D-Day | Wisconsin soldiers fought through blood, chaos

Kenneth Schumacher of Madison landed at Normandy 70 years ago.

Pfc. Schumacher, right, with his anti-aircraft gun crew in Europe.

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

Seventy years ago, 21-year-old Kenneth Schumacher of Madison was floating in a landing ship off Omaha Beach.

As far as he could see to either side, boats were idling or maneuvering as German shells exploded in the water and on the beach, taking a terrible, bloody toll.

Trucks for gun crews like Schumacher’s were being blown up as they drove off the ships, through shallow water toward the beach.

“A direct hit and you’d see the doors fly open and you knew everyone was killed,” Schumacher said Thursday as sunlight bathed his face in a quiet library space in his nursing home on Madison’s East Side.

Read the full story here.

Oahu trip planned for Wisconsin's survivors of Pearl Harbor

An Appleton-based volunteer group that has been flying area World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see war memorials is launching a statewide effort to take Wisconsin survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack to Hawaii on June 14-18.
Old Glory Honor Flights is looking for veterans who were stationed on Oahu or within 3 nautical miles at the time of the attack. Call 1-888-635-9838 and leave a message by Feb. 6 for more information. Many Wisconsin survivors of the attack still have vivid memories, which propelled the U.S. into WWII. Dec. 7 was the 70th anniversary.

Flying Tigers ace from Wisconsin featured in new exhibit

Flying Tigers ace Fritz Wolf of Shawano, Wisconsin, is the focus of an exhibit opening  Jan. 31 at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison. 

Wolf was a naval aviator who flew in Burma and China in 1941-42, and from  the decks of the USS Hornet and USS Yorktown in 1944-45. According to a museum description of the exhibit:

During World War II, Wolf shot down five enemy aircraft, including two Japanese bombers on December 20, 1941. This new exhibit features numerous artifacts, including a scarf given to him and his fellow “Flying Tigers” by Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, photographs and mementos from his service, and a short film detailing Wolf’s homecoming parade in July 1942.

The museum is  located at 30 W. Mifflin St., across the street from the State Capitol. 

"Farm girl loses her Navy boy"

I spoke with Clem Felsheim a few days before he and his brother boarded a Badger Honor Flight to Washington DC. last month.
(There he is at left in a photo by the State Journal's John Hart.)
Most of you know about honor flights, the network of volunteers who are rushing to give World War II veterans a chance to see their memorial in Washington before old age does to them what war failed to do.
Mr. Felsheim was happy he was going. I'm afraid I didn't have a chance to talk to him after he returned, but I've talked to a lot of other veterans who took the flights, and even was able to join a group of them on one of the exhilarating, exhausting trips a few years ago. I suspect he had the time of his life.
And, with his trip to Washington, he beat the clock, but only by a few weeks.
The retired Navy man, who came home to work in the local Oscar Mayer plant, died peacefully on Dec. 8, according to his obituary.
The opening line of the obituary -- "Farm girl loses her Navy boy" -- speaks in a very touching way about his life, and how his family still saw him as a sailor nearly 70 years after he joined the Navy.
His service was like military service is for most men and women. It involves sacrifice, maybe even danger, but not necessarily a lot of heroics of the type that you see in the movies.
He enlisted as soon as he graduated from high school, but it was so late in the war that he always seemed to be the least senior seaman on his ship. So when they hit port, he was usually the one who stood watch while his buddies went to town.
One of the few times they gave him some shore leave was in Japan, after the fighting was over. The Wisconsin lad went straight to a bar and ordered a glass of milk.
He was from Arcadia in western Wisconsin. One of five brothers who served during two wars. All five came back home, safe and sound, to be the kind of ordinary heroes who work hard and raise families.
Three of them have died of natural causes over the years.
Clem Felsheim and his brother George were the last two living when I talked with them last month. Now there is one.

Clem's daughter sent me these photos taken in Washington. Clem is in the Navy cap and George is in the Merchant Marine cap.

Wisconsin WWII veterans fly high

Ninety seven Wisconsin veterans of World War II took an emotional, whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C. war memorials Saturday.

If you missed the Wisconsin State Journal coverage, you can find it here.
Our online package includes a very nice photo gallery (31 photos), and if you want to see even more stellar images, take a look at State Journal photographer Steve Apps' personal blog.

Steve and I heard dozens and dozens of stirring, funny and heartbreaking stories while researching the story spending the day with the veterans. We put as many as we could in the paper, and there will be opportunities in future editions to share more.

Folks in Beaver Dam asked that we use this blog to mention the names of the veterans from that area who were on the flight. Click here for the information in the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen.

If your are a veteran, on active duty, or a member of a Wisconsin military family, this blog is for you. Send your stories and photos to me at sverburg@madison.com.

For more information on Badger Honor Flight, click here.



-- Steve Verburg