For the December Kosciusko County Veteran of the Month, the county commissioners chose a Marine who served in Vietnam and who builds wheelchair ramps for others.
Roger Studebaker was born on March 21, 1949, in Fort Wayne to J. Paul and Doris Elaine Studebaker. He was one of six children (four brothers and one sister), according to his biography read at Tuesday’s commissioner meeting by Veteran Service Officer Darryl McDowell.
Roger graduated from Larwill High School in 1967 and went straight to work farming and hauling chickens for his grandfather, on the side, until joining the United States Marine Corps (USMC) on April 7, 1969. Following the completion of his basic training and advanced individual training as a wireman in the California area, he returned home to get married.
He married Sue Holycross on Aug. 10, 1969, and returned to San Diego, Calif., about two weeks later to ship out to Vietnam, McDowell said. Roger was assigned to the 9th Communication Battalion, 3rd Marine Amphibious Brigade in Da Nang, Vietnam, as a telephone lineman and later center office technician.
McDowell said he didn’t think the 9th Communication Battalion exists right now, but it has a long history of supporting America’s wars.
On Roger being a wireman, McDowell said, “Can you imagine in a combat situation, you’re really trying to stay hidden, but him, by his job has to climb telephone poles and put wire or fix wire if it was damaged. So you can imagine the anxiety that brings to you being above the tree tops and a clear target.”
Roger was honorably discharged in September 1970 with the rank of corporal (E4). During his service, he received the National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Expert Rifleman Badge.
“After proudly serving, Roger returned to his lovely wife Sue in Larwill to work for United Telephone Company of Indiana,” McDowell said, to bury telephone cables and shortly after that moved on to work at LML Fabrication in the shipping department.
In 1971, he enrolled in a two-year college associates degree program in electronics.
In 1973, Sue, Roger and their first child, Jonathan, moved to Kosciusko County due to a job promotion that required him to live within 15 minutes from the telephone company’s headquarters office in Warsaw. He retired in 2014 from CenturyLink, but never stopped working on his farm.
“Although Sue is no longer physically with us, she still remains mentally and spiritually in Roger’s memories,” McDowell said.
Sue and Roger have four children - Jonathan, Janet, Joseph, Jonah - and 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Today, Roger continues to live on a farm, outside of Pierceton. He enjoys working on the farm and building wheelchair ramps for disabled veterans and low-income folks in the community with the SAWs (Servants At Work) Group.
After being presented with a framed certificate, Roger said, “I want to thank you, guys, for this honor. There’s a lot of others out there who deserve it more than me, but thank you.”