Published: October 03, 2007 02:52 pm            

The draftee who became a general

In high school, he dreamed of being an Air Force pilot. But a pilot needed a college degree and that didn’t seem likely for him. He even thought about joining the Canadian Air Force, but would have had to give up his citizenship, something he’d never consider. Instead, in 1951 the Army and the Korean War came calling, and Zionsville’s Don Pearson was drafted.

He saw combat in the 40th Infantry Division, serving as a forward observer in Field Artillery 155. Little did he know it was the beginning of a 37-year military career that would end with being named a two-star general in the Army Reserves, and along the way serving under the future commander of the first Gulf War, Norman Schwarzkopf.

“I gave up on a military career,” he said “until I was drafted.” Even though he didn’t plan on joining the Army, once he was there he decided he liked it.

“It’s not the same day-to-day routine that you have in civilian life,” he said. “Every day is kind of a new adventure.”

Pearson served in Korea until 1954 and left the Army.

But he was destined to return. He finally got his chance at college, enrolling at Purdue University in 1954 to study metallurgical engineering. By this time, he was married with a child and as he looked for ways to make extra money, he thought of the Army Reserves, he said.

He signed up and although he still wasn’t able to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a pilot, in the Reserves he flew frequently, he said. As he rose in the ranks, he commanded troops in Indiana, Michigan and Louisiana. Almost every weekend, he would fly out of Mt. Comfort Airport for these trips and ones to meet with his own commander in San Antonio.

When he entered the Reserves he never thought about becoming a general; it just happened, he said.

“I enjoyed what I was doing and continued with it,” he said. “Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time to be promoted.”

The Army Reserves does not have many general officers, he said, and the only way to rise in the ranks is to find a mentor. For Pearson that was General Lester Carmichael.

“He recognized my talent and he thought I was worth keeping around and made sure I got the appropriate assignments in order to be upwardly mobile,” he said.

Those assignments took him across the country and to Germany, but Zionsville has been home for the past 41 years.

His assignments also kept him out of combat, something he regrets. During the Vietnam War, he commanded troops that were constantly training for the war, but were never sent, he said. Instead of using the Reserves during the war, the Army used the draft instead.

“I thought we trained and why not,” he said. “We had been paid for our Reserve duty. I always felt like I was taking their money and should have been called.”

He said one of the last things he did in the Reserve was plan for the possibility of a war with Iran after the Islamic Revolution that replaced the Shah in 1979.

“At the time, Iraq was an ally of ours. Then our eventual fight became with Iraq, and now it looks like Iran and us may have some words,” he said.

He said lots of people ask him about the Iraq War, but he said he doesn’t know any more details than a normal citizen. He sees retired generals “spouting off all kinds of things” on television, he said, and they don’t know the facts about the war.

“I don’t think they really have that type of information,” he said. “Some of this information is so classified it’s just is not going to be released to anyone in the world.”

“I think everybody needs to support the troops now, and I think we are in for a long, long fight and it is not going to be over soon,” he said.

It is a dangerous fight in Iraq for the troops, he said.

“They are fighting people who all look alike and they are not wearing uniforms,” he said.

Pearson’s grandson is in Camp Victory in Baghdad with the public affairs department of the Army. He produces television reports for the army that have been used by the news media.

“He goes out with the Infantry and tells its story for the Army as opposed to what some of the liberal media reports,” he said.

Pearson stayed in the Reserves until his retirement in 1988, just before the first Iraq War began in 1991. During all his years in the Reserves, he also worked full-time as a metallurgical engineer for the Link-Belt Chain Division of the Rexnord Corporation in Indianapolis, which did not give him much free time, he said.

He typically spent four nights a week on his duties for the Army. He tried to spend only three weekends each month, but usually he would get a call from the Army to go in for a fourth weekend.

When he retired, he said his wife bought a lawnmower and told him it was his turn to mow the lawn.

“Miss it [the military] ... yea when there is a huge going-on like right now, you think jeez why not, but I realize that I am 76 years old and the only thing I can do is carry paper clips from the supply to where they are needed,” he said.

Now that he has more free time he likes to play golf and work at his church. He went to New Orleans earlier this year to help build homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina. He also likes to work around his own house.

“I enjoy driving nails,” he said. “I am kind of a home fixer-upper.

        

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