never happened,” Bud says. “But the camps are there. It happened.”
Keith led us in 4 way test.
John Dupee shared why he is a Rotarian. Back in 1998, John Hammer and Chris Horton cornered him and when they were done he was a Rotarian. He joined because he felt it was time to give back to the community he had taken so much from.
John enjoys the pleasure of meeting people who participate in Rotary activities but he doesn’t have time those that don’t. He says we fool ourselves by putting people on the roster who don’t engage.
“We’re carrying people who are never going to participate- I didn’t join for socialization I joined because of the participation,” John says.
He noted some standout works he’s been involved in with Rotary- like putting a young lady through nursing school. She lived on a island in Grenada. Rotarians found out about her and raised enough money to send her to school. She eventually became a nurse. This type of work demonstrates one thing he believes in- “teaching her how to fish, and boy did she catch fish".
Trafton is up next.
Happy fines:
Sam and his wife are happy for 65 years of marriage!
Lots of thanks to Bud for his talk and his service.
Linda celebrated 45 wedding anniversary and 28 years at her job!
See you all next week!