After seven decades of talking about coming back to Hawaii, 90-year-old Warren Schuster returned this week — a trip that became a reality thanks to an offer extended to veterans of the Army’s 35th Infantry Regiment.
Before his decades-long career as a teacher, the Wisconsin native was a soldier in the 35th Infantry Regiment at the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks.
The trip became a reality after Brian Hughes, Oahu- based president of the 35th Regiment Association, offered in the organization’s newsletter to help facilitate visits for any veterans hoping to return.
Schuster’s family reached out, and he was able to come to Hawaii as a guest of the 35th Regiment — meeting Friday with the current soldiers of his old unit and touring the base to see what remains from his time there and how both the base, and the island more broadly, has changed.
“It brings back a lot of memories,” he said. “There’s a lot of emotions.”
Schuster said it was at Schofield Barracks that he learned about manhood, but in Korea everything he learned in the Army was put to the test.
Schuster’s children, now all adults, said that he often spoke fondly of his time in Hawaii and about going back. But like many in his generation, he talked less about his time in Korea.
“It took him a long time to talk about it, and once he did and we understood what he went through. … It changes you,” said his daughter LeeAnn Libby.
In September 1951, Schuster and his fellow soldiers found themselves locked in a harrowing battle with Chinese forces. In the chaos as he was ferrying ammo amid an artillery barrage, shrapnel pierced his helmet, and he was wounded on the left side of his head. Separated from his comrades and unarmed, an injured Schuster sneaked past Chinese troops and found a group of U.S. soldiers who put him on a medical evacuation helicopter.
There were 46 Americans killed, 130 wounded and 36 missing in action during the battle. The military estimated that Chinese forces lost upward of 600 troops. Schuster spent the next 10 months in military hospitals recuperating. Arriving back in the U.S., he was sent to Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek, Mich., which specialized in neurosurgery.
Schuster’s company was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation. Over the years he stayed in touch with some of his buddies from the war, several of whom made their way back to Hawaii. “I’ve talked about it in the past, but it never seemed to be in the right situation with the family. It was such that I couldn’t take them all, we couldn’t swing it,” he said.
As his children got older he began to put more serious thought into it, until his wife fell ill and was unable to travel. After she died in 2020, the family began to look at making the trip.
“We miss my mom, but she’s here in heart with us,” said Libby. “We’re all so lucky to be here together.”
When Schuster’s family reached out after the invitation in the association newsletter, Hughes said he began talking to the unit’s current leadership.
“This is much more than I expected. This is awesome,” Hughes said Friday.
Hughes is a recent veteran of the unit, having left the Army in 2018, and said most of the association is made up of Vietnam-era veterans but that post-9/11 vets are starting to join, too. He said that World War II and Korean War veterans are dwindling in numbers.
“This is probably my last chance,” said Schuster of the visit.
During his visit to Schofield, soldiers showed Schuster the equipment they now use, including weapons, night vision and other tools. Schuster talked with Spc. Derek Hernandez, 21, about the helmets and protective gear soldiers are now issued — and how they might have spared him his own injuries.
Hernandez told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that meeting Schuster was an honor and one of the highlights of his time stationed in Hawaii. “It’s amazing to see that he’s still here today,” said Hernandez. “Korea was a pretty crazy war, and one that’s not really talked about as well. I honestly don’t know much about it myself.”
Schuster said that the World War II generation spoke little of their experience, and overwhelmingly most troops who fought in that war opted not to stay in the military and returned to the workforce. He said that most of the soldiers he served with, like himself, were straight out of high school with little experience when the Korean War broke out.
“You had no one to guide you, no one to tell you what it was going to be like,” he said. But while he said the war was difficult, the lessons he learned from military life were with him for the rest of his life. “I still make my bed every day. It’s those kinds of things. … All those young guys like myself came in, we had to learn all that.”
While reflecting on the battle with Hernandez, Schuster briefly teared up thinking about the experience. Hernandez said that it was sobering to see the long-term impact of war. But when asked whether seeing the scars of war made him more or less interested in deploying, he said more.
“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “It’s just that this is a family.”
