A band of brothers:
Eldest Schwieso brother recalls family legacy of military service
Any time Duaine Schwieso looks out of his window he can see it — a large set of stars adorning the face of the barn outside of his home near Chili. Four white, one gold, a five-star set honoring and remembering the service he and his brothers gave to their country. Even before Duaine and his brothers took to the skies, the Schwieso family carried a history of service that shaped our world as we know it.
This is their story.
Duaine is the eldest of eight siblings, born and raised in the countryside near Janesville. His parents were both farmers, as was his uncle, Donald Cole, who lived in the countryside near Loyal after his military service in World War II. His family stayed in the area around Janesville up until Duaine graduated from high school in 1953, then moved to Loyal where the rest of his siblings went to school and eventually graduated.
“My dad and ma were farmers,” said Duaine. “I was born at home in the country, and went to country schools until I went to high school in Janesville. All of my brothers and sisters went to Loyal.”
Donald Cole Cole was a 1943 Loyal High School graduate who joined the U.S. Air Force and served in the South Pacific in the 509th atom bomb group. While there, he was a crew member on a B-29 Superfortress, which dropped the atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“My dad wasn’t in the military,” said Duaine. “I had a grandpa that served in the first World War and I had an uncle (Donald Cole) who was in the Air Force and was kind of my hero.”
In talking about the rigors of training, Duaine said Cole had to have been one of the best in order to have been selected for such an important mission during the war. “It was a small group of men that were selected for that mission,” he said as he paged through a book detailing the history Brothers,
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of the 509th. “They had to be good. The standards were very high just to be able to fly. To get to be on that mission, you had to be very special.”
While Cole was a part of one of the most important historical events of World War II, Duaine said his uncle never really talked about his experiences. What he did say, however, was inspiring for young Duaine and his brothers.
“He was like a lot of veterans that were involved in conflict,” recalled Duaine. “He didn’t want to have to think about it. When the war was over, he was out. He had no intention of flying ever again. He put the war behind him and went farming south of Loyal. The 509th had a few anniversaries over the years, but Don was not interested in going back. But he only ever said good things about the Air Force. Don didn’t know it, but it was inspiring. I figured if Don was good enough, I could be too.”
Duaine’s life As his siblings continued their schooling in Loyal, Duaine had some serious life choices to make. The Korean War was near it end, but the draft for the United States Army was still on as tensions caused by the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union continued. Faced with the prospect of being drafted into the Army, Duaine said he gave serious consideration to where he wanted to go and what it would mean for his future. In the end, he decided the Air Force was where he was being called and went to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.
“Well, I had no clue,” he said on what he wanted to do after graduation. “I was still deciding, but I knew that I did not want to be drafted into the Army. I had a dream to go into the Air Force and maybe even be a flier. When I had to make a choice, I chose to enlist in the Air Force.”
That dream of flying never did become a reality for Duaine. An ear infection he had a short time before his high school graduation led to scar tissue developing on his left eardrum, which was noticed during his physical evaluation, and he was assigned to work as a mechanic on the airborne electrical equipment on jet bombers.
“When I got in, there were two lines for medical checkups; one was for a physical for flying,” he said. “I figured that I wanted to fly so I went there. When I got in, they did their examination. The doctor looked at my left eardrum and said, ‘Oops, sorry, you’ve got scar tissue on your eardrum.’ That prevented me from passing. It would have been affected by the constant change in pressure. So instead I worked on B-47s, jet bombers.”
His first stop was to receive basic training at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado. There, he learned how to operate airborne radar equipment, computer systems in navigation and maintenance of airplanes. Once his training was done, Duaine was sent to Forbes Air Force Base in Topeka, Kan. He spent many hours there working on the B-47s, making sure they were ready for each flight.
“They were pretty sophisticated and required a lot of maintenance,” he recalled. “I remember being told that it would take eight hours of maintenance for every hour of flight. It took a lot of work to keep a bomber flying.”
Duaine ended up serving for four years at the base in Topeka. While there, he met his future wife, Mary, whom he married in 1956. When his enlistment time ended, it was only a short time before he decided to join up again.
“My first stint was the best four years I had ever had in my life. I learned a lot, enjoyed the work and what I was doing,” he said. “I was in a total of 10 years. After four years I reenlisted and I was sent to Little Rock for six years, and after that I got out of the Air Force. When I reenlisted, I had every intention of being a lifer, so to speak, but after 10 years, I was married and I had two children. My two oldest sons had been born when I was in the Air Force and we all lived at the Little Rock base.”
After his time in the Air Force was over, Duaine and his family moved back to Wisconsin and he got a job working with computers and other mechanical equipment in Milwaukee. Strangely enough, he said the job was pretty much the same one he did while in the Air Force, with a lot of his skills applying to his work as a civilian.
“I was doing basically the same thing as I had been doing in the military,” he said. “We lived there for 21 years.”
The Schwieso brothers As Duaine’s life was unfolding, his younger brothers began to grow up and make their own choices about their futures. Terry was the first to have to make a choice, and like his older brother, he ended up choosing the Air Force. He enlisted in 1957 and, according to Duaine, was stationed in Korea as a ground radar operator. His time of enlistment ended in 1961.
Then came his brother, Jack. Out of all the five, Duaine said Jack was the only one who decided to go into the Army, a decision that eventually took his life. He served from 1960 until 1963, being stationed in Pleiku in Vietnam where he flew helicopters. In a family of Air Force veterans, the irony of Jack being the flier was not lost on Duaine.
“He did a lot more flying than we did,” he said. “Helicopter pilots were super important. They were shot down all the time. He was always the one getting shot at, so we never gave him any heat. We worried about him until he came home.”
They also understood the difficulties Jack faced when he returned from his time in Vietnam. Unlike his time in the service, Duaine said Jack had it far more difficult and faced far more hostility from anti-war protesters when he returned to the U.S.
“Jack told us a story about after he got out,” said Duaine. “There was all that anti-war stuff going on, and as soon as he could, he got off the airplane and went to JC Penney and bought a whole new set of clothes — new shirt, pants, boots — and threw his uniform in the garbage. He didn’t want anyone to see him while he was in uniform. He had a bad experience in that regard.”
After Duaine, Terry and Jack had served their time, their younger brothers Jim and Bruce came of age. Both of them decided to go into the Air Force, with Jim serving from 1967 until 1971 and Bruce serving from 1968 until 1972. Besides Duaine, Jim and Bruce are the only remaining Schwieso brothers, with Jim currently living in Madison and Bruce living in Appleton. Jack passed away after a
Please see Brothers, page 7 Brothers,
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battle with cancer caused by Agent Orange exposure.
“Jack knew he had it for quite a few years before it finally caught up to him,” said Duaine.
Duaine still chats with his brothers from time to time, and together, the remaining brothers made the decision a few years ago to put together a memorial for Jack and recognize the military bond they all had together. In the basement of his home, Duaine worked to create and paint the stars now on his barn and had them hung up in the arrangement he can see from his window each day.
“My brothers and I thought about this and put it together and put it up on the barn,” said Duaine. “The sign was made locally, but I cut out the stars and did the painting in the basement. One of the stars is gold, in memory of Jack, and I think it looks pretty good.”
Legacy When he and his brothers were all in the service, Duaine said the world always had some form of conflict that kept them all on high alert. The United States military was needed all around the world it seemed; and a lot of local boys, from the Schwiesos to the Beavers in Loyal, were doing their part. “Between the Schwiesos and the Beavers, we got a lot of boys out there,” he said. “When I was in the military, there was always a danger somewhere in the world. The U.S. seemed to be the world’s cop, going around and solving everyone’s problems. When I was in during the Korean conflict, the Cuban Missile Crisis, tensions were high. There were hot spots. It seemed like there was always a hot spot somewhere in the world.”
Despite its challenges, Duaine said there is nothing about his time in the Air Force that he regrets. He got to travel and see the world, discover what he liked to do and was able to apply the skills he learned in the military in the work that he did for the rest of his life. Reflecting on where his life led, he said it has been very fulfilling.
“When I was in the Air Force I went all over the country, Colorado, Kansas,” he said. “I was stationed for a time in Marrakesh in Morocco and in England for a time. For a 19 to 20-year-old kid, it was quite an eye-opening experience. Travel was always exciting for me. I think about it from time to time. Why the Air Force? When I was in high school, I knew I didn’t want to be a farmer. I felt that the Air Force was a nice way to make a living, something that I felt would be helpful in the future. When I started there, I saw that it was simple to do, I knew that this is what I would like to do. I have no regrets; everything seemed to work well for me.”
That legacy of service in Duaine’s family has even continued beyond him and his brothers. Duaine’s son Mark found a successful career himself in the Air Force, retiring a short time ago after 35 years in the military. Another son, Erik, joined the U.S. Army Reserve after graduating from high school and stayed in for three years. His oldest, Kevin, never did join the military, but he did take part in a special journey with his father on April 17, when they went on the Never Forgotten Honor Flight together. “I had wanted to take my oldest son Kevin as my chaperone,” said Duaine. “He’s never been in the military and I wanted him to see it and get an impression of what this country is all about. I’m happy he went with me; it knocked his socks off. I’ll never forget that experience. It was a lot of fun and heartwarming.”
Donald Cole, shown 2nd from left, was a 1943 Loyal High School graduate who joined the U.S. Air Force and served in the South Pacific in the 509th atom bomb group.
CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO
Duane Schwieso pages through a book of history about the 509th atom bomb group, which his uncle Donald Cole was part of.
CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO
