Jerold Schoolmeester and Sophie Veldhuizen started dating in 1951. Pete Van Nieuwenhuyzen introduced them. Their first date was supposed to be after Christian Endeavor on a Sunday night, but Sophie got the mumps. She talked to Jerold out of her upstairs window instead.

Sophie recalls that the very next week Howard Kruisselbrink and her brother Bob went to Camp Rucker, Alabama. There was a whole group of Pipestone County guys from the National Guard that were called up to fight in the Korean Conflict. Bob came down with the mumps on his way to basic training!

Jerold was drafted about a year later, on Sept. 16, 1952. He was 20 years old when he joined the U.S. Army. For his basic training he went to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

There were a lot of boys from Edgerton area who were all drafted at the same time: Bernard Baker, Harry Van Dam, Bernie Zeinstra, and Tony Templeman are some of the others that Jerold knew at that time.

Jerold was a farm boy and he was used to working and running, so basic training was about what he expected it would be. “It wasn’t too bad for me,” he said. “I kind of enjoyed it.”

Learning about the guns and training with them was also exciting for him. He has always enjoyed hunting so using a gun was not something new for him. But he did learn how to use much larger guns and field artillery. He was also trained in “sound and survey.”

“With sound you picked up the enemies gun signal and determined how far away they were and reported that to the battery,” he said. This is what his unit was trained for.

Jerold’s service took place entirely at Ft. Sill. His battalion was called the 653^rd Observation Battalion. He was in the C battery 2^nd battalion, sound survey.

This was new during the Korean War.

Jerold was made an infantryman, and he carried a rifle – an M1 or a light machine gun – all the time. He was part of the sound group, but did not have to do the duties of a “sound” soldier.

Jerold Schoolmeester

Sophie Veldhuizen and Jerold Schoolmeester at Ft. Sill