Richard Dieterle

Ancestors

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Birth 1.2 Haplogroup 1.3 Personality 1.4 Residence 1.5 Life in Turkey 1.6 Religion 1.7 Military Service 1.8 Career Student 1.9 Publications 1.10 The Hocąk Encylopedia 1.11 Politics, Occupation, and the Union 1.12 Death 2 Sources 2.1 Footnotes 2.2 Bibliography

Biography

Birth

Richard was born on 30 November 1945 in Orlando, Florida. He is the son of Lt. Col. Jack W. Dieterle and Margaret Louise Lewis.^[1]

Haplogroup

The Dieterle paternal line has the haplogroup EL-677. E-L677 is also designated E-V22, of which it is said: "E-V22 is found primarily in western Ethiopia, northern Egypt and in the southern Levant. In Europe it is therefore associated with the Phoenicians and the Jews. The Phoenicians could have disseminated E-V22 to Sicily, Sardinia, southern Spain and the Maghreb, and the Jews to Greece and mainland Italy and Spain."^[2] The founding of this haplogroup dates to about 11,000 years ago.^[3]

Personality

I took a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) test, whose results classified me as an INTJ. This is a fairly rare type out of the sixteen personality types of the Myers-Briggs system. INTP stands for Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging. INTJs are energized by time alone (Introverted), focus on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details (iNtuitive), make decisions based on logic and reason (Thinking) and prefer to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging).

Residence

1945 — Orlando, Florida.
1946 - 1949 — Columbus, Ohio.
1949 — Denver, Colorado.
1950 — 320 Shreveport Road, Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana.^[4]
1950 - 1957 — State College, Pennsylvania.
1957 - 1959 — Barksdale AFB, Bossier City, Louisiana.
1959 - 1960 — Dayton, Ohio.
1960 - 1962 — Ankara, Turkey. In 1961, we took an automobile trip through Istanbul, Turkey, to Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, northern Italy (Milan), Trieste, and back to Ankara, Turkey.
1962 - 1963 — Hamilton, AFB, Marin County, California.
1964 - 1967 — Novato, Marin County, California.
1967 — Ft. Lewis, Washington (Basic Training). "Tigerland", Ft. Polk, Louisiana (Advanced Individual Training, Infantry).
1967 - 1968 — Vietnam, III Corps Area of Operation (Bon Song Plain, An Lao Valley); I Corps AO (Quang Tri Provence, A Shau Valley).
1968 — Ft. Ord, California; Camp Roberts, San Luis Obispo, California.
1969 - 1972 — 6 Carmen Court, Novato, Marin County, California.
1972 - present (2022) — Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota.

1972 - 1973 — Centennial Hall, University of Minnesota.

1973 - 1986 — 1015 Essex St.

1986 - 2010 — The Marimark, 1226 Marquette Ave.

2010 - present (2023) — The Atrium, 312 Hennepin Ave.

Life in Turkey

Ankara Dependents High School, 1960.

In the summer of 1959, we moved to Ankara, the capital of Turkey. We moved into a pink apartment building, about a dozen stories tall. I seem to recall that it was on Küyük St., but such a street cannot be found on contemporary maps. Turkey was in the process of modernizing, so construction was taking place seemingly everywhere, including across the street from us. After about a year in country, we took a trip to Istanbul for several days. There we saw Sancta Sophia and the Blue Mosque, as well as as the Imperial Ottoman Treasury, Topkapi. We also took a week long trip to Greece by automobile. We saw Athens, the Acropolis, Corinth, and drove through a tiny village, which is all there is today of Sparta. We had a short outing to one of the Ægean isles, where we ate lunch. In Ankara, I went to Ankara Dependents School, which housed grades Kindergarten through 12th grade in a single 4-story building. In those times, high schools still had initiations for the freshman class. I had to show up with my clothes on backwards, and my shoes on the wrong feet. The Turks thought this really bizarre as we stood waiting for our school bus. Once at school, I had to push a shelled peanut down the length of the corridor with my nose, and sundry other things of a like character.

Religion

My mother told me that death was like going to sleep and never awakening. It seemed to me at age 5 that it was realistic to suppose the dead to be permanently unconscious, to have, in effect, disappeared forever. Yet I continued on believing that there was a god and that you could plead with him through your clasped hands. One day, about the same age, my friend Ronnie Korman and I both confessed that we didn't believe in Santa Claus, and we laughed at the thought of all the ridiculous charades that adults went through to create this illusion. Never did it occur to me that religion might be of this same character until I began reading philosophy at age 18. Bertrand Russell introduced me to critical thinking.^[5] After that the resurrected Jesus became a figure hardly discernible in plausibility from Santa Claus. One of the striking features about Christianity to me was that it was a religion professed by nearly everyone, but practiced by none. Its chief product seemed to be hypocrisy. So I came to be an atheist.^[6]

Military Service

Having flunked out of a junior college, I now became vulnerable to the draft, and on 3 January 1967 I was drafted into the Army. I took my basic training at Ft. Lewis in Washington State. Each trainee was interviewed and asked what he most wanted to have as an MOS, and where he wished to be stationed. I was the only one in the entire battalion who answered, "Infantry and Vietnam." Since I was fat, the main focus was on food deprivation and maximal exercise. I was one of two people nominated for having given the greatest effort. I was next sent to Ft. Polk, Louisiana, for Advanced Individual Training. Near the end, we were shown the film "I am a Soldier," which was about A Co., 1/8 Cavalry, First Air Cavalry Division in the year 1966. I remarked within the hearing range of our captain how much I would like to belong to that unit. Much to my surprise, that is precisely the unit to which I was assigned.

I reported to A Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry, then in the First Brigade of the First Air Cavalry Division.^[7] After initial in-country training at our basecamp at Ahn Khe, I reported to my new unit on LZ English. I was very naive and out of shape from the weight I had put back on during my 30 days leave. I was wearing cotton underwear since in training they made much to do about how that was part of the uniform; but in Vietnam no one wore underwear owing to the sweltering heat. I got heat stroke, and had to be helped up the mountain, while the rest of the squad carried my gear. I was ordered to "lose" the underwear. It transpired that I had gotten a thorn lodged between my knuckles by the little finger of my right hand. I soon had cellulitis, and my hand and much of my arm had swollen up like a victim of elephantiasis. So I was sent to the hospital at Qui Nhon, where they were uncertain as to whether they could save my arm, but with antibiotics, I had fully recovered in 11 days. I got back just in time to miss a firefight in early July. I eventually got into shape. We moved into the Ahn Lao Valley and built LZ Mustang on the site of an old French fort.^[8] There I pulled point on a successful platoon sized ambush. We moved back to Bon Song, where Joe Archuleta, our interpreter, recommended me for language School, and in September I did 3 weeks of language training. During my absence, both my squad leader and Archuleta were killed at Willie Bridge. While I finished 3d in the class, I never amounted to anything as an interpreter. On 3 October, while we were eating a warm meal flown into us, someone stepped on a buried booby trapped howitzer shell, and was blown to pieces. He came down like rain. Not long afterwards, I was switched from being an ammo bearer to a rifleman. On 7 December 1967 we had a huge firefight at Dai Dong not too far from LZ English. I did well in the estimate of my colleagues.^[9] My friend, Tom "Bullet" Bouchard won the Distinguished Service Cross for his various feats on the battlefield there. In January the whole Cav moved near the DMZ in I Corps to help the Marines at Khe Sanh. On 25 March 1968 one of our platoons was on a search-and-destroy mission, when they were surrounded by a large heavy weapons unit of the North Vietnamese regular army. They staved off annihilation with artillery support. We were sent out with D Company to rescue them, but before the day was over, we had lost 6 men and many wounded. I had been given the machine gun on the chopper pad, and in April was promoted to Sergeant and took over command of the weapons squad. After some adventures in I Corp and the A Shau Valley, my tour was over, and I was sent back to the States where I served out my time and was discharged in December of 1968.

Career Student

Returning from the war, I resumed where I had left off at the College of Marin, which agreed to re-enroll me. I made all A's and 2 B's, the latter two being cases of injustice. I then went to Sonoma State College, living at home in Novato and commuting by automobile. There I made straight A's in a double major of Philosophy and Political Science. Afterwards, I was accepted into the University of Minnesota to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy. I spent years as a quarter-time teaching assistant and hated every moment of it. I decided that I didn't want to be a professor of anything, but greatly enjoyed classes and especially debating philosophical issues. Being fat and a Vietnam veteran, I was hated by almost everyone. Although I completed all exams and requirements for a Ph.D. except the thesis itself, I lost interest in the whole project, and was eventually purged.

Publications

The following peer reviewed articles were published:

• 1985 "The Hidden Warrior: The Social Code of the Võlundarkvi∂a." Journal of Indo-European Studies 13, #3-4: 283-332.

• 1986 "The Song of Baldr." Scandinavian Studies 58, #3: 285-307.

• 1987 The Metallurgical Code of the Võlundarkvi∂a, and Its Theoretical Import. History of Religions 27, #1: 1-31.

• 1987 "The Thirty Brothers." Journal of Indo-European Studies 15, #1-2: 169-214.

After 1988, I stopped writing articles for publication, as the editors always damaged them beyond the point of toleration.

The Hocąk Encylopedia

This encyclopedia is actually an original work done by me, using materials and notes collected from a great range of sources. It was begun, to the best of my recollections, in March of 1999.

Politics, Occupation, and the Union

When I was 5 years old, I wore an "I Like Ike" campaign button. That was the last time that I was ever a Republican. My father was somewhat conservative, but was strongly in favor of integration. The first president that I was able to vote for was Lyndon Johnson. Over time, I have become gradually more left wing, and in the primaries for the 2020 presidential election, I supported Elizabeth Warren.

Puerto Rico Speech by Richard Dieterle, SEIU

When I was going to the University in Minnesota, I attempted to find a job consistent with studying at work. It turned out that an overnight guard job fit nicely with my military background, and my love of being solitary. I first worked for Sanitas Security for $2.30 an hour, and after a year, got a raise of 5¢. I've worked for around 5 companies over the span of about 35 years. I've done shifts of 32-33.5 hours four times. My longest lasting accounts were Groth Music and Foshay Tower, both within 3 or 4 blocks from where I lived. My last account, just before I was going to retire, was Wells Fargo with the guard service by Wackenhut. Both these companies had made themselves notorious. SEIU was trying to form a union there, and I agreed to take over the the process of signing up guards to get the majority needed to officially request that a union be formed. I did this in a rather bold fashion, and got 75% of the guards to sign on. I also handed out some pro-union circulars to the guards, one of which was covertly slipped to management. I was then promptly fired.^[10] The union, SEIU, then made "war" on not only Wackenhut, but Wells Fargo. The war involved all kinds of "stunts" such as marching into banks with a band of loud protestors all duly recorded by a cameraman; hanging banners from highway overpasses; marching on the Wells Fargo campus. During this period, when I had no income, I went into semi-starvation. I was reduced to eating bisquick and peanut butter. On the other hand, I was invited to speak in Philadelphia at the site of the Liberty Bell, and later at a massive convention of SEIU in Puerto Rico, where I delivered a rousing speech of my own composition. I eventually got a settlement of about $7,000, and my Social Security finally began to flow.

Death

I suffered a mini-stroke 24 February 2014, with no severe consequences. I also have numerous timing problems with my heart, right branch blockage, and bradycardia; but an echocardiogram revealed my heart to be otherwise in good condition (July 2022). At the time of this writing (1 September 2023), I am still alive at age 77.

Sources

Footnotes

1. ↑ Certification of Birth for Richard Lewis Dieterle. See image.
2. ↑ Hay, "Haplogroup E1b1b" (May, 2018).
3. ↑ 23andme, "Paternal Haplogroup".
4. ↑ 1950 Federal Census, Bossier City, Louisiana, Sheet No. 74.
5. ↑ Russell, An Outline of Philosophy.
6. ↑ The distinction between an atheist and an agnostic usually drawn in Analytical Philosophy is what is termed a "scope difference". Atheism is the belief that there is no god, whereas agnosticism is a lack of belief in a god. The negator changes from narrow scope (xB~p) to wide scope (~xBp), where B represents belief, x represents a person, and p is the proposition that god exists. An agnostic merely doubts whether God exists. All atheists are agnostic, but not all agnostics are atheists.
7. ↑ What follows is presented in great detail in what was originally my memoirs, Dieterle, Prater, et alia, "Vietnam War Stories.
8. ↑ For more on this in a contemporary setting, see Davis, "The Valley of Death – LZ Mustang".
9. ↑ For a wider context as well as details of my participation, see McNab, US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier, Vietnam 1965–68, pp. 66-67.
10. ↑ "A Strange Case," pp. 89-93.

Bibliography

• The first person narrative expresses the personal recollections and knowledge of Richard Dieterle.
• Certification of Birth for Richard Lewis Dieterle, Office of Vital Statistics, State of Florida. State File Number 109 1945 047703; Certificate Number 24093780.
• Maciamo Hay, "Haplogroup E1b1b" (May, 2018), < "Origins, spread and ethnic association of European haplogroups and subclades" < "European Prehistory, Anthropology & Genetics" < Eupedia.
• 23andme, "Paternal Haplogroup".
• 1950 Federal Census, Barksdale AFB (Military Installation), Bossier City, Louisiana, 6 April 1950, Sheet No. 74. See Images.
• Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Philosophy (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1927).
• Richard Dieterle, "The Encyclopedia of Hočąk (Winnebago) Mythology," Online Text.
• Vapor Trails, the Yearbook of Ankara Dependents High School (Ankara, Turkey: 1960).
• "Minnesota Alumni," University of Minnesota Alumni Association, Fall 2019, "Lifetime Alumni Members": p. 52.
• SEIU union activities, cited in "A Strange Case Violations of Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States by European Multinational Corporations" (New York: Human Rights Watch, Sept. 2010). Discussed in the text, pp. 89-93; quoted extensively.
• Chris McNab, US Air Cavalry Trooper vs North Vietnamese Soldier, Vietnam 1965–68. Combat Series, No. 51. (Oxford: Osprey, 2020).
• "The Valley of Death – LZ Mustang," in Dennis and Diem Davis, The Constant Epicurean, Electronic Text (Blog), 13 October 2021.
• Richard Dieterle, Jerry Prater, et alia, "Vietnam War Stories, being a Narrative of the War Experiences of the First Platoon, A Co., 1/8 Cav., First Air Cavalry Division, 1967-1968," Online Text.
• Richard Dieterle, "The Hidden Warrior: The Social Code of the Võlundarkvi∂a." Journal of Indo-European Studies 13, #3-4 (1985): 283-332.
• Richard Dieterle, "The Song of Baldr." Scandinavian Studies 58, #3 (1986): 285-307.
• Richard Dieterle, "The Metallurgical Code of the Võlundarkvi∂a, and Its Theoretical Import." History of Religions 27 (1987), #1: 1-31.
• Richard Dieterle, "The Thirty Brothers." Journal of Indo-European Studies 15, #1-2 (1987): 169-214.