1SG (R) Randy Osterhout

1SG (R) Randy Osterhout sat down with me for Heroes I Know. A legendary Vulcan mechanic. Jumpmaster. First sergeant. One of ours.

Lima, Ohio. Lost in Middle America. That is his lore. Neighborhood terrorist as a kid. Banana seat. Evel Knievel jumps over a plank in the road. June 1981 he joined.

He signed 16 Romeo. If he graduated in the top ten percent of the class they would send him 24 Mike — Vulcan mechanic. If he did not, they were going to stick him on a gun anyway. He would not have had a problem with that. He made the cut. That bought him more school.

Airborne school. Fort Benning. They ran PT in boots and fatigues. Two miles in those flat combat boots. He called his mom. They still talk almost every week. Guess where I am. Fort Benning, Georgia. Big pine trees. Infantry airborne school. They’re teaching me how to jump out of planes, Mom. Nothing. Absolute silence. She had hung up on him.

First set of orders said Fort Campbell. Too close to home. He had joined the Army to see things. Warrant talk around the Vulcans. A guy in the school asked where he was going. Campbell, he said. The guy looked at him. That is not why you joined. Randy already knew.

He became the mechanic everybody called. Sergeant Lloyd taught him the gun. Six to eight twists in the safety wire. Anything over is too tight. Then jumpmaster. Then first sergeant. The battery still tells Osterhout stories.

First Sergeant (R) Osterhout signing out. That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.