Overview: Richland Source will cover ceremony
Richland Source City Editor Carl Hunnell will be in Highland Cemetery in Kentucky on Saturday to cover the military ceremony honoring U.S. Army Private John Rowalt.
FORT MITCHELL, Ky. — Robert Schultz served his country in the armed forces for nearly two decades.
The Kentucky native understands the honor of military service.
That’s why he could never allow a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from Bellville to lay buried in an unmarked Kentucky grave.
It was the 59-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran who launched an effort in 2011 that will lead to full military honors and a CMOH marker on Saturday for U.S. Army Private John Rowalt in the Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell.
Military honors will be provided by the Kentucky Army National Guard and Erlanger/Elsmere American Legion/VFW Honor Guards, to include a firing detail, presentation of a folded flag and the playing of Taps.
Rowalt was one of eight Medal of Honor recipients whose story was included in a series of stories in Richland Source in July.
Rowalt fought with Company L of the 8th U.S. Army Cavalry Regiment.
But after leaving the military in 1873, Rowalt died in Cincinnati two years later from smallpox and the Bellville native was buried in a largely unmarked grave in northern Kentucky.
For Schultz, it was an unexpected, but uniquely gratifying, quest to honor the soldier who earned his CMOH during the Indian Campaign in 1869 in Arizona.
“I was doing some family genealogy research and came upon a request for someone to check and see if the John Rowalt buried at Highland Cemetery was the CMOH recipient. As a veteran, I found it unacceptable that a hero of this caliber had been forgotten,” Schultz told Richland Source this week.
In doing its reporting on Rowalt, Richland Source came across a newspaper article from 2011 that detailed Schultz’s efforts.
The article led to additional reporting that found two researchers from the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States had picked up on Schultz’s work.
Those researchers, Karl Jensen of Hackettstown, N.J., and Ray Johnston of Toledo, had convinced the Veterans Association that the man buried in Highland Cemetery was indeed CMOH receipient John Rowalt.
Schultz, a veteran of the Persian Gulf War, had spent countless hours in the library and searching on the internet. He contacted the Medal of Honor Society, his congressman and the Veterans Associations.
“This man is a hero of heroes, and he deserves to be recognized as such,” Schultz said in 2011.
He launched the effort, but needed assistance to accomplish the mission.
“I ran into a wall with the VA when they advised that a descendant would be necessary to provide conclusive documentation.
“Unfortunately, all of the soldier’s personal effects were burned (as was the custom with smallpox victims at the time) and (it appeared) he had no direct descendants, as he was unmarried/no children,” Schultz said.
“Later on, it appears the MOH Society was able to present my findings in a manner they found acceptable,” said Schultz, originally from Ft. Thomas, Ky.
Schultz, who works as an aircraft mechanic for Atlas Air at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, served eight years on active duty with the USAF as a jet engine mechanic/crew chief and nine years with the Reserves/ANG, including six years with the OANG’s 178th Fighter Wing.
Schultz offered thanks to the Erlanger/Elsmere American Legion/VFW Honor Guard; the Kentucky National Guard Color Guard; Paul Duryea of the Kenton County Library; and Highland Cemetery for their help with this endeavor.
“I’m eternally grateful,” Schultz said.
He can’t imagine a better feeling than the one he anticipates on Saturday morning at the cemetery.
“Honestly, I’m going to see this as the crowning achievement of my lifetime. I’m absolutely beside myself about this.”