Lee McClesky retired from the Air Force with the rank of colonel and a distinguished career.

Maroon and Purple Heart

By: Kevin Alexander

Posted: 1/24/08

More than 250,000 Purple Hearts were awarded during the Vietnam War. Lee McClesky earned his while escaping from a disintegrating A-26 over Thailand.

"My chute opened as soon as I got clear of the cockpit. My airplane turned into a fireball. I never saw the fireball, but there was no airplane as soon as my chute opened. I looked all around."

The A-26 counter invader was a tough bird and forerunner to the also tough A-10 "warthog." During the Vietnam War it was assigned to kill truck and tank convoys on the Ho Chi Minh trail and on Feb. 22, 1967, Lee's A-26 took a 37mm exploding shell to its right wing over the Mu Gia Pass in Laos. The impact started a fire and while escaping into the Thailand twilight, Lee smashed his leg against the tail of his plane, causing a blood clot that would turn his leg black from the knee down.

Lee's Purple Heart, and the rest of his medals, hangs in a case that faces the McClesky's living room. It's the product of 30 years in the Air Force. Lee retired from the Air Force in 1991 and the McClesky's officially deemed themselves retired in 2005, though their version of retirement doesn't involve lemonade and a rocking chair.

"I'm not sure what the word means anymore," Lee said with a chuckle.

Joanie agreed. "He made a list, when he retired, of 37 things he was going to get done out here - that list has not begun yet. Once you retire you start doing things you love to do."

Whether it's traveling, visiting the family, staying active with the church or volunteering in the community, the McClesky's stay active, and it's no surprise to family and friends.

"They're salt of the earth. What you see is what you get. They're just genuine, real people. They're like clockwork," said Rick Zambrzycki, the warehouse coordinator at the Brazos Food Shelter.

Zambrzycki works with the McCleskys every Tuesday and Friday when they drop off baked goods at the shelter. A retired Vietnam veteran and restless retiree himself, Zambrzycki knows what it means to serve the community after bidding farewell to the work force.

"When you're younger, you're busy with the daily grind and Little League practice. You start thinking about stuff you wouldn't have thought of when you were younger. You look around and see the need," said Luis Martinez, the volunteer coordinator at the shelter.

Martinez said the McCleskys and their work ethic is representative of a bygone era in U.S. history.

"It's the baby boomers. That generation has always been productive and they have to stay active."

For the McClesky's, staying active is just what they do. During the 30 years Lee McClesky spent in the Air Force, he, Joanie and their children moved 23 times.

Denver, Colorado Springs, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Montgomery, Tucson, Washington, D.C., Valdosta, Ga., Del Rio, Texas, Alexandria, La., Wiesbaden and Ramstein in Germany, Mildenhall in England and Vienna, Austria. The list reads like an atlas index, but to Lee, Joanie and their children, it represents new beginnings and lasting experiences. Vienna, in particular, they recall vividly.

"Vienna was extremely safe and you could just let [the children] go. They learned to ride the subway and the trams and they were at an international school with children from about 60 nations," Joanie said.

Lee and Joanie have four children: three sons and a daughter. All four are A&M graduates and next to Lee's medals, a 3-foot tall portrait depicts the boys in their Boy Scout uniforms. Matt, class of 1987, Derek, class of 1989 and Jarrett, class of 1992, are Eagle Scouts.

Matt, Derek and Jarrett McClesky earned their required merit badges in camping, citizenship, communications, cycling, hiking, swimming, emergency preparedness, lifesaving, environmental science, family life, first aid and personal management while traveling around the U.S. and the world, even exploring the woods belonging to Austrian nobility while living in Vienna.

"Their main camping area was on the estate of an Austrian count. The scoutmaster met him while he was running Bibles behind the Iron Curtain and he gave the scoutmaster full run of the place. He and his little boy would ride out on these beautiful horses to visit the scouts," Lee said.

Matt spent a semester at the University of Maryland-Munich in Germany, but transferred to A&M after domestic terrorist threats made it unsafe for him to attend.

"They had the campus compound surrounded by army tanks," Joanie said.

In 1974, Lee came to A&M on assignment as an associate professor of aerospace science. His job was to teach students in the Air Force ROTC program leadership and management. Back then, the McClesky's boys were in grade school, and Joanie believes that a Corps unit that visited them at their house inspired Matt to transfer to A&M several years later.

Once Matt decided to transfer to A&M, that was it - Derek, Jarrett and Kristin Moratzka, class of 2000 and the McClesky's only daughter, decided they were going to be Aggies too.

"We got Aggie all over us," Lee said.

Though he graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado, Lee is Aggie himself. Starting in 1992, he spent seven years as the assistant Corps commandant for training and discipline and in 1999, he was appointed as the director of training and safety at the Physical Plant.

Lee said he enjoyed his time working at A&M and always strove to make the people under him feel like they were vital to the campus.

It's been a full life for Lee McClesky, and one that almost ended over the exploding skies of Vietnam, but he and Joanie don't figure to slow down any time soon. Slowing down, like retirement, probably isn't even in their vocabulary.