About Me

David 0. Scheiding was born in 1942 and raised in Marshalltown, lowa, a small town in central lowa. He was born to a strong religious family who instilled his strong belief in God and his son Jesus. Upon graduation from high school, he attended lowa State University (ISU) in Ames, Iowa where he pursued a degree in Aerospace Engineering. It was at ISU that he met and married his wife Janet (Jan) in 1962. Since ISU was a State university, he was required to participate in a mandatory two year Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) program. Being in aerospace engineering, he selected the Air Force ROTC program as his choice. At the completion of the

first two years of ROTC training, he had to decide if he wanted to take the final two years of advanced ROTC training and join the Air Force upon graduation. Since he was in aerospace engineering, he thought if he was going to design airplanes it would be nice to learn how to fly them. He decided that if he could pass the Air Force pilot physical, he would take the final two years of ROTC training. In 1964 he received his Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Aerospace Engineering and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force.
His first assignment was to Reese AFB in Lubbock, Texas to attend

 Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT). Upon graduation he was assigned as an Instructor Pilot (IP) at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio, Texas. With the Vietnam war going on, in 1968 he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He was not released by Laughlin AFB to go until 1970. He was assigned as an 0-2A Forward Air Controller (FAC) in support of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division at Hue Phi Bia. In 1972, during the 1972 Spring Offensive, he served as the Operations Officer of the largest combat squadron in Vietnam.