Schemmer, Benjamin F(ranklin) 1932–2003

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SCHEMMER, Benjamin F(ranklin) 1932–2003

PERSONAL: Born April 22, 1932, in Winner, SD; died of cardiovascular disease, October 12, 2003, in Naples, FL; son of Clinton Henry (a cowboy) and Minna Mathilda (Heese) Schemmer; married Cynthia Blythe (an artist), February 14, 1955 (deceased); children: Clinton Howard. Education: U.S. Military Academy, B.S., 1954. Religion: Presbyterian. Hobbies and other interests: Flying, sailing.

CAREER: Volkswagen of America, sales manager in California, 1957–59; Boeing Co., Seattle, WA, military aircraft sales manager, 1959–65; U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, DC, consultant, 1965, director of Land Force Weapons Systems for Office of the Secretary of State, 1965–68; Armed Forces Journal, Washington, DC, editor, 1968–92; United States Strategic Institute, editor of Strategic Review. Military service: U.S. Army, Airborne, Ranger, 1954–57; became first lieutenant.

WRITINGS:

(With the editors of Armed Forces Journal) Almanac of Liberty: A Chronology of American Military Anniversaries from 1775 to the Present, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1974.

The Raid, Harper and Row (New York, NY), 1976, reprinted as The Raid: The Son Tay Prison Rescue Mission, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2002.

(With John T. Carney, Jr.) No Room for Error: The Covert Operations of America's Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Penthouse, Look, Washingtonian, Soldier of Fortune, Wall Street Journal, London Times, and New Republic.

SIDELIGHTS: Benjamin F. Schemmer was well-qualified to write about military affairs and history. The former Ranger and paratrooper also worked for the Office of the Secretary of Defense for three years and became director of Land Force Weapons Systems. Schemmer's The Raid was reprinted twenty-six years after the original as The Raid: The Son Tay Prison Rescue Mission, the story of a mission that has gone down in military history as a major intelligence failure in the Vietnam conflict. On November 21, 1970, one hundred U.S. planes were sent into the sky on a mission to rescue sixty-one American prisoners of war from Son Tay Prison. But the prisoners had been moved months earlier, and some of the planes landed at the wrong compound. Schemmer investigates the incident and possible CIA involvement in this study. A reviewer for Military Ink online noted Schemmer's "fascinating insights into the workings of high-level intelligence and military command."

Schemmer collaborated with John T. Carney, Jr., to tell Carney's story in No Room for Error: The Covert Operations of America's Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan. Carney formed the first Air Force Special Operations team in 1977, called Brand X, and spent the next fourteen years developing it. He and his men took part in the failed 1980 mission to rescue American diplomats in Teheran, Iran. He was also part of the liberation of Granada and the 1989 overthrow of Manual Noriega in Panama. Carney stepped down as commander in 1991, but the men trained by his standards have continued to earn medals and recognition for valor and bravery in conflicts in which the United States has been involved. Army's John M. Collins noted that "their clientele currently includes all U.S. special operations forces (SOF), wherever and whenever summoned. Abilities to control air traffic, call in air strikes, care for precious cargoes (rescued hostages; incapacitated comrades), and help extricate friendly forces in extremis make current Special Tactics teams vastly more versatile than their Brand X originators." Collins called the book "a grand read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Army, February, 2003, John M. Collins, review of No Room for Error: The Covert Operations of America's Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan, p. 83.

Publishers Weekly, October 7, 2002, review of No Room for Error, p. 65.