CENTRAL WISCONSIN PUBLICATIONS - TP PRINTING
MEMORIAL DAY 2016
Wisconsin Faces
V I E T NA M V E T E R A N S M E M O R I A L C r e a ted b y th e D o d g e Co u n ty P io ne e r a nd re le a s e d for e xc lus ive us e for W is c ons in N e w s paper Associ at i on m em ber newspaper s.
Putting a Face With the Names by The Tribune Phonograph Reporter Christian Parker The Vietnam war ended 41 years ago, but many who gave their lives in the line of duty have yet to receive recognition for their sacrifice. The 58,000 names on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. each have a face and a story of a life tragically cut short in service of country.
CAPT GARY BRUX U.S. Army • 10-06-66 Greenwood, WI
A1C LAWRENCE DOBRENZ U.S. Air Force • 10-24-66 Medford, WI
PFC DANIEL ORLIKOWSKI U.S. Marine Corps • 03-07-67 Athens, WI
LCPL DONALD JOHNSON U.S. Marine Corps • 03-13-67 Gilman, WI
PFC LEROY CWIKLA U.S. Army • 03-26-67 Lublin, WI
PFC ROBERT HEISER U.S. Marine Corps • 08-22-67 Rib Lake, WI
PFC DUANE NOVOBIELSKI U.S. Army • 10-04-67 Greenwood, WI
HM3 ROBERT DECKER U.S. Navy • 10-18-67 Marshfield, WI
SP4 LARRY OERTEL U.S. Army • 12-25-67 Stratford, WI
PFC VICTOR TOMCZYK U.S. Army • 01-02-68 Dorchester, WI
SGT LEE DANIELSON U.S. Army • 01-12-68 Cadott, WI
PFC DENNIS ZWIRCHITZ U.S. Marine Corps • 03-16-68 Abbotsford, WI
SP4 DENNIS KLIMPKE U.S. Army • 04-15-68 Colby, WI
FN JIMMY HARRIES U.S. Navy • 06-25-68 Spencer, WI
SGT TERRENCE KOHLBECK U.S. Army • 05-06-68 Stratford, WI
PFC LEROY HOFFMAN U.S. Army • 11-22-68 Athens, WI
SP4 JOHN RUETH U.S. Army • 03-17-69 Loyal, WI
HM1 LIN MAHNER U.S. Navy • 05-25-69 Medford, WI
SSGT LYMAN BACH U.S. Army • 06-02-69 Medford, WI
SP4 JERRY GILLETT U.S. Army • 06-04-70 Cornell, WI
Bryce Kelley, a former middle school social studies teacher in Medford, grew up the son of a Vietnam veteran. Serving as an education liaison for The Memorial Fund, Kelley assisted other teachers in the country who wanted to teach about the Vietnam War as part of the Teach Vietnam Teachers Network. Kelley called this classroom project “Put a Face with a Name.” He assigned students to research a veteran and gather information, building a banner in the service member’s honor. If a photo of the veteran was available, Kelley encouraged his students to add one to the banners as a way of putting a face to the name. Kelley wanted students to connect with the veterans of the little-discussed Vietnam war in a personal way. “The students see the personal side,” he said. “Every time people send us something I bring it out. The letters help the students learn about the local connection.” Inspired by a visit from the travelling Wall that Heals, a travelling exhibit displaying names of deceased Vietnam vets, which came to Medford in 2009, Kelley continued his efforts of connecting faces with names. “I’ve always been a history buff, but my connection to the Vietnam War and that time period was through my dad and a desire to want to know more about his life’s experiences and what he experienced when he was overseas,” Kelley said. Kelley began searching with the hope of finding photos of all lost Vietnam Veterans in Wisconsin. He used his work to continue facilitating a connection between youth and those who served in Vietnam. In 2007, there were only 50 photographs of Wisconsin vets available, mostly through the state historical society. Kelley found some leads through local families in the Medford area. When a proposed education center was announced at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., Kelley was eager to apply his efforts to the cause. “You have an entire generation of children who are growing up without a direct connection to the Vietnam Memorial,” he said. “In order for that war and monument to stay relevant, they wanted the monument to be more than just names.” When the education center project is complete, the birthdates of soldiers will appear on an interactive wall. Photos of those on the Vietman Memorial will be part of the display, along with hometowns, stories posted about the veterans and other information. The education center continued on page 5 8633
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On May 6, 1969 Wisconsin’s own Norman Karl Billipp made a heroic sacrifice in service to our country. Billipp, from Milwaukee, was a dedicated Marine who had been in Vietnam for eight months and flown 265 combat missions when his plane was shot down. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) founded The Wall and made sure no one would forget his name. By finding his photograph - and every photo of the fallen from Wisconsin - you made sure no one would ever forget his face. Now is the time to ensure no one will forget his story.
Norman’s story of service and personal sacrifice, along with the more than 58,000 names on The Wall, is in danger of being lost. That is why VVMF is raising funds to build the Education Center at The Wall in Washington ,D.C.
What you do matters. It is only through the generosity of people like you that we can build the Education Center at the Wall. Together we can preserve the legacy of service of heroes like Norman and educate future generations about the impact of the Vietnam era. GIVE NOW AT WWW.VVMF.ORG/WISCONSIN-CARES OR BY MAIL
VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL FUND ATTN: WISCONSIN CARES
1235 SOUTH CLARK STREET, SUITE 910, ARLINGTON, VA 22202
we remember your sacrifice today & every day
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Not Forgotten, Always Remember Them by Tribune Record Gleaner News Editor Dean Laser On an early October day in 1967, somewhere in Bien Hoa Province in a place called South Vietnam, a 21-yearold soldier from Greenwood, Wis., died. Almost 50 years later, a man that young soldier never had any reason to know visited his grave to make sure someone was watching over it. There the man saluted, read Psalm 23 over the grave. He’ll eventually try to do the same over every one of the 1,244 graves that hold Wisconsin men who never came home from that place called South Vietnam. Duane Novobielski had been in Vietnam only 76 days, according to military casualty records, when he died of illness. He had graduated with the Greenwood High School Class of 1964 and turned 21 just 10 days into his Vietnam tour. He was a private first class, and a wire systems installer. Left behind in Wisconsin were his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Novobielski, four sisters, and a brother, read his obituary in the Greenwood Gleaner. His remains were returned to the earth on an autumn Friday
of graves for one particular small plot. Though he never saw combat himself — and maybe because of that — it’s his mission now to care for the grave of every one of those dead young man he feels that he knows.
morning in a quiet Greenwood Catholic cemetery. On a warm and sunny August day more than 45 years later, a man named Steve Conto went looking for Novobielski’s final resting place. It wasn’t in Greenwood anymore, as the remains had been moved to Eau Claire to rest alongside Novobielski’s mother. Sometime in the interval since he died, the family had changed its surname to Nova, and that is the name on Novobielski’s headstone today. Through the research he does on each and every Wisconsin KIA from Vietnam, Conto knew the story. Conto found the cemetery on a map, and as he had done already more than 850 times, he went to the graveyard and began to look. With Nova’s grave, he had an idea where it would be, and found it quickly. In other cases, he has searched randomly, but never stopped until he had uncovered that which he sought. Nova’s grave is in a wellmanicured cemetery, neatly mowed and trimmed. The headstone is relatively new for a man who died decades ago, so Conto’s touch was not much needed. In other cases,
Conto served under some of the men who fought in Vietnam and came home. From them he first learned about the ones who perished. PFC Duane Novobielski U.S. Army
he has carved away years of sod growth from around a neglected burial plaque, and taken a bucket of soapy water to wash away time’s grime. It’s the least he can do, Conto says, for the young men who gave their lives in a place so far from peaceful little towns like Greenwood. Conto is from Menasha, a veteran himself, retired from the Naval Air Force, and now works in private security. That’s his day job, per se, but on weekends he travels the backroads of the state, and crawls through overgrown cemetery sections in isolated country graveyards. Other times he’s in massive city cemeteries, combing rows
Steve Conto places his hand on the headstone of Greenwood native Duane Novobielski (the family changed the name to Nova since he died in Vietnam) as he tells the Vietnam KIA he will never be forgotten. Conto is visiting the grave of each of the 1,244 Wisconsin KIAs from Vietnam to make sure they are being respectfully maintained.
“I was too young to be in Vietnam,” Conto said. “They were my big brothers. That’s the way I look at those guys. What can I do? I want to do something as a little brother.” Conto became aware that many of the 1,244 Wisconsin KIAs were being forgotten decades after their families laid them to rest. In one particular case, a veteran’s remains had not even been buried. Through some glitch or miscommunication, or because there was no family to claim him, the remains were locked away in a cemetery storage vault. Conto could not bear to see that happen. “It’s my passion,” he said, to never let that stand. “I want to right this. Not in a back room someplace. He doesn’t belong there.” Conto then extended his work, and decided he’d personally make sure every Vietnam soldier who had died in action at least had a properly-maintained place to rest. Off he went, in search. From his working list of KIAs and their final resting places, Conto narrows his search. Sometime he’ll try to find a family member who can pinpoint a spot for him; in one town he called the mayor. Other times he just goes to the cemetery and finds his target “by just walking it.” Once, in a country cemetery near Augusta, he was looking and looking, and when a downpour struck, he ducked under a large pine tree to wait it out. While under the tree, he casually looked down, and was standing over the grave for which he was searching. Conto began his search after seeing the Vietnam movie “We Were Soldiers” starring Mel
Steve Conto sweeps dirt and grass from the headstone of a Wisconsin KIA from Vietnam, who is buried near Eau Claire.
Gibson, about the first Army Air Cavalry unit to engage with the North Vietnamese in a place called the Ia Drang Valley. It got Conto thinking. “I got wondering if any of our guys were with (that unit)” Conto said. “I wondered where our guys are.” He began looking locally near his Fox River valley home. In one cemetery, he found two KIA graves, but only one of them looked as if anyone had bothered to give it the slightest care. That bothered him. “Both of them should be taken care of the same, and one of them wasn’t,” Conto said. As he expanded his search, Conto divided the state into sections, and then tried to cover a section at a time. In the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha corner, for instance, there are more than 200 KIAs buried in dozens of graveyards. There are also 102 buried outside the state, he said, including one in Puerto Rico and one in Mexico. He might make it to them someday, too. “Maybe when I retire,” he said. Each time he visits a grave now, Conto spends a while there. First he inspects the marker’s condition, and does whatever he can to make it better. With a scraper he brushes off accumulations of soil or decayed grass, and trims back encroaching sod. He’ll wash the stone, straighten the flag if
Remembering those who fought & paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom 8489
The Lasee family and employees of All Metal Stamping
there’s one there. Then he steps back, salutes, reads a copy of Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Before he leaves, Conto places his hand firmly on the stone, and tells each soldier, “You will not be forgotten.” Conto sees signs that people have been to KIA graves, like the large purple and white flower wreath with an “In loving memory” banner that had been placed on the grave of another KIA found near Eau Claire on the day he took care of Nova. Another KIA that day was entombed in a mausoleum. Conto had to creep up on his tip-toes to touch the name plaque as he told the veteran he was remembered. Every gravesite is an emotional moment, Conto says. It reminds him that the men in the earth were once alive, with promising lives ahead of them. And he sees the impact of their too-early deaths. “You see a lot of fathers that were gone soon after,” Conto said. “It was so long ago and yet I still feel a loss,” Conto said of each young KIA. “He missed out on so much. It’s like my big brother, coming upon his grave. I say, ‘You’re not going to be forgotten. I will always remember you.’ continued on page 7
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Finding The Photos by Andrew Johnson Gold Star father It was January 2014 when I read about Wisconsin Public Radio and Television’s effort to join the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) effort to find the photo of every Wisconsin service member who was killed and listed on the WALL in Washington D.C. The effort is known as the Faces Project. The photos are displayed by the birth date of the service member on the VVMF website: vvrnf.org. The photos will also be projected at a new Education Center that will be built by the WALL in Washington D.C. All permits have been secured for the new Center and construction is anticipated to start in 2019. Fundraising efforts are still underway. I also learned that Congress does not authorize a war memorial on the Mall in D.C. until l0 years after a war has been completed. It means that there will be no national memorial for the current service members who have been killed in the current war on terrorism that began on September 2001. Approximately 8,000 U.S. service members, including my own son, lL T David Johnson, have given their lives in this war. The folks at the VVMF have offered to have a temporary national memorial for the current service members in the new Education Center. There will be a place where the photos / faces of these brave man and woman will be displayed. It did not take me long to realize that the community newspapers in Wisconsin as
well as all over the country could significantly contribute to the effort to find the missing photos of killed Vietnam Veterans. The first question that comes to mind is: why are the photos missing? Doesn’t the military have them? The answer is that there was a huge fire at a government storage facility in 1973 where over six million military records were destroyed including many of the personnel records from Vietnam. It was an era when there were paper records but no digital back-ups. In May 2013, approximately 450 photos were missing from Wisconsin and 24,000 in the U.S. It is important to recognize that more than half the photos from Wisconsin had been found by this time. Many people deserve recognition for finding those photos, especially former school teacher Bryce Kelly of Medford who is credited with finding over 500 photos in the initial effort. In my mind, Bryce is a real hero for his dedication and persistence as a caring citizen. Also, many family members of soldiers up-loaded photos directly to the VVMF website. I have had the good fortune to have been the president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association (WNA) in 20l0 and still remain on the board of directors to this day. The use of local newspapers for such an effort made a lot of sense. Who knows their local communities better than local newspapers? I made a presentation to the board in February 2013 and asked for the support of the WNA and its members to pro-
About Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson kneeling by his son 1LT David Johnson’s grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this year. (submitted)
vide assistance to the effort and they gave their full support immediately. I contacted Jeffrey Potter, Marketing Director of Wisconsin Public Radio, and offered the help of the Wisconsin newspapers in finding the photos. We worked with Jeff throughout the project. I then went to Washington D.C. in March 2013 with a small group of newspaper publishers representing the National Newspaper Association, and offered the assistance of community newspapers from across the country to help find the photos for the project to a small team of people who run the Vietnam Veterans Memorial led by Lee Allen. At the time we met, only one state had found all of its photos: New Mexico. Lee and his team were excited about the “juice” we put into the effort. I asked Lee Allen to be a featured speaker at the National Newspaper Association Convention in October 2014. He asked newspapers from all over the country for help, and many newspaper publishers stepped forward. Today, ten states have located all photos and four more are close to finishing. Over 10,700 photos have been found since community newspapers from across the country have joined the effort. Wisconsin Newspaper Association (WNA) Effort When the WNA first starting working on this project in the spring of 2014, there were over 450 of the 1161 Wisconsin photos still missing. I got an accurate list of names from the folks at the VVMF in Washington D.C.
The staff at the WNA divided up the list of missing photos by geographic area and then gave the names to newspapers in each geographic area. Many newspapers ran stories and a huge number of photos were found in the first year. It is important to give credit for finding many of the photos be given to many dedicated newspaper staff members who really took an interest in this project. Also, many citizens and family members found photos and up-loaded them directly to the VVMF website. Fast forward to February, 2015. Only 64 Wisconsin photos were still missing. At that time I staffed a booth at the WNA annual convention for the VVMF Faces project. The vast majority of the last 64 missing photos of service members were from the Milwaukee metro area. I told newspaper publishers we wanted to find every photo by Memorial Day 2015. Several people doubted we could find them all. However, a UW Milwaukee journalism lecturer, Jessica McBride, came to my booth and talked with me about the project. The next day, Jessica came to my booth again and informed me that she, as well as students in two of her journalism classes were willing to help find the remaining photos. She was just what the effort needed. Jessica is an experienced investigative reporter with a real heart for those who served and were killed in the military. Jessica’s help was gladly welcomed. It should also be noted that UW Milwaukee administration was very supportive of this effort. A few of the remaining photos were found by other journalist but the majority of them
Andrew Johnson is the publisher of three Wisconsin weekly newspapers: Dodge County Pioneer in Mayville, Campbellsport News, and the Kewaskum Statesman. Johnson is a past president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association (WNA), current board member of WNA, a regional director of the National Newspaper Association (NNA), and chairman of the NNA committee on public policy. Johnson’s son, U.S. Army 1LT David Johnson was killed in action in Afghanistan on January 25, 2012. Andrew and wife Laura have three surviving children and reside in Horicon, Wisconsin. Johnson and the staff at the weekly newspapers prepared the copy for this section in cooperation with the staff at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., University of Wisconsin Milwaukee students (UWM) and Jessica McBride, UWM Journalism Lecturer, for the exclusive use of WNA member newspapers. This section is the first of its kind in the United State and will be used as a model for other states when they find all of their faces to bring awareness of the great cost of the Vietnam War and help raise funds for the building of the new Education Center by the WALL the will honor killed U.S. service members from all U.S. wars.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It has 58,307 names of United States soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. There are at least 1,162 of the names from Wisconsin and 88 of them are from Central Wisconsin. (submitted by Vietnam Veterans Memorial)
were found by UW Milwaukee students and Jessica. About this section This section that displays all of the Wisconsin Vietnam Veterans Faces is the first of its kind in the United States. The cover has photos of service members from this newspaper’s coverage area. It will be used as a role model for other states as they find all of their photos. The photos and information about the service members came from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial people in Washington D.C. All of the photos and stories in this section were made available free of charge to all Wisconsin Newspaper Association members for publication near Memorial Day. There are three reasons for publishing all of the photos in Wisconsin newspapers. First is to bring awareness of the great sacrifices Wisconsin service members and their families gave (and many are still giving) in the Vietnam era. Adding photos to the list of names tells more of the story. Second is to bring awareness and need for funds for the new Education Center that will be built near the WALL that will honor killed U.S. service members killed in Vietnam as well as in all U.S. wars. Third, this section will be archived at the Wisconsin Historical Society since it is published in a Wisconsin newspaper.
The contents of this section will be available and searchable for free to the public on Wisconsin’s BadgerLink system available in Wisconsin public libraries and schools 90 days after publication. It was a huge team effort by many players who made finding all of the photos for the Wisconsin VVMF Faces project possible. I want to give my sincere congratulations to all who worked on the Faces project. However, we must never forget that the photos represent real people who lived and died for our country. They have families (Gold Star families) who still bear the great cost of war. The sacrifices of these service members as well as all U.S. service members killed in the line of duty must always be remembered. The price of freedom is very expensive. It is only fitting that every photo found be published on the first Memorial Day after all of the photo files and information could be assembled for publication. Further, by publishing all of the photos in Wisconsin newspapers, they will be digitally archived at the Wisconsin Historical Society and will from this day forward be available to all for generations to come! There are currently 58,307 names on VVMF Wall and a total of 13,298 photos missing for faces project.
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In Remembrance of Those Who Fought and Gave Their Lives for Us. Bill, Tina, Justine and Logan Flink
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will also provide a web experience online. In 2007, when he began gathering the photos, Kelley started by obtaining the Department of Defense list of lost Wisconsin soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War. He began making phone calls and introducing himself to the families of
the deceased. One lead led to another. “Sometimes families were very hesitant, wondering who I was or what my angle was or what I was trying to do,” Kelley said. “I learned a lot of lessons about what to say and what not to say.” Making connections and soliciting help from other groups
paid off. By 2012, Kelley had been a part of locating almost 800 photographs. “I spent a lot of time in houses and on the road and at restaurants with families — picking up photographs and learning about these families,” he said. Kelley said there were challenges with certain vets, like families having relocated in the
40 years since, or those who were orphans. Some families had to be located in far away states, like Tennessee, New York or Washington, because they had moved. Once the photos project grew to a larger scale, valuable assistance from Wisconsin Public Radio and Television and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association (WNA) helped accelerate the work Kelley started. It was brought to completion late in 2015, making Wisconsin the fifth state to find photos of all its Vietnam veterans. Kelley said he knew in 2007 that the eventual goal would be to incorporate all the photos in the education center in Washington, which at the time was only in the early planning stages. “There were different efforts being made to track down information on vets, but it took WPR and WNA to bring us all together and get us past the finish line,” Kelley said. “It started out grassroots and turned into a very successful collaborative effort between a lot of different groups.” While the inception of the education center in Washington was a driving force, Kelley credits his father, John, for his own personal inspiration. “I had never been able to have a truly candid conversation with him about his service,” he said. “I think when The Wall came in 2009, it was a chance for him to put away some of the issues that he had. Then over those next couple years, he really started to open up.”
John Kelley, with his son, Bryce and wife, MariLee, at Central Wisconsin Airport as he awaits his ride on the Honor Flight in September 2013.
Kelley said as he was searching for photos, he found similari-
ties between himself and the families of other veterans. “Children of Vietnam veterans are a special breed of individuals,” he said. “Things that occurred in our house were unique to children of other veterans’ homes. What we’ve found is Vietnam vets are very proud but very private.” Only recently are Vietnam vets starting to be recognized and treated the way they should be, Kelley said. “History tells us that society was not in favor of this war so these veterans didn’t come home to ticker tape parades like in other wars,” he said. “Many took off their uniforms and felt ashamed of their service.” Helping his dad to be proud of serving and to share his story was a constant motivating factor for Kelley. “Part of my drive was to make sure I could find a way to make sure my dad felt his service was something he could be proud of,” he said. When Bryce and John went on the Honor Flight to Washington in September of 2013, he said it was a life changing experience for his father and for their relationship. “Hearing those thousand people cheering and experiencing all that praise, when he got through that receiving line, his shoulders just collapsed and he was finally able to just relax and was finally at peace,” he said. John died three weeks later from complications stemming from his exposure to Agent Orange during the war. Bryce
said the last photo taken with his father was taken on the Honor Flight trip. “That desire to want to be closer to him is what’s always driven me to want to be a part of this,” Kelley said. “It’s so rewarding to see families who had 30 or 40 years of pain and be able to sit down with them and share with them what we’re doing and have them openly start talking about memories. There are so many stories that could and should be told.” The Wall of Faces project helps make it possible to keep the memory of the men and women who served alive, Kelley said. “It’s a way to share these stories and find joy in the lives of those people, short as they were,” he said. Now that all of Wisconsin’s photos have been found, Kelley plans to go on to help other states find their veterans’ photos. He has already been assisting the search in states like Virginia. In Alaska, whose veterans were mostly Native American, the search has presented a unique set of challenges in finding photos while honoring Indian values. The memory of his dad is what pushes Kelley onward. “I hope he’s proud of me and I will always try to make sure his memory and those of the other 1,100 Wisconsin veterans on the wall have their stories told, because they’re pretty awesome stories,” he said. “I think this project is long overdue and a project I am proud to be part of.”
The Fight for Recognition: One Family’s Story by The Star News News Editor Brian Wilson Corporal Ken McGuire was 21 years old when he died serving his country. Now, almost 50 years after his death, his family is fighting for him to finally get the recognition he deserves. Corporal Kenneth Rae McGuire was born on Aug. 2, 1947. He grew up in Rib Lake and graduated from Rib Lake High School. “He was a friendly guy and was liked by everyone who
knew him,” says his twin sister Kathy Heglund. “I can remember his love of baseball and his baseball card collection. He also played basketball in high school. He also liked fishing and was a “pinsetter” at our local bowling alley. Most young people can’t understand this concept that it actually was a manual task at one time.” Like many others of his generation, he chose to serve his country. He enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps Oct. 1966 in Milwaukee. McGuire did his training at Camp Pendleton,
Calif. He served in the Republic of Vietnam from Feb. 1968 until his death in Sept. 1968 as a rifleman. He served with Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. McGuire was a decorated Marine. He earned a Purple Heart plus two gold stars (stars indicate his receiving the Purple Heart for the second and third time). He received certificates for wounds received in action on April 20, June 11, and September 7, all in 1968 and all in the Republic of Vietnam. Other recognitions include the National Defense Service
Medal, Vietnam Service Medal and Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal. “Ken was proud to be a Marine and to serve his country. He went to Vietnam voluntarily and wore his uniform with great pride,” Heglund said. “Ken had been wounded for the third time and when receiving treatment for this wound the doctor diagnosed him with malaria. He was evacuated from Vietnam to the Army Hospital at Camp Kue, Okinawa on September 26, 1968; he passed away on September 28, continued on page 6
CPL Ken McGuire, U.S. Marine Corp
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1968. He died from malaria and bronchial pneumonia,” his sister explained. The report of his death was on the front page of the Oct. 3, 1968 issue of The Star News. “Mr. and Mrs. Raymond McGuire, Rib Lake, were informed by the defense department Saturday that their 21-year-old son, Kenneth, had died that day of malaria and pneumonia in an armed services’ hospital at Camp Kue in Okinowa. He had been serving with the marine corps.” The brief article went on to say, “The body will be accompanied by military escort to Rib Lake where funeral arrangements at Mannel Funeral Home are pending.” The Oct. 10 issue of The Star News included more details of the funeral, noting McGuire had joined the Marines just months after graduating from Rib Lake High School stating: “The body of the hero soldier was given military escort to Rib Lake by Sgt. Felix Dolor, Marine Corps, stationed at
Treasure Island, San Francisco, Calif.” Even now, decades after his death, McGuire’s memory brings tears to classmates. Sharyn Thompson shared this memory of him: “In the summer of 1966, as a hobby my fiancé raced stock car at Tomahawk speedway. He was in hobby stock, and we enjoyed watching up-and-coming racers Marlin Walbeck and David Marcis. I was sitting alone in the bleachers and I saw a group of Rib Lake boys come up and sit behind me. In between races I would hear chatter of the guys behind me but I never talked to them. In one of the heat races Bob was in corner four and another car went on the inside of him and he rolled, bounced twice on the top of the car and landed on the wheels. I don’t remember what I did but I was standing, maybe screaming? A very comforting voice from behind me said,” He’s OK, Sharyn, he’s OK.” I can still hear that voice to this day, it was Ken McGuire. In 1968 I was married and pregnant, reading The Star News when I saw Ken had passed away, I
If a family member believes their veteran qualifies for inscription on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, they are asked to contact the veteran’s branch of service. In order for a service member to have his or her name added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, one of the following criteria must be satisfied: • Died in Vietnam between November 1, 1955, and December 31, 1960; or • Died in the defined combat zone on or after January 1, 1961; or • Died as a result of wounds (combat or hostile related) sustained in the combat zone; or • Died while participating in, or providing direct support to, a combat mission immediately en route to or returning from a target within the defined combat zone. There is no requirement that the Service member was killed in action or that the cause of death was combat related. After getting the formal request, documentation and complete service record from the family, the human resources command will: • Complete a Freedom of Information Act request for all medical records. • Build a packet containing both the medical records and Service records of the deceased service member. • Send the packet to the Office of the Surgeon General for opinion. Once opinion is received a service determination is made on whether service member is eligible to have their name inscribed on the memorial. • The completed packet is then submitted to the Directorate For Information, Operations and Reports (otherwise known as WHS) and approves eligibility based on recommendation from service. They also update the casualty database at that time. • The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Fund (VVMF) is then notified and who in turn lets the family know the next steps. • The military then sends a letter to the requester on the determination made and next steps if name is to be inscribed on the VVM.
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cried then and still cry to this day, when I think about that time at Tomahawk Speedway and Ken comforting me. He was a quiet and all around nice person.” While there is no doubt he was a casualty of the Vietnam War, his name was not included among the official war dead, nor engraved with the 58,315 men and women on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. because of a technicality. “Ken’s family has always been told that he did not qualify for The Wall because he did not die from his wounds in Vietnam proper,” Heglund said. Executive Order No. 11216, signed by President Johnson on April 24, 1965, designated Vietnam and adjacent coastal waters, within specified geographical coordinates, as a combat zone. As hostilities spread, the combat zone was expanded to include additional areas such as Laos and Cambodia in or over which U.S. forces operated. DOD Instruction 7730.22, (“Reports of U.S. Casualties in Combat Areas,” January 20, 1967, and March 20, 1973) provided that the casualties to be reported were all those occurring within the designated combat areas and those deaths occurring anywhere as the result or aftermath of an initial casualty occurring in a combat area. These rules have since been expanded extending the time from 1955 through 1975 to reflect the true length of the war. Although carved in stone and well watered by the tears of families and friends of the fallen, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is not frozen in time. Even now, decades after it was erected, names are being added and designations changed. In February, Kenneth Davis of the Coffelt Group contacted McGuire’s family saying McGuire’s name deserves to be on The Wall. Davis’ orgnization is a group of volunteers who research military records for such discrepancies as McGuire’s. “He has sent me documentation showing how he qualifies and why my brother’s name belongs on the Wall,” Heglund said. She quoted from the documentation that makes her brother eligible to have his name
Original article as it appeared in The Star News in 1968.
engraved on The Wall: “DoDI 1300.18, Paragraph 6.1.2.3.4.5. January 8, 2008: Died from a diagnosed illness while in a defined combat zone or outside the combat zone provided that death occurred within 120 days of the diagnosis.” The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) is the nonprofit organization that founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall) in Washington, D.C. in 1982. Each spring, VVMF works with the Department of Defense to make sure The Wall is accurate. Names are added for those service members who have met the Department of Defense criteria for addition to The Wall, having sustained wounds in Vietnam from which they eventually perished. Those service members who in the last year were returned or accounted for will have their statuses changed from MIA to KIA. The names of eight American service members were engraved on the black granite walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial last week, and the status designations changed for nine others whose names are already on The Wall. These changes will bring the total number of
names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to 58,315 men and women who were killed or who remain missing in action The process of getting a name added to the memorial is not an easy one. “His name will not be engraved on The Wall because his family requests it to be done. It can only be engraved with the approval of the Marine Corps. and the Department of Defense. To get DoD’s approval we need to have a member of Congress express his/her interest and recommendations,” Heglund explained. She has contacted the offices of Congressman Sean Duffy, who represents the Rib Lake area, and her congressman Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. “Both offices have agreed to help with this request of which we are most appreciative,” she said. McGuire’s sacrifice continues to impact people to this day. “I was at my grandparents’ memorial in Rib Lake July 2015, burying my grandparents, Bernard and Jeanette Strobach. My life has been military oriented throughout all my life. To hear my mom talk about Kenny being the one person
she recalled dying in Vietnam always stuck with me. Out of the blue, I look around and see a military gravestone. Kenny’s. Time stopped for me. My foot was next to his grave. I looked at my mom. She looked at me. ‘Mom. Look. Kenny’. And I pointed down. She looked, jaw dropped, looked at me and we sat there for a few seconds,” said Ron Strobach of Honolulu Hawaii. “For her, I cannot elaborate. For me, it was a momentchanging event on how our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen are never forgotten. Never! He was a Vietnam Veteran. Me? Still serving long after his passing. Kenny? A marine who died before me was remembered during another family mourning period validates our Lost are ‘never forgotten.’ I salute him. And all those others who have gone before us. Please honor him.” McGuire’s mother died in 2002 and Heglund, along with her sisters, Marian Johnson of Rib Lake and Lorraine Rohleder of Fontana, are the remaining members of the family and continue to work so that McGuire receives the honor he rightly deserves.
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Finding The Last 64 Faces by Jessica McBride UW Milwaukee Journalism Lecturer When I first saw Andrew Johnson standing at the Wisconsin Newspaper Association convention in Pewaukee, Wis., with his sign, I was simply curious at first. “Help Find the Last 64,” it said. When I stopped and talked to Mr. Johnson, I learned these were more than just 64 names. They were 64 names of 64 young men, many of them from the Milwaukee area, who left our country to fight in a long-ago war and never returned. When Johnson explained that these men were missing photos for a major national project to honor their services, I immediately knew that UW-Milwaukee, where I teach, could help. And when I heard Johnson’s story about his son, David, I knew for sure we had to. My journalism students are trained in necessary skills for a modern media age. They know how to edit audio and create video stories. They understand journalistic use of social media, and so forth. However, they are also trained in time-held reporting principles,
such as interviewing, tracking down people, and researching records. When I heard Johnson’s story about his son, who had died in Afghanistan, and heard the passion in his voice, I realized this was an important mission. And that it would be a way to teach my students journalism that matters. Journalism shouldn’t just be a collection of facts. It must be infused with a sense of story, of humanity, and of meaning. We simply could not allow these young men to be forgotten, especially now, when there are still people alive for whom they were a living memory. At that time, I had no idea how incredibly moving this project would end up being. In 20 years and then some as a journalist and teaching journalism, I have never been involved in more moving work. As the state’s urban university, I felt our students were uniquely positioned to find the supposedly unfindable photos. Their determination and tenaciousness were incredibly impressive, and many of the students have commented that they’ve never before done such meaningful work. They are winning awards
for it too; the class project just won a regional Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Award. But had these men really vanished without a public trace, other than their names? A photo shows something more dimensional than letters on granite, although those also have their own power. In the words of Ansel Adams, “photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.” We will find them, I told Johnson. Everyone is findable. At one point, I told him the only way we wouldn’t find the photos is if they literally did not exist on this earth. For a time, we feared that was the case with at least one of them. We toyed with the idea of hiring a sketch artist to draw that final man from family memories. The team of student journalists began investigating. I gave them the semester. They were picking up the final baton in a relay that had involved so many others, people who found many, many photos over many, many years. We soon realized that others were still investigating too. Student Nicole Beilke told the story of a dedicated Baraboo veteran, Terry Kramer, who was posting so many photographs at the end that he almost seemed like the students’ shadow. He would drive many days from Baraboo to Milwaukee, where he would sit in the Milwaukee Public Library por-
continued from page 3
Steve Conto recites Psalm 23 over the grave of Greenwood native Steve Novobielski, who died in Vietnam in 1967. Novobielski’s remains were first laid to rest in Greenwood, but were later moved to Eau Claire to rest alongside his mother. The family has changed the last name to Nova since the young soldier’s death.
“I have such deep respect and admiration for what they all gave up. They gave up everything,” Conto said. “Gosh, they missed Woodstock. They never knew that Martin (Luther King) and Bobby (Kennedy) were killed. They never knew about Nixon. They never got to see their son or daughter walk down the aisle. I got to do that and they were robbed, in a sense. Some of them were just brand new newlyweds. They had kids that they never saw other than pictures. I want to make sure they’re taken care of on this last little bit of property they have.” Through his grave care project, Conto has also gotten the
ing through records. He found many photos. At the beginning of the project, in February, each student was given two names and instructed to find the photos and choose an angle for a story. Archival searches revealed the media did little to humanize most of the men when they died; the students were to write that rough draft of history more than 45 years later in some cases, tracing the relatives and friends of men who died before the advent of the Internet. The stories were extraordinary. There was the young man in Arkansas who did not have a photo of his father anymore, although he’d seen one years before on a relative’s mantle; his father, James Calvin Ward, was 17 when he died in Vietnam, and the military banned combat for juveniles as a result. The young man from Milwaukee had deep roots in the South; when the student and I, after endless calls to relatives, eventually found a photo, it turned out it was the one from the mantle all those years ago. The photo search was working in powerful ways; it was connecting people. Imagine this young man being able to lay eyes on his father’s face once again, after all of this time. One man wrote the student a letter entitled “Do Him Justice” about a Milwaukee area service member, Donald Voltner, whose photo the student was seeking. It turned out that the man had killed the
pleasure of meeting some of the families left behind and grieving all this time. Some are so appreciative of the work he does. In some cases, he has even taken the extra step of helping families obtain proper records for their KIA, or getting the military to give out long-overdue medals that were owed the soldiers at their deaths. “They gave up all this,” Conto said of the KIAs. “It’s totally wrong that their medals are missing and people are so nonchalant about it.” In one instance, Conto said he was told a KIA’s medals couldn’t be given out due to some “policy.”
soldier in friendly fire and had been blogging about it in an attempt to come to terms with it ever since. He wrote in part: Dear Maggie, I’m happy to help you record Doti’s story. Do him justice. I am a 67-year-old former CAP Marine looking at the images you sent, a face I haven’t seen since Feb of 1969, and I’m crying like a little kid. If you and I took a trip back to that village in Vietnam we would find villagers that would still remember Moose and grieve his loss. I know nothing about you so I am asking that you do not treat this lightly. This isn’t another class assignment; this is a man’s life, and death. I tracked down one 95-yearold father in Delafield, Jack Bohrman, who still had his son Michael’s red Corvette under a quilt in his garage. When he tenderly lifted the blanket off it, it glistened as if it had hardly been touched. I immediately noticed the American flag sticker on the window. Michael had put it there. In another case, a soldier’s sister, who is dying of cancer in Florida, sent a student all of the photos of her brother, Robert Wisch, asking her to preserve them. It was not lost on me that many of these young men went to war at ages no older than the students are today.
In just over three months researching, only a single name remained on the list - Willie Bedford of Milwaukee - and it would be left to journalism student Rachel Maidl to tell his story. She continued diligently working on Bedford’s picture - all five of his siblings had no picture of Bedford and his parents are deceased - after the semester was over and her grade already in. In the end, Maidl found a photo of Bedford, unearthing it from an old yearbook, where it had been miscoded, meaning that Wisconsin became the 5th state nationally to find all of its photos. The photo search ended up reconnecting Bedford’s only child with his sister. They had never met despite living for decades only a few blocks from each other.
The students’ research took them from the Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee Indian reservations to the Deep South. It took them from California to Arkansas and from Mil-
You can read the student stories at: http://media milwaukee. com/ special-projects/facesnotforgotten-finding-photoswisconsins-vietnarn-fallen
“Did he have a policy to go off to war?“ Conto said of the KIA.
painful pause. That’s what keeps him pushing ahead on his mission.
Conto also has a Web site, called Final Bridge, where he links the KIAs to their resting places, so anyone can find them and visit. There he also posts essays he writes about his experiences, like one he calls “Handshake in Heaven” about a veteran who wrote home to say he may not survive the war but will at least meet a deceased loved one if he doesn’t. In the letter Conto obtained from a family member, the veteran wrote, “It doesn’t look good, Steve. At least I’m gonna’ see John.”
“I feel the loss all over again,” he said. “Nobody else was doing it. Maybe it was what God intended me to do.”
Conto said every such story, every headstone, gives him
Remember all who served.
All gave some… Some gave all.
waukee’s inner city to its western suburbs. The final list was extraordinarily diverse, containing the names of service members who were AfricanAmerican, NativeAmerican, Latino, and Caucasian. The men on the list ranged in age from the 17-year- to several older service members who had served in several wars dating back to WWII. They included a German and an Italian immigrant. “The camera is much more than a recording apparatus,” said the filmmaker Orson Welles. “It is a medium via which messages reach us from another world.”
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Conto said his wife isn’t so sure. “At times, she thinks I’m a little crazy when I get so locked and loaded about it,” Conto said. For his “big brothers” though, he must carry on, for them. “I don’t want to draw any attention to me from it,” Conto said. “It’s not my recognition, it’s theirs. Get it off me. Go to the graves and visit them. I’m like John the Baptist. I’m just the messenger.”
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Accur a cy O f N a m e s A nd P ho t o s I n for mation ab out t he s er vi ce m em ber s w a s p rov i d e d t o t h e V V M F by t h e D e p ar t me n t of D e f e n s e. T he p hotos for the p roj ect were p rov i d ed to the VVMF Fa c es project in good f a i t h by va r i o us vo l unt eer s ou rc e s i n cl u d i n g f ami ly me mb e r s, s e r v i c e me mb e r s, veter ans, teacher s, WNA memb er new sp ap er s and the pu blic.
Subm ittin g Addit i o na l P ho t o s I n an ef for t to f u r t her pres er ve t he l e g a cy o f t h os e wh o s ac r i f i c e d al l i n Vi e t n am, V V M F i s c ommi t t e d to f i nd i ng a p hoto to go w i th each of the more than 58, 000 names on T he Wa l l . T he Wa l l o f Fa ces a l l ow s f ami ly an d f r i e n d s t o s h are me mor i e s, p os t p i c t u re s and connect w i th each other. C ol l ected p i ctures w i l l be u sed in the E ducat i o n Cent er at T he Wa l l a nd c an al s o b e fou n d on T h e Wal l of Fac e s. I f you have a pict ure o f a l oved o ne o r fel l ow ve t e r an wh os e n ame i s on T h e Wal l , p l e as e h e l p t h e M e mor i al Fund honor these i nd iv i d ual s by p utti ng a f ace with a name. Re g ardl es s o f whet her o r no t t he M e mor i al F u n d h as a p h ot o of t h e i n d iv i d u al al re ady, we encour a g e you to sub mi t i t any w ay. We are tr y i ng to c o lle c t as many p hoto s o f ea ch i ndivi dua l a s po s s i bl e. You can submit a ddi t i o na l pho t o s by g o i ng t o w w w. v v mf. or g / w al l - of - f ac e s an d s e arch for t h e i r n ame i n ei ther the “S earch T he Wa l l ” b ar or by usi ng the “A dva nced Search.” Once o n t hei r pa g e, s i m ply cl i ck “ S u b mi t P h ot os ” . E ach s e r v i c e me mb e r l i s t e d on T he Wal l can have mul ti p l e photos associ ated w i th the ir name. T here is no pho t o l i m i t . To submit by mai l , m a ke a co py o f yo ur pho to. V V M F d oe s n ot w an t or i g i n al p h ot os an d c an n ot b e re sp onsi bl e for retur ni ng p hotos to d onor s. When hav ing th e photo copied , a s k t he pho t o pro fes s i o na l t o make i t t h e h i g h e s t q u al i t y p os s i bl e, u s e a g l os s y f ini sh and re p rod uce the p hoto at an 8x 10 si z e, i f p ossible. Fill out the p ho t o s ubm i s s i o n fo r m a nd pa ck a g e i t u p for mai l i n g w i t h t h e c opy of t h e p h ot o. W h e n mai l i ng, p l ease i nd i ca te on the f ront of the envel op e that a p hoto is enclos ed. M a i l t o :
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