After three deployments as an infantryman, two of them back to back, Sgt. 1st Class David Schible has severe hearing loss. Now, he’s on a mission to tell other soldiers his story and protect them from what he has been through.
“Hearing loss can really change a service member’s career course,” said Schible, who gives two hours a workday to briefing soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where he’s stationed, about hearing loss and working with the installation’s hearing program.
“I tell soldiers what my purpose and mission is … tell them the repercussions of hearing loss,” Schible told Army Times.
He should know. It destroyed his dream of going Special Forces. But he did achieve another dream, to become a drill sergeant. He was named the 2012 Drill Sergeant of the Year at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. This year, Schible received an honorable mention this year as a finalist for the Military Times Service Member of the Year competition. 
In addition to helping soldiers prevent hearing loss, Schible, former president and now secretary of the post’s Sergeant Audie Murphy Club, looks for other ways to give back. This includes providing roadside assistance to those who need it, and mentoring kids at local schools.
Since he witnessed a traffic accident in 2009, Schible has made roadside assistance an independent project. He outfitted his truck with safety lights and other gear, “ready to help in any type of circumstance,” he said, even giving people money when they couldn’t afford a tow truck.
“I will do what is necessary until stranded motorists are safe,” said Schible, the MOS administration retention review NCO for the 3rd Infantry Division.
He does reading and mentoring for kids at local schools. He volunteers for community cleanups and works with the Red Cross as needed. He’s on the board of his homeowners association, and after Hurricane Matthew hit, he organized a neighborhood team to clean up damage and plant trees. Certified in hearing conservation, he works with a Savannah speech and hearing organization to do annual hearing tests for children.
It’s the memory of one child however, he says, that “makes me tear up every time.”
While he was stationed at Fort Jackson, he was told about a boy named Richard Culliver who had a brain stem tumor. The boy wanted to be a soldier for a day. Schible reached out to the community and put together a two-day “basic combat training experience.”
Richard got a custom-made uniform, was sworn in, did PT with airborne soldiers, used a training simulator and fired a weapons system, sat on board helicopters, and graduated in front of 4,000 people. Everywhere he went, he was awarded badges: Airborne, Pathfinder, Air Assault.
A few months later, in September 2014, Richard died. He was buried in his custom-made Army uniform.
“We wanted to do what Richard wanted to do, and he wanted to become a United States soldier,” Schible said. “Richard was a happy kid.”
This infantryman’s mission is to save soldiers’ hearing
