Hometown: Yankton, SD
Branch: U.S. Army 
Unit: Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 147th Field Artillery, South Dakota Army National Guard, Yankton, SD
Military Honors: Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: December 4, 2005 - KIA in Baghdad, Iraq
Age: 40
Conflict: Iraq War, 2003-2011

Richard grew up in Yankton, South Dakota, the youngest of 10 children born to Ewald (Wally) and Colleen (Frick) Schild. There he attended Beadle Elementary School and graduated from Yankton High School in 1984.

In an interview with the Sioux City Journal, Schild’s mother recalled that Richard could hold his own against the constant teasing of his older brothers—even sending older twin brothers Brooks and Bruce scrambling for cover during a BB-gun fight.

Richard earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Yankton’s Mount Marty College in 1988, later returning to add an accounting degree in 1993.

On April 13, 1991, Schild married Kayleen Krejci at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Yankton. The two would later welcome a daughter, Keely, and a son, Koby.

Richard joined the Army National Guard on January 31, 1992, and was assigned to Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 147th Field Artillery Brigade based out of Yankton.

After working as an office manager and bookkeeper for Chuck’s Our Family Foods for five years, Schild joined Bon Homme-Yankton Electric in Tabor, SD, as an office manager in 1994.

A co-worker recalls that Richard loved Christmas so much that colleagues had to pull him back. “He always wanted the Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving,” said s co-worker, “and I would tell him, ‘You can’t light it up until Friday.’”

Friends and family remember Schild’s passion for the Minnesota Vikings and Nebraska Cornhuskers. They also recall that he was known for putting others ahead of himself—he worked on turning a portion of the local elementary school into a nonprofit daycare.

Schild’s older brother, Brooks, had served in an Iowa National Guard unit before returning to Yankton to join Richard in Charlie Battery. The unit was activated in July 2005 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After a few months of training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, the two brothers left for Iraq in October.

Trained primarily as an artillery unit, Charlie Battery was assigned to train and evaluate Iraqi police forces in and around Baghdad, in support of the U.S. goal to equip the new Iraqi government to be self-sufficient.

While in Iraq, Richard kept in regular contact with his family and his employer via webcam. He faithfully sent daughter Keely photos of “Flat Stanley,”—a monkey cutout she’d painted—from various sites in Iraq.

When weather-related power outages hit his hometown, Schild couldn’t help but think about his responsibilities back home. His wife Kay told the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, “He would call and say, ‘Kay, we have all these poles and all these lines down.’”

“Richard was concerned about what people were going to do back home (without power), even though he was 6,800 miles away,” his brother Brooks added.

“He loved all his fellow soldiers like brothers and would stop at nothing to keep them safe,” Brooks told the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. “Rich would want his fellow Charlie Battery brothers to remember everyone at home is thinking of you and praying for your safe return.”

Sgt. Matt LaCroix recalls, “He was a guy’s guy. The guys in his platoon just loved him to death.”

On December 4, 2005, Richard Schild’s company was traveling in a convoy in Baghdad. Schild was in the gunner’s position, having traded places with another soldier who needed practice running the Humvee.

The convoy was attacked by insurgents using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and Sergeant First Class Richard Schild was instantly killed. Also lost in the attack was Staff Sergeant Daniel M. Cuka, also of Yankton, South Dakota. A third Yankton Guardsman, Sergeant Allen Kokesh Jr., would later lose his life due to injuries from the same incident.

Sergeant First Class Richard Lee Schild was lost five days after his 40th birthday. His daughter Keely was 7 years old and son Koby 6 when their father gave “the last full measure of devotion” to his country.

Sources
Details and card photo provided by Ms. Keely Schild, SFC Schild‘s daughter
Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, December 14, 2005: Remembering the Fallen: Schild
Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, December 15, 2005: SFC. Richard Schild
Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan, December 4, 2015: Legacy of the Fallen
Military Times—Honor the Fallen: Army Sgt. 1st Class Richard L. Schild
Honor365: SFC Richard L. Schild
Sioux City Journal, July 21, 2009: Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Richard Schild
Black Hills Pioneer, December 6, 2005: Two South Dakota guardsmen killed in Baghdad
South Dakota Department of Veterans Affairs: SFC Richard Schild
Burial Site: Find a Grave