My name is Paul T Zimmerschied. I know with a name like that I must have received much grief throughout my life. You would be correct for thinking that. I was born in 1953 in a time after the great World War II–when America was booming. Those men whose lives were not taken in the war, came home and started making babies and supporting their families. I was a product of that movement; They called us baby boomers.
My childhood was a memorable one. We lived rurally in the mountains of Northern Idaho outside a small town called Potlatch. I believe it is an Indian word for a big get together. My brother Tom and I were allowed to run free damming up streams, hunting, fishing and just being boys.
Life was not complicated. We wore hand me down clothes, suspenders, took bathes in someone else’s dirty water, heated up on a wood burning stove used to cook our supper. Life was good.
My father Ted H Zimmerschied was a World War Vet and the glue that held our family together. He died in 1967 of Leukemia. With his death our lives became complicated. My father brought the bacon home, and my mother fried it up. He was the only one bringing a pay check home. So mother had to sell our house and our mountain.
My brother enlisted in the Navy and mother and I went to live with relatives–her sister and brother in law in Eastern Oregon, outside a small town named Vale. My uncle and Aunt owned a large cattle ranch. There I learned to cowboy, farm, and drink alcohol.
I had no appetite for school, so I dropped out in my senior year and became a barber. After barbering for a couple of years I found no satisfaction in my occupation. There had to be something that brought satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment to life.
I joined the Navy in 1974 and became a welder and firefighter. In 1978 my enlistment ended and I was discharged. I had found no sense of accomplishment, or satisfaction in the four years I had spent in the Navy.
I fell in love with a beautiful Mexican girl from Texas and moved there. I attended Delmar community college in Corpus Christi, studying Welding.
I landed a welding job with a large company, “Brown and Root,” building the huge oil rigs that are found in the Gulf of Mexico. I became very good at my skill, holding 6G certifications in Stick, Mig, and Intershield welding processes.
My great job ended when the project was completed.
In 1983 I was hired by the US Air Force Depot in San Antonio Texas, to do sheet metal and composite work on B-52 and C-5-A/B aircraft. My work week went from 7 days a week to 5, and 12hrs a day to 8. From 30 min for lunch to 1 hour and 2# fifteen min breaks a shift. From high performance to a dragging Civil Service pace. From $55,000 to $18,000 a year.
I applied for an ART (Air Reserve Technician) position with the 433rd MAW as an Aviation Sheet Metal Mechanic and was hired. The position was a Civilian/Military job which required me to join the Air Force Reserve.
I excelled and then was hired as the Welding and Heat Treatment supervisor.
In 1990 the Air Force merged the Welding and Machining Fields. After taking Machining courses at a local community College –I spent the next 22 years preforming aviation welding, Metallurgy duties, and manufacturing structural aircraft parts. In this period of time I was activated to active duty for 2.5 years in support of operation, “Desert Storm Desert Shield, operation Enduring Freedom, and the war in Iraq.
In 2012 I retired.
Along the way I gained a daughter and a son, lost a marriage, found Jesus, remarried and gained 2# sons, and went back to Barbering. Life can get complicated.
In my old age I have found a passion for spinning stories and authoring books.
I found a place called Warrior’s Heart outside Bandera Texas, where Vets and 1st responders go for healing the unseen scars of war and carnage. It is there that I have found where God wants me to serve, giving hope and love to the forgotten. I give haircuts, hugs and lots of smiles and I feel fulfilled and content.
I have been blessed with an awesome wife Becky of 33 years, 4 children and 6 grandsons and 2 Border Collies. GOD IS GOOD!