Bob Hirschbach celebrated at Veteran of the Month

Bob Hirschbach always wanted to become a parchutist and after he graduated high school in 1969, went on to get an Associates Degree in Business and then joined the army. He did basic training in Fort Jackson and infantry school at Fort Polk before having jump school at Fort Benning. His actual parachute school was at Fort Lee.

“Just something I wanted to do since I was a young kid,” he said. “Wanted to be a paratrooper.”

At the time, he didn’t have any family in the military. His father was in the military between WWII and Korea and several of his uncles had been in WWII but at that time, “There was no particular military tradition” in his family.

Hirschbach is the News-Herald’s Veteran of the Month and shared some of his expereiences in the military, “I was overseas for 26 months with special forces in Okinawa. We did missions in Vietnam, Korea, Phillipines, and Taiwan. We got around.”

He said it was predominantly training missions and disaster relief to various countries, “It’s not the easiest things but looking back on it, it’s one of the things I wouldn’t trade.”

Hirshbach’s family now is starting into creating a deeper military tradition with his stepson being in the military along with two of his grandsons. He said it seems that he’s pushed the tradition along now and is happy to see his family holding to an honorable career.

His favorite time in the military was spending time oevrseas. He enjoyed being able to sightsee when he was possible, “Generally we’d go on a 30 day mission then have a 2-3 day break.”

His least favorite part was when he got a new assignment in the states, a job that made him decide not to continue forever in the army.

After he left the army, he married his wife Alice and they’ve been together for over 40 years. He has three kids, Shawn, Trish, and Rose. He has ten grandchildren now and five great grandchildren.

Hirschbach said if he spoke to young people today, he would encourage them to go into the military if it made sense for their desired career path, “I’m not one of these guys that says it’ll make a man out of you; it’s just a normal maturation process. If you do decide to go to college, you’ve got the benefits when you get out… the military is, of course, not for everybody. [It’s for] somebody who’s not sure what their future is at this point and they still want to accomplish something. It’s something they will always look back on as a high point in their life.”

Hirschbach remains active in the community as a lifemember of the VFW and serving as the Chaplain at the Scio American Legion. He’s been on the Veteran’s Service Board for six years, helping other veterans find resources and aid as much as he can, “My experience on the Veteran’s Service Board has been that we’re not as well known as we should be… we provide rides to the VA, Cleveland and Pittsburgh… Our service officers are all certified and it doesn’t cost anything to use us.”

Veterans are encouraged to utilize the services provided by the veteran’s board by calling (740) 942-8441 to get more information.