Background
Schmuck grew up in Denver and on the family ranch near Walden, Colorado.
Schmuck grew up in Denver and on the family ranch near Walden, Colorado.
He attended the University of Colorado and the United States. Coast Guard Academy having enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1935 and was later commissioned a second lieutenant in 1938 following graduation from university.
After basic training, he served as a platoon leader at San Diego Marine Corps Base, then served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Marine Brigade during World World War II, seeing action in Guadalcanal, Vella Lavella, and Bougainville as a rifle company commander. He was hospitalized briefly from injuries sustained in Bougainville and then joined the 1st Marine Division in time for landings on Peleliu and, later, Okinawa, where he was again wounded in action. He was a lieutenant colonel commanding an infantry battalion training for the invasion of Japan when the war ended.
Donald Schmuck attended the Amphibious Warfare School at Quantico, Virginia, and the Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, then did a short tour with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before returning to Quantico as an instructor in the Marine Corps Schools.
In 1949 he was ordered to the United Nations Middle Eastern Commission and was active in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. Schmuck joined the 1st Marine Division at the start of the Korean War in 1950, assigned as commander, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines under the regimental command of Colonel
Chesty Puller. He led the 1st Battalion in action during 1950 and 1951, including the Chosin Reservoir operation and the Spring Counter Offensive.
He served as regimental executive through the Summer Offensive and served with the Fleet Marine Force Pacific at Pearl Harbor after of Korea. During that duty, Schmuck was charged with producing a number of contingency war plans covering national objectives in Asia, including several locations in Vietnam, and he conducted the in-country reconnaissance required for those plans.
In 1959 he attended the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Schmuck retired from the Marine Corps in 1960 with the rank of Brigadier General, continuing to be active in special missions in Central America, Vietnam, and Laos.
He completed a Doctor of Philosophy in nuclear physics at University of Colorado–Boulder in the early 1960s, and was a military observer during Desert Storm in February 1991 in the Gulf War.
He purchased the Triangle-South ranch between Buffalo and Sheridan, Wyoming. He died, aged 88, in Honolulu and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
He was active with the Marine Corps League in Wyoming and Hawaii, and was a founding member of the Viet Nam Veterans Motorcycle Club.