United States Army
Colonel Gerald Schumacher is a retired Army Special Forces Officer. While serving in the military, he completed tours of duty in Korea, Germany, Vietnam, and temporary duty in other foreign countries. He has commanded U.S. Army units at every level up to and including Brigade Command. His senior staff assignments include Division Operations Officer and Division Chief of Staff.
He is a graduate of the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, Command & General Staff College, Infantry Officer’s Advance Course, Special Forces Qualification Course, Officer Candidate School, Jumpmaster School, Basic Army Parachutist School, and several Signal Corps Communications schools as well as the Vietnamese Regional & Popular Force Training Course.
Colonel Schumacher has a total of thirty-two years of military service, Active and Reserve, Enlisted & Commissioned, Among his awards and decorations; Combat Infantry Badge, Special Forces Tab, Master Parachutist Badge, Canadian Parachutist Badge, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star w/V and Oak Leaf Cluster, Meritorious Service Medal w/silver oak leaf cluster, Air Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry w/Silver Star
Ancillary Military Highlights
BrimFrost Exercise 89
BrimFrost Exercise 89: While conducting arctic warfare exercises in Alaska and the Bearing Strait, then LT. Colonel Schumacher’s Special Forces Battalion was working side by side with Canadian Paratroopers. On one February evening, with temperatures ranging from minus 55 to minus 75 degrees Fahrenheit, The Canadians were returning to the Fairbanks area. Ice Fog limited visibility to just a few meters, at best. The Canadian C130, was on approach into Ft Wainwright following a scrubbed parachute jump. The aircraft nose-dived into the runway. The fuselage broke into three chunks of twisted steel. The wings were ripped off and the paratroopers were catapulted into the air.
LTColonel Schumacher ordered his unit to locate the unit’s organic Special Forces medical personnel and establish a triage, assemble a search party to locate the injured and dead paratroopers, transport them to the base hospital and employ French speakers to assist the doctors performing lifesaving operations.
Through timely response in extremely dangerous conditions, the U.S. Special Forces soldiers employed the unit assets to mobilize various skill sets quickly, resulting in saving many of the Canadian paratroopers. This was the beginning of what was to become a long-standing friendship and training relationship between the American and Canadian unit.
National Training Center (NTC)
Colonel Schumacher was directed to solicit, train, and lead the best soldiers within the 85th Training Division to become certified Observer Controllers at the Army’s premiere training installation, the National Training Center, Ft Irwin, CA. Individuals on his team came from various technical and logistical specialties.
They deployed to Ft Irwin and were entered into the Observer Controller training program. Upon completion of the classroom phases and proficiency testing, they linked up with USAR logistics units deploying for pre-combat evaluation. Most of the units participating had never been evaluated at Ft Irwin. And had never been subjected to such exacting standards of performance. This would be a true test of their capabilities to support active-duty units in a war zone.
Seasoned Observers organic to Ft Irwin, evaluated Colonel Schumacher and his team throughout the cycle. As all teams at Ft Irwin have creative names for their Eval Teams, Colonel Schumacher’s team was dubbed, The Ghost Riders. Upon completion of the cycle, not only was the guest unit effectively evaluated for readiness, but the Ghost Riders were also evaluated for their technical expertise, evaluation techniques, and communication methods. To a man and woman, the Ghost Riders were certified as fully competent Observer Controllers at the U.S. Army prestigious ground warfare training center.
Biological Warfare Project, Desertstorm
As the United States prepared to enter combat to remove Iraq from their unlawful occupation of Kuwait. Colonel Schumacher became aware of information suggesting that Iraq intended to use biological sprayers to disperse anthrax and botulism against advancing U.S and Allied units.
The available data pinpointed the manufacture, design, and numbers of the biological agent delivery systems that Iraq was prepared to use against our units. We had no “real time” detection capability. Army CBR units were told that upon suspecting that our soldiers might be displaying symptoms of an anthrax attack, air samples should be brought to the rear echelon lab in Riyadh. Once there, the samples would be incubated for 72 hours, and if positive, the rear echelon lab would advise the unit that was exposed to go into full CBR mode. Just imagine how many soldiers might be contaminated, while waiting for the sample results.
Schumacher linked up with a group of Scientist from Stanford Research Institute at the Dugway Proving Grounds testing facility. After working fastidiously for several weeks, the group consensus was that they had successfully developed real time detectors which, when deployed, might save thousands of lives. Colonel Schumacher was given green light to quietly find the best soldiers in the 91st division that would volunteer to train and deploy to Iraq where they would be responsible for emplacement and operation of the real time detection equipment. For bureaucratic reasons, the equipment never left a warehouse in Riyadh. At the conclusion of the war, Schumacher was briefed on the apparent discovery of biological delivery systems. Consequently, for many years after Desert Storm Colonel Schumacher has been very active in attempting to illuminate possible causes of Gulf War Syndrome.
Hall of Fame Induction.
In April 2015 Colonel Schumacher was inducted into the OCS Hall of Fame. This is an honor reserved for individual graduates who have distinguished themselves through exceptional performance at the state or national level.
