Decorated war veteran and officer Carl G. Schneider was a featured MTSU guest speaker Sept. 17 in the Business and Aerospace Building’s State Farm Lecture Hall.

A retired U.S. Air Force major general and fighter pilot, Schneider discussed “Leading and Managing in a Changing World” in the military, leadership and management lecture.

Retired Air Force fighter pilot and Maj. Gen. Carl G. Schneider, second from left, visits with MTSU interim aerospace chair Wendy Beckman, left, and seniors Seth Smith of Athens, Tenn., and Spencer Wells of Millbrook, Ala., Sept. 17 before Schneider’s evening campus lecture. Smith is majoring in the aerospace dispatch concentration and also completing air traffic control requirements. Wells is in the professional pilot concentration and also majoring in business administration. (MTSU photo by Randy Weiler)

Schneider’s appearance was presented by the Department of Aerospace and the university’s National Business Aviation Association student organization.

Schneider, who lives in Thompson’s Station, Tennessee, covered his Air Force career.

After meeting aerospace interim chair Wendy Beckman and seniors Spencer Wells of Millbrook, Ala., and Seth Smith of Athens, Tennessee, earlier in the day, Schneider said his talk would center on “what I did, where I was at, some of the planes I flew and how things have changed since I started in ’47.”

Schneider flew 100 missions in Korea and worked with Vietnamese air forces in in the early 1960s. Planes he flew included F-80, F-86 and F-160.

“I helped train a lot of pilots,” said Schneider, with former President George Bush and astronaut Buzz Aldrin among those he mentored.

Schneider served more than 30 years in the Air Force as a commander and pilot. In July 1962, he went to Vietnam.

As one of the first Air Force officers assigned to the 2nd Air Division, he helped establish a forward air control/air liaison officer program, working and flying with the Republic of Vietnam Air Force.

His military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

Schneider is in the Arizona State University College of Business Hall of Fame and the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame. He has owned several businesses and has a passion for helping student veterans.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

Retired Maj. Gen. Carl G. Schneider places a wreath before a Korean War Monument during a ceremony at the South Korean National Cemetery along with fellow Korean War veterans in this September 2007 U.S. Air Force file photo. The South Korean government’s Revisit Korea program invites war veterans each year to come to South Korea to honor the men and woman from 21 countries who served during the Korean War. Nearly 25,000 veterans have participated in this program since 1975. (U.S. Air Force file photo)