Photo By Terrance Bell | Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Drushal, Chief of Transportation; retired Chief Warrant Officer...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS – Two distinguished logisticians were hailed as new members of the Transportation Corps Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony July 28 at the Transportation Museum.
Retired Col. James E. Veditz and ret. Chief Warrant Officer 5 Michael J. Wichterman were welcomed into the hall by Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Drushal in one of his first official acts as Chief of Transportation. He was joined in the acceptance by Chief Warrant Officer 5 Donald E. Berg, the regimental CWO, and Command Sgt. Maj. Vickie G. Culp, regimental CSM.
Drushal, who took over his current duties July 22, said Veditz and Wichterman embodied the know-how and spirit of those calling themselves transporters and made significant contributions to the corps, making it a valuable asset well into the future.
“The men who we will recognize here today represent the absolute best of the Transportation Corps,” he said during remarks. “Their loyalty, dedication and accomplishments have left an indelible mark on the present and future of the corps. These two heroes will soon be added to the list of hall of fame members and their legacies will live on. We collectively owe all of our hall of fame inductees – past and soon to be – a huge debt of gratitude; a debt that current and future members of the Transportation Corps must repay by continuing to keep our traditions strong and by moving our corps forward for years to come.”
Veditz, formerly a commander of the 7th Transportation Group (now the 7th Transportation Brigade (Expeditionary) headquartered at JBLE), served more than 27 years; his career marked with successful deployments to Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He said his journey as a Soldier was improbable because he was set on serving the required five years after graduating the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1978.
“Along the way, I got to serve in the Army’s Transportation Corps,” said the Eastern Shore native. “I loved the mission, I loved the equipment, and most importantly, I loved the people. That’s why you stay.”
Veditz, who quipped often during his acceptance speech and even comically invited audience members to hear more “war stories” afterward, took on a more serious tone while elaborating about the relationships he has formed over the years.
“The assignments have been wonderful,” he said, “but it’s not the assignments that you remember. It’s not even what you did that you remember. You remember staying up at 3 a.m. and talking to people like (ret. Col.)Paul Nelson about some stupid movie you got on DVD. That’s the part you remember – the people.”
Seemingly eager to keep the spotlight off himself, Veditz segued into thanking his fellow inductee, Wichterman, who worked in the 7th’s S-3 shop while he was commander. He said the Minnesota native was responsible for schooling him on maritime operations; a valuable but obscure operational asset.
“He would spend part of every morning swinging by the office and educating me on some little aspect (of the operation) … ,” he said.
The assignments in which he worked alongside Wichterman include the Army Watercraft Restructuring project that “divested much of the watercraft in the 7th group.”
Wichterman, during his remarks, said he followed Veditz “at least a dozen times over the years”and was “honored to follow you when you were my commander, honored to follow you today and will be honored to follow you anytime in the future should the opportunity present itself.”
Credited for helping to grow the warrant officer corps in the transportation career field, Wichterman ended his career as the chief warrant officer to the CASCOM commander in 2013. He had a hand in the creation of a CASCOM senior warrant officer panel and was responsible for updating documents relating to the Army modular restructuring process to ensure maritime and mobility slots remained in theater support commands and other units.
“I am very humbled, and accepting things like this has never been my strong suit,” he said during his acceptance speech. “Besides saying ‘thank you’ to a ton of people, it is really hard for me to stand up here and talk today about what this means to me and so,” he paused, “I’m not going to.”
Instead, Wichterman cited his parents for raising him with certain values and gave special kudos to a World War II veteran father, who, “on the day before I joined the Army, put a Budweiser in my hand, and said, ‘Mike, I’m going to tell you this and don’t forget it. It doesn’t matter if you stay in for a four-year hitch, it doesn’t’ matter if you serve a whole career there, but the most important thing you need to remember is that it’s going to be about people – the Soldiers you serve with and the relationships you make.’”
Wichterman said his staff work often involved the fight to stave off personnel cuts that turned out to be arduous efforts for preservation. He said the battles were many, sometimes nasty in nature and the corps “lost more battles than we won.” There were significant victories, however.
“One of the really good things to come out of that era is we won the fight to grow the mobility warrant officer. We convinced the Army to put a mobility warrant officer – Thank you (Ret. Lt.) Gen. Dail, thank you (ret.) Gen. Mortenson – in every brigade in the Army. Great win; great win.”
Wichterman went on recount how he cultivated relationships under normal working conditions and in the heat of battle, where the players were not necessarily working in his best interests but who became supporters later in his career.
Both inductees received a certificate and commemorative pin. They were the 126th and 127th inductees into the Transportation Hall of Fame, established in 1997.
The U.S. Army Transportation Museum is located in Beeson Hall and was established in 1959. It is named for Gen. Frank Besson Jr., the hall’s first inductee and the corps’ first four-star general
| Date Taken: | 08.04.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.04.2016 09:47 |
| Story ID: | 206045 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
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