A Simple Soldier

A Simple Soldier

A Simple Soldier

This is the story of Sepp Scheibenzuber, a simple man. For most of his early life, Sepp didnt make choices. Choices were made for him. At 13, he wanted to continue his schooling, but his parents had other ideas and soon he was toiling on the farms of Bavaria. Thereafter, he knew nothing else and so continued working on the land until he was drafted into the German Army. There was no question that he would go. He had never heard of anyone even contemplating avoiding the draft. And so within months he was fighting a war against Frenchman, a people whom he knew little about other than the Nazis said they were evil. And in the following years, he fought the Russians and suffered almost unendurable depravation. But somehow Sepp endured. He obeyed. He did what he was told along with millions of other Germans. It never even entered his mind that he had an alternative. All the choices were made for him, except one. He wanted to survive.

A Simple Soldier

The United States Army drafted Steve in 1969. Like many young men, he was unaware of the consequences of being drafted until being sent to Vietnam. Although his father was also drafted into the Armed Forces for World War II, nothing could have prepared Steve for the year of duty to come. Growing up in a large family, he developed a talent early on for storytelling. His accounts of Vietnam will have you imagining him sitting across a campfire telling his story.