Retired East Lansing teacher, one of 13 surviving WWII Army Rangers, to get national honor
GRAND LEDGE — It's been nearly 80 years since Robert Vondale joined the U.S. Army 5th Ranger Battalion, went ashore at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, and fought across Europe with the 79th Infantry Division during World War II.
More than 7,000 U.S. Army Rangers who served during World War II. Vondale is one of just 13 still living.
He joined the all-volunteer elite group of soldiers created during the war after seeing a notice on a bulletin board when he arrived in England before D-Day.
Now he's poised to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. In June, President Joe Biden signed a bill authorizing that the medal be awarded to World War II Rangers.
After the war, Vondale graduated from Michigan State University and married his wife Beverly. They raised four children and Vondale taught junior high and elementary students at East Lansing Public Schools for 23 years.
Despite the many years since his service, time hasn't taken his memories of the war.
On Monday afternoon from his apartment living room at Independence Living in Grand Ledge, Vondale, 97, a longtime East Lansing resident and grade school teacher, carefully recounted his 2½ years of military service.
He talked about the towns he visited, gunfire exchanges and explosions, aiding the wounded, retrieving the dead, and his own close calls.
"When I look back on it, I don't have any regrets," Vondale said. "I think it was designed that way. I believe in God and I believe that all things happen for a reason."
Memories of war
Cathy Schafer, Vondale's daughter, said when she was growing up her father never shared with her what he had experienced during World War II.
Schafer, 64, remembers Vondale as a dedicated school teacher who spent hours after class had ended each day meeting with parents and students. He was a loving father who walked her to and from school every day.
"My dad taught me about being on time, being respectful, and working hard," she said.
Schafer didn't think about the soldier her father once was until two years ago. Her parents were moving to Grand Ledge. Schafer was helping them pack and found Vondale's handwritten memoir about World War II.
"I came across it and just picked it up and started reading," she said. His story left her in awe.
"Oh my gosh, he never even told me," Schafer remembers thinking.
Enlisting in the Army
To hear Vondale tell it, there were several twists of fate that led him to the Army, then to join one of the Rangers' first six battalions, and after that the 79th Division.
He had intended to join the Navy. His brother Earl already had and was aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma when Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. Although more than 400 crew members died, he survived.
Two years later, Vondale took an exam, stood before a Navy officer and saluted, ready to enlist himself.
"We aren't taking men with glasses this month so you can't join the Navy," the officer told him.
"I said, 'Well, I guess I'm in the Army,'" Vondale said.
In August 1943, he boarded a train for a military camp in Illinois, then traveled to Fort McClellan in Alabama.
A fall into a creek four months later in the midst of training delayed his graduation. Weeks later, he traveled to England. He'd only been there a few weeks when a notice asking for volunteers to join the Rangers caught his eye.
"I didn't know what they were, but I signed up," Vondale said.
Joining the Rangers
The U.S. formed the Rangers in 1942 in preparation for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, said Ron Hudnell, who maintains a Facebook group for World War II Rangers and their families.
"The Army had no comparable unit to the British commandos," Hudnell said. "The Rangers' mission was to be the lead force into invasions in occupied territories and to neutralize, as much as they can, the enemy forces there at the beach for the troops that are coming in after them."
Vondale was a member of the 5th Ranger Batallion and landed at Omaha Beach five days after the invasion began.
The scene there was "just terrible," Vondale said. "Everything was torn asunder. Boats were turned upside down. People were floating in the water."
He spent seven weeks training as a bazooka assistant with the Rangers in France, not far from the beach.
Shortly after that, he joined the 79th Infantry Division.
"During the course of the 10 months that we're fighting we lost 3,000 dead, 11,000 wounded and two battalions, 1,600 men, got captured in the Battle of the Bulge," Vondale said.
He was discharged from the Army in January 1946.
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Life after the war
Vondale's memories of the war don't plague him, but they remain clear.
"I can remember what happened. I can remember picking up the dead people and wounded people," Vondale said.
War experiences he once kept quiet about are stories he shares more often now, Beverly Vondale said, even recounting what happened in front of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
He met with other World War II Rangers after leaving the Army and has been back to visit places where he fought during the war.
"It's been gradual through the years," she said.
His life following the war has been filled with joy. He's been married to Beverly for 71 years, and taught and lived in East Lansing for 23 years. Years later, Vondale is still in contact with just over a dozen former students.
"Teaching was my bag," he said. "Every day was glorious. In their time of life, I got a chance to be an important part of it."
The Rangers' contribution to World War II was significant, Hudnell said, and news that they will receive the Congressional Gold Medal is a long time coming.
"These guys, they are so elated and so honored that the country has recognized their service during World War II," Hudnell said, though the presentation is likely still over a year away.
The Congressional Gold Medal is bestowed by Congress and is the highest civilian award in the United States. The decoration is awarded to an individual or unit who performs an outstanding deed or act of service to the security, prosperity, and national interest of the United States.
Schafer aims to see her father receive his medal.
"I'm already planning my dad's 100th birthday, so..." she said.
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Retired East Lansing teacher to get national honor as WWII Army Ranger
