CSM (R) Shawn Lehr

Command Sergeant Major (Retired) Shawn Lehr sat down with me for Heroes Live.

I thought he would be the hardest guest I ever had. Gruff. Go go go. Rest tomorrow. Command Sergeant Major Plumley energy. Then he sat down and told the truth.

Grew up all over. Family settled in northern Wisconsin. Fourteen brothers and sisters. Two-bedroom house. Dirt poor. He was number eight. Seven older. Seven younger. Oldest sister Sherry about eighteen years older. Youngest sister Jody in her thirties. The whole bunch has never been in the same place at the same time. Not a wedding. Not a funeral. Not once.

He joined at seventeen. Thought it was three years. Did not plan on airborne. Did not even know what airborne was. Fort Leonard Wood. An in-service recruiter said he would look good with jump wings. Infantry school. Then Bragg. He did not know they paid jump pay. He just wanted to jump out of a plane. A camping trip that never ended.

First of the 508. First Sergeant Stewart. Worst first sergeant he ever met. Private Lehr jumped out of a hammerhead barracks so Stewart could not get him. Sergeant Major Bobby V.T. came looking for GT scores. He had one. Three months out of infantry AIT he was in Third of the Fourth. He stayed. Twenty-nine years. Ten months. Ten days. Twenty-two of them in that battalion.

He was a drill sergeant. Korea as a sergeant major. Two years with 5-5. Ninety-day syndrome. I just got here. I am going on mid-tour. I am leaving. He took them to the woodshed. Fort Campbell after that. He wanted Third of the Fourth as sergeant major. Patterson was not leaving. Ridgeway got the battalion. He got 2-44 in the 101st instead. Good people. Never the 82nd.

He met his wife at the Hardee's in Spring Lake. She saw him and that was that. Forty-six years. He yelled the snot out of soldiers. He did not like putting hands on people. He was always louder than the other first sergeants. Battery. Ten-hut. Cold Steel. Prepared to move forward. He still puts it on emails.

He handed Cold Steel to Chavez. He never met a man more dedicated to the Army than Belton Lott. Head to head. If Lott could walk over you he would. If you talked bad about the Army you were fixing to get it. Like you talked about his girlfriend. Charlie Battery. Cold Steel. Prepared to move forward. That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.