LTG Schultz Steps Down as ARNG Director
5-27-2005
By MSG Bob Haskell National Guard Bureau
5/27/05, ARLINGTON, VA – Soldiers wore dress green uniforms during the promotion and installation ceremonies when MG Roger Schultz from Iowa became the 17th director of the Army National Guard in June 1998. They wore green and gray combat uniforms when LTG Roger Schultz stepped down from that job on May 24. It was a sign of how times have changed, of how this country has begun waging a relentless war against terrorism, during the seven years that LTG Schultz, 59, has been the Army Guard’s longest serving director. MG Walter Pudlowski, Jr. from Pennsylvania was named the Army Guard’s acting director until the next director is named. MG Pudlowski, former commander of the 28th Infantry Division, has been serving as the director’s special assistant. LTG Schultz and his wife Barbara were praised, and gently roasted, for all they have done to make the 350,000member Army National Guard a key force in the war which began when terrorists attacked this country on Sept. 11, 2001. “In so much that he has done, Roger Schultz has worked to build a seamless union in the active and reserve components,” said GEN Peter Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff, during the Army’s farewell ceremony for the Schultzs at the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes on May 19. “He’s helped bring us to the point in our Army’s history where the relationship between the states and the National Guard Bureau and the active Army is the best it’s ever been,” GEN Schoomaker added. “We are saying goodbye to an extraordinary couple who has led our organization through extraordinary times. There’s not one person in this room whose life has not been made better for having known these two people,” LTG H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told a room packed with hundreds of well-wishers at the Army Guard’s Readiness Center on May 24, LTG Schultz’s last day on the job. “Roger Schultz is the best buddy that anybody in this organization could ever share a foxhole with in times of trouble,” LTG Blum added. “He is perhaps the best director of the Army National Guard we’ve ever had. He has been steadfast during some very tough times.” GEN Schoomaker presented LTG Schultz with The Distinguished Service Medal for his 42 years of military service. LTG Blum gave him a Distinguished Service Award. LTG Blum and others praised Mrs. Schultz as one of the driving forces behind the Army Guard’s successful family programs. She received a Certificate of Appreciation from Schoomaker and the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service from LTG Blum.
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LTG Schultz is eligible to retire in October when he turns 60. He joined the Iowa Army Guard in 1963 and spent four years as an enlisted Soldier before earning his commission in 1967. He earned a Silver Star while serving as a rifle platoon leader with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. He was the deputy adjutant general for Iowa’s Army Guard forces before leaving for Washington. He was the first Army Guard director to put on the three stars of a lieutenant general. LTG Schultz was promoted to that rank on June 13, 2001, after Congress approved the three-star rank for the heads of all seven reserve components. GEN Eric Shinseki, former Army chief of staff, made it possible for LTG Schultz to become the Army Guard’s longestserving director in April 2003 when he authorized LTG Schultz to remain for two additional years. MG Donald Burdick had previously held the record of five years, serving from 1986-91. What the National Guard has accomplished in this country and in such places as Afghanistan and Iraq and what more it can do during the war against terrorism held LTG Schultz’s attention during his final days as director. He paid little heed to his personal achievements. “I thank the Soldiers who responded to the 9-11attacks who didn’t have any orders. They just responded,” LTG Schultz told the crowd at the Readiness Center. “I thank the 213,220 Soldiers who have responded to the nation’s call – through mobilization. I thank the 76,780 Soldiers who are serving today. I think about the 241 Soldiers who have given their lives; the last full measure.” “We share an obligation and a responsibility to look after our Army,” LTG Schultz told GEN Schoomaker and other Army leaders at the Pentagon five days earlier. “Here’s what I ask of you. As you talk about the Guard, let the LTG Blum and LTG Schultz team look after the states. That’s why the Guard Bureau exists, after all. We’ll carry the mission for you. I promise you we will.” Among the VIPs at the Readiness Center ceremony were four Guard Soldiers who have been wounded in Iraq and who LTG Schultz has met during his frequent visits to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They included SGT Chad Barnhart from Pennsylvania, SGT Robert Blikle from South Carolina and SGT Timothy Gustafson from Tennessee. LTG Schultz presented Purple Hearts to SGT Blikle, who lost part of his left arm, and SGT Gustafson, who lost part of his right leg to roadside bombs. MAJ Tammy Duckworth from Illinois, a double amputee who LTG Schultz promoted in December, was the other Soldier. She reported that the Army Guard directorate has made a contribution to the Walter Reed Society in the LTG Schultzs’ honor because “you have spent a lifetime serving this great country – our Soldiers and their families.” “He’s a great guy and a great leader who really cares about the Soldiers,” said SGT Barnhart, summing up the feelings of everyone LTG Schultz has visited at the medical center. “It shows the Soldiers at my level that people care at his level.” LTG Schultz held that focus as he left office. “I say thanks for your service – civilians and Soldiers and Airmen alike. Thanks for your duty. Thanks for your attention. Thanks for placing our nation on your list of priorities.”
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