More detail on this person: Colonel Lester C Or Robbie Robertson Colonel Lester C. Robertson Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, The (TX) - Sunday, August 28, 2011 "Oh, I have slipped the surly bounds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered winds... And done a hundred things you have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence..." so starts John Gillespie Magee's piece, "High Flight", the favorite poem of Col. Lester C. Robertson, Master Army Aviator. Colonel Robertson (Robbie) died peacefully at home in Seguin, Texas, on August 25, 2011. He was born on January 19, 1920, during a cold winter blizzard, in an old farmhouse on "The Prairie", near Centralia, Illinois. In 1937, after graduation from high school in Salem, Illinois, he moved to Chicago and became a licensed funeral director. In March 1943, answering a patriotic call, and with two years of National Guard duty under his belt, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private and began training as a member of a newly-activated medical battalion within the 26th Infantry Division. Shortly after D-Day, his Division shipped out of New York Harbor, heading for combat in Europe. "It was just breaking daylight as we were being towed out to sea aboard the USS Argentina. A lonely quiet came over all of us that could crowd on deck as we watched the Statue of Liberty fade from view. Each of us felt that we would never see her again, and each of us felt far less brave than we had during the trying months of combat training." "We entered combat on Normandy Beach and soon were experiencing heavy and severe casualties. I wore the markings of a medic and carried a Red Cross Geneva Convention I.D. card. During the "Bulge", on the night of 31 December 1944, I was in a bombed-out house, which served as regimental headquarters, awaiting information on a pre-dawn attack. When a call came in requesting reinforcements, only two of us were available to help. It was then that I stripped off my Red Cross sleeve band, grabbed an unmarked helmet, rifle, and ammo, and voluntarily joined the infantry as an assistant squad leader. Heavy snow was on the ground, and it was a very quiet night with a big moon shining overhead. My friend and I traced a field telephone line out across an open field and had just started to the top of a ridge where our outpost was located when a 30-calibre machine gun cut loose at us, perfect targets in the moonlit night. Although we hit the ground immediately, my friend took six or seven rounds in his back, and I took two in my right hand. This was not the best way to celebrate New Year's Eve!" "After recovery in France, it was back to the front lines in hand-to-hand combat, fighting our way through Germany in battles that would ultimately lead to my award of the Silver Star and to a Direct Battlefield Commission to 2nd Lieutenant. This was just the beginning of a 30-year career with the U.S. Army, a career that would take me to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, a career that would allow me to serve at the Pentagon and to work as the Army Research Coordinator to the Office of Naval Research in Washington, D.C. developing ground effects machines." In 1947, after serving for two years in Austria in the Army of Occupation, Col. Robertson returned to the United States to attend Pilot Training in San Marcos, Texas. It was there that he met the woman of his dreams, Charlie Von Schubert. They were married six weeks later and remained devoted to one another until her death in 1998, a little over a month following their 50th anniversary. Col. Robertson loved aviation and accumulated over 6,000 hours of flight time in fixed wing and helicopter aircraft. He flew fighter aircraft (F8F "Bearcats" and F9F Jet "Cougars") with the Navy and completed schools for Multi-Engine craft, Marine Propeller Fighters, and Instrument ratings. Col. Robertson commanded every sized unit from a squad to a battalion and served as 1st Aviation Officer for Vietnam under General Joseph Stilwell, as Deputy Commander of an Army Airfield Installation in Japan, and as Deputy Brigade Commander at Fort Benning, Georgia. Highly decorated, Col. Robertson was awarded the Silver Star, Legion of Merit with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, Commendation Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Combat Medical Badge, Belgium Fourragere, Army General Staff Badge, Master Army Aviator badge, and nine other campaign and service medals. In 1971, the Robertson's retired in Seguin, Texas, which gave them an opportunity to attend Texas Lutheran College. These were some of the happiest years of their lives, spending summers on their islands in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada, and their winters in Seguin. In 1974, "Robbie" earned a degree in Business Administration, a goal which had started in 1954 when he enrolled in college classes to set an example for the young officers under his command at Fort Benning, Georgia. Col. Robertson is survived by his daughter, Deborah Hettinger and his son-in-law, John Sieben (professors at Texas Lutheran University), his grandson, Michael Colin Hettinger (a Captain in the U.S. Army), his granddaughter, Annaliese Hettinger (a Ph.D. candidate in Marine Biology at University of California- Davis), a step grandson, Michael Sieben (an artist in Austin, Texas), Michael Sieben's wife, Allison Sands, and River Winslow Sieben, son of Michael and Allison. He is also survived by his sister Elsie Finn and her husband, Billy Finn, of Kell, Illinois, a niece, Janice Kay Bookhout Curtis of Pana, Illinois, her husband, Harry Curtis, and their children, Jeff, John, and Susan, with their spouses and children. Col. Robertson is preceded in death by his wife, Charlie Von Schubert, his son, Steven Michael, his daughter, Bonnie, his parents, Harry and Minnie Florence (McMeen) Robertson, his two sisters and their husbands: Marguerite and Gene Bookhout and Frieda and Claude Purdue, his brother, Dean Robertson, and by his half-brother, Merle Robertson. Col. Robertson will be laid to rest next to his son and wife in Paradise Cemetery, Salem, Illinois at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011, with full military honors by the Centralia VFW #2055 and American Legion Post #446. In lieu of flowers, he requests that donations be made to Texas Lutheran University.
Burial information: Paradise Cemetery, Salem, IL
This information was last updated 04/23/2020
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