Jewish veterans’ heroism recalled
SAN ANTONIO — When Maj. Carl Chen arrived Sunday morning at Agudas Achim Memorial Gardens with his wife and three children, a long-lost Air Force Academy classmate was high on his mind.
First Lt. Roslyn Littman “Roz” Schulte was the first female academy graduate to die in the war on terror when her SUV hit a roadside bomb in Kabul on May 20, 2009. She was 25 and on her first combat deployment.
“She was a friend and classmate from the … class of 2006,” Chen said, pulling up the sleeve of his utility uniform to reveal a wristband bearing her name. “Roz was an intelligence officer, she was a good friend and she is a hero.”
Chen and his family came to Agudas Achim off Austin Highway to salute Jewish veterans by placing American flags in front of their graves. The tradition, started around five years ago by Jewish War Veterans Post 753, saw a small band of veterans, family and friends visit 10 San Antonio-area cemeteries over the Memorial Day weekend — except for two run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Flags ordinarily are placed in front of headstones at national cemeteries, but not this year. The VA barred large gatherings at its veterans cemeteries in keeping with the CDC’s coronavirus guidelines. It also scratched its ceremony Monday at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery’s assembly area. While forbidding groups from placing flags at headstones, the VA is still allowing visitors from dusk to dawn through Monday.
Over the past three days, volunteers from Post 753 planted 362 flags honoring the Jewish troops, who received 52,000 awards for meritorious service in World War II, including the Purple Heart, Silver Star, Air Medal and Medal of Honor.
The group says a study showed that Jews served beyond their numerical proportion to the general population during the war, and that 11,000 were killed in combat and nearly fives times that injured.
“Too many people think that Jews don’t serve at all ... unfortunately and sadly, neither do a lot of Jews,” said Herschel Sheiness, chair of the Jewish War Veterans 753 Cemetery Committee. “Jews have served in every war since the war of independence all the way through, up to and including the Persian Gulf era.”
Now 78, Sheiness was an Army captain in Vietnam during one of its deadliest years, 1967-68, and came home with a Purple Heart. His experience was much like that for any other soldier there except in one way.
“The only way that I recall it being different was we had one Jewish cadet from West Point where I was that was killed in action,” recalled Sheiness, who was an intelligence officer in the Mekong Delta. “We always had a memorial service if one of our team was killed and they were going to do a general memorial service for him.
“And I went to the major, the operations officer who incidentally is now a retired one-star general, and said, ‘It just didn’t seem right.’ And the next thing I knew I was walking across the compound and a rabbi comes up to me and he said, ‘I’m Rabbi so-and-so from Saigon and I don’t know what I’m doing here. I was just told, get on the plane and get down here.’ ”
It was the first time the rabbi had to write a letter home to the family of a Jewish soldier killed in combat.
A short walk away from Sheiness, retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Steve Kohn looked over a clipboard containing the names of more than 90 deceased Jewish veterans. He was an electronics maintenance specialist from 1967 to 2006 with a two-year break in service, but never went to Vietnam.
The Army had other plans. “It seems it’s the least we can do for our veterans on Memorial Day,” Kohn, 73, of San Antonio said, when asked why he was at the cemetery. “I’m not articulating it well enough to explain it. I just feel I have to do it.”
That also was true of the Chens. “We’re here to honor, respect and remember those who came before and to pass it on to future generations, our own kids. What we have here in America is not free, and it’s made and kept so by people who go and do our country’s work,” said Chen, a two-tour veteran of Afghanistan.
At one point in the morning his family flanked Sheiness, who scanned the cemetery while clutching his clipboard. Chen stood alone with several flags in hand while his wife, Sarah, led the kids. The two older ones, Andrew, 8, and Charlotte, 7, appeared to be focused on the task, while Amelia, 3, was in her own world.
“I think, as military kids, we don’t have to try too hard to impress the seriousness upon them of what it means to go to war and to serve and to sometimes sacrifice for our nation,” said Sarah Chen, 36.
Chen was the only active-duty serviceman at Agudas Achim. He isn’t Jewish, but his wife is, and he said it was important not only to honor their service but instill tradition in a new generation.
Wearing their Cub Scout uniforms, Charlotte and Andrew stood next to their dad after the flag was anchored into the ground.
He then stood at attention and saluted.
Roz Schulte is always on his mind and his sense of connection runs deep. Charlotte’s middle name, Roslyn, was given in honor of his friend, who was the 56th American service member killed in action in Afghanistan in 2009 and the 686th claimed by the war to that point.
“She lived a lot in her 25 years, and she was an example for all of us,” Chen said.