MONTEZUMA, Iowa — When Ron “Curly” Albrecht graduated from high school at Waverly-Shell Rock in the early ’70s he did not want to stay on the farm and milk cows like his dad. He and a buddy decided they would join the Navy together as a way to see things they had never seen before.

For Albrecht, his time in the Navy was spent in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. He worked on the deck, preparing aircraft for launch and working to get the planes where they needed to be on the aircraft carrier, the USS Ranger.

“Our average day in Vietnam and air carrier was about 17 hours a day on a flight deck either launching, recovering, prepping for the next launch,” said Albrecht. “When I went, I weighed 185 lbs. and I came home I weighed 145 lbs. it was his constant going caused it, running.”

At a later stop, a military man who keeps track of service told him he was the last Iowan to be serving in Vietnam.

After the Navy Albrecht picked up a degree in education, and then did some teaching in the Denver, Iowa schools, but he got the bug to go back into military and signed on with the Iowa National Guard, with the hope of going to Officer Training School. Being a Navy man, the only way he could get signed up for officer training was as a cook. He was assured he would not have to cook, as long as he passed officer training. He had no problem passing.

He was now a weekend warrior serving in the Iowa National Guard. His phone kept ringing by superiors always with a new assignment for him. He served as a commander in Dubuque, Davenport, and Sioux City.

Albrecht was promoted to Colonel and was Commander at Camp Dodge of the Iowa Military Academy and Commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 34th Infantry Division. He also did a tour of duty in Iraq. He did all of this while he was a weekend warrior.

He did miss the birth of two of his children, but got home for the third birth.

He cherished the time in the Navy, and later the Iowa National Guard.

“Back when I came home from Vietnam, I had one of the welcomes that everyone had already told us about,” said Albrecht “I got spit on and all this stuff because those days you wear a uniform when you come home. When I came home from Iraq we flew into Maine and there are hundreds of people shaking our hands when I came off the plane.” 

As a leader of soldiers Albrecht also learned the value of listening to those he commands.

“Just because you’re a first class petty officer and he’s an E-1, bottom on the totem pole, everyone has opinions but sometimes there’s a lot of good ideas down there,” said Albrecht. “You have that atmosphere or that leadership environment where people can talk freely and give you ideas it might, you know what, I never thought of that.”

Albrecht said he learned that if a fox hole needed to be dug, that he could order it done, but he would be right down there digging as well. He also wanted to make sure all in his command got their meals, he would always eat last.

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