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Bill Romstadt retires from VFW chaplain role

By Justin Hinkley 5 min read

ALPENA -- "Let me show you something, here," Bill Romstadt said, reaching for a black-and-white photo on his end stand. "This is one thing I prize most of all."

The photo shows a young Romstadt in his Marines uniform, posing next to a Japanese man. That man, whom Romstadt knew as Papasan, had been a Japanese soldier during World War II. Romstadt, who grew up listening to World War II newscasts on the radio and watching wartime news reels at the theater, had at one time chanted for the deaths of Japanese men.

But, in Okinawa in the time between the Korean and Vietnam wars, Romstadt and Papasan had become good friends. When Romstadt left Japan to return to the United States, the two embraced and wept.

"We had nothing in common," Romstadt said during a recent interview at his home. "He was Japanese, an enemy soldier in World War II. I wanted him dead. Different religions and things like this. But he taught me a lot about people. You can disagree with people, but you know what? I'll tell you something. You come right down to it, when you scrape away everything else, people are just people."

That was one of many lessons Romstadt, 88, learned during his time in the service, lessons that he carried with him throughout his 62-year career as a teacher and coach and his decades of service as a chaplain for the Alpena post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Romstadt recently stepped back from his role as chaplain after developing Parkinson's disease. Last month, the local Marine Corps League honored him for his years of service at military funerals and ceremonies.

Romstadt -- who said he'll still chaplain occasionally, if he's having a good day, health-wise -- said he hated to give up the VFW post, because the military means so much to him and he loves honoring fellow servicemembers.

"A lot of my whole beliefs in life had been formulated by World War II and my experience in the military, which was good for me," Romstadt said. "The Marine Corps was good for me."

After high school, Romstadt earned football and baseball scholarships to attend the University of Findlay in Ohio. During his second year of college, he got his draft card.

Two of his uncles had been Marines, so "I went right down to the Marine Corps recruiter," Romstadt recalled. "I said, 'I just got drafted. Can I join the Marines?' He said, 'Sit right down there, young man, I'll take care of ya.'"

From 1956 through 1962, Romstadt served with an artillery unit throughout Southeast Asia, running communication wires in the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and what is now Taiwan. He was involved in two operations in which his unit expected danger, but "nothing ever broke out," Romstadt said.

"Loved it," Romstadt said of his time in the service. "There's an old saying, 'Once a Marine, always a Marine,' and that's always been my case."

After he left active duty, Romstadt returned to Findlay to finish his degree and then started teaching in the Toledo area. He came to Alpena in 1967, drawn by better pay and better retirement compensation, and throughout the years taught history and physical education at Thunder Bay Junior High School, Alpena High School, and Alpena Community College. He also coached and officiated multiple sports.

Throughout his teaching career, Romstadt said, the lessons he learned in the military -- and his friendship with Papasan -- influenced the way he approached his classrooms.

He wanted his students to arrive at their own conclusions, but "I always said, 'Make your decisions based on what your country has allowed you to do,'" Romstadt said he told his students. "Because I lived in communist countries. I saw how people were controlled. Every person that I met in a communist country, they'd always tell me, 'You are so lucky to live in the United States.'"

Romstadt retired from teaching in the mid-1990s. Though he returned almost immediately as a counselor and substitute teacher and continued working through 2021, he found he finally had the time then to join up with the VFW.

"I didn't join the VFW until late, because -- one of the reasons was -- I was coaching," Romstadt said. "I'm coaching football. I'm coaching basketball and things like that. So I was active year-round. I couldn't be active with the VFW."

Shortly after joining the VFW, he joined the VFW honor guard. Shortly after that, they appointed him chaplain.

"I'm not a priest," Romstadt said. "I'm not a rabbi. I'm not a minister. But, yes, I was appointed chaplain to the VFW post. I think I've been in that position -- give or take a few years -- I think it was a little over 20 years."

Romstadt said he relished the role, because he reveres the men and women his work honored.

"People ask me who my heroes are," Romstadt said. "The kids, they would ask me who my heroes are. And they kinda laughed when I said, 'Anybody that served in our military.' I said, 'Those people have always been my heroes.'

"I love those people," Romstadt added, "and let me tell you why: because … when you're signing up for the military, you're saying, 'The government's got my life. I might not come out of this alive. If a war breaks out, I'm going in.' I respect the bravery that anybody has that joins the military."

Whenever he's out and about, even on vacation, and he sees someone wearing a military hat or shirt or uniform, he stops to shake their hands and tell them, "Semper fi" -- the Marine Corps motto, Latin for "always faithful" -- and to thank them for serving.

"I hate to give it up now," Romstadt said of his chaplain role, "because I love it."

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-354-3112 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.

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