AUSTIN, Texas— Today, Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is proud to introduce the next installment of the series highlighting the VLB's Voices of Veterans oral history program. This week, we highlight the service of Sergeant First Class Larry Scott Teakell who served in United States Army during the Iraq/Afghanistan War.
Born in Texas City, Texas in 1969, Teakell attended Waco High School and said he went to college "to be an artist [...] I have an artistic mind and so I thought going to art school would be my career path." While he graduated with a degree in Commercial Art and Advertising, he said it just wasn't cutting it financially. Absorbed into the Punk Rock scene, Teakell said he was "a starving artist" who was "painting murals and doing t-shirts and artwork for bands."
Following the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993, Teakell said he tried to join the Marines, and while he didn't elaborate, he decided that it wasn't for him and so the process "just stopped." In 1994, he said, his brother was killed, calling it "a very tragic moment in his life" and, in a way, it created a moment of reflection.
"I had a daughter and an ex-wife already in 1994. I was struggling to pay bills and thought I would join the military for four years and then I'll be able to pay child support, get out at four years and go back to college and get my bachelors degree and whatever," he explained. "So, I joined the Army as a medic."
Teakell said he was sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for his basic training in January 1995. He shared he was elevated to "a PFC (Private First Class) right off the bat" because as a Boy Scout, he had earned the Arrow of Light, which allowed him to jump three ranks as he started his military career.
Teakell said while Fort Leonard Wood wasn't something he was expecting, or he'd experienced before, he leaned into to the Army lifestyle, adopted it as his own, and "swallowed it, hook, line and sinker." After eight weeks of basic training, Teakell said he was sent to Fort Sam Houston where he received his EMT certification and where he "learned about combat trauma and combat medicine" before being sent to his first duty station in Germany.
Following his move to Germany, Teakell said he was sent to Bosnia in 1997 and that's when he got his first medical trauma induction. He said, "I treated a guy with a head wound that was running from the Serbians, he was a Muslim. We were on an Observation Point (OP) between the Muslim sector and the Serbian villages to keep the peace, and he ran toward us [...] he runs up to us, he's bleeding, I yell at him and tell the interpreter to come over. I started cleaning him up and he had a corner piece of brick stuck in the back of his skull and his face was all cut up and his neck was all cut up."
Teakell said he got him bandaged up and as he was finishing "the people chasing him started to circle around us and they had axes and pitchforks, and two-by-fours with nails [...] they were just a big mob of people." Teakell said he told the interpreter to tell them to step back and that he needed to care for this man but if the mob came in closer "I would have to shoot you." Teakell said he was forced to pull out his gun and they started to retreat but that's because reinforcements were arriving.
Teakell said he spent eight months in Bosnia before he returned to Germany for three years and then was faced with a "what's next" for him moment. He said he returned to Sam Houston to get his LPN license so he could work a nurse in the civilian world before getting orders to go to Fort Lewis, Washington. Once there, he was required to work in area hospitals as an intern and make the rounds but realized halfway through, being a nurse wasn't for him. He said, "I wanted to treat the trauma, stabilize the patient in combat and they live because you saved their lives."
Once he left the program, he got put into the role of a Training Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) and was "considered a holdover waiting for orders" and said he received the rank of Sergeant while he was a Training NCO. Not long after, in 1999, he was sent to Korea for his next assignment where he ran an emergency room before returning stateside to Fort Lewis. Shortly after, he was given orders to go to the 123rd Infantry Tomahawks.
"We trained and trained and trained and then Iraq happened," he explained. "They left for Iraq in 2003 with the Stryker Brigade and they were put on the ground in a mission and right off the bat we lost three people. While I was still waiting to get to Iraq, I was put on a detail to receive the bodies at Dover Air Force Base and transport them back home, which was very eye-opening."
Teakell said while waiting to be deployed to Iraq, "having to retrieve three bodies put things in perspective and you realized you were going to be deep in it as soon as you get there."
To listen to SFC Larry "Scott" Teakell tell his story, click the button below:
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Veterans can email VoicesofVeterans@glo.texas.gov to tell their stories. Please note that the Veteran must be a resident of Texas at the time of their interview.
Voices of Veterans is a state agency's first Veteran oral history program. It records the stories of Texas Veterans through their time in service and after returning home from combat.
The VLB records interviews with Veterans over the phone or in person. Their interviews are then permanently archived in the Office of Veterans Records at the GLO, where they join the historical documents of other Texas heroes such as Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis.
Veterans' interviews are also available to researchers, historians, genealogists, and the public. These precious records inspire future generations and remind us of our Veterans' sacrifices.
To listen to the over 500 archived stories of Veterans documented through the GLO's Voices of Veterans oral history program, click the button below:
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Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., brings a lifetime of experience to the Texas General Land Office (GLO). In 2016, she became the first Republican elected to the Texas State Senate from Travis County and the first woman to represent Texas Senate District 24. She made history again in 2022, winning a statewide election to become our state’s first female Land Commissioner.