Salute - Veterans Day 2017

November | 2017

S LUTE VETERANS DAY 2017

• FAMILY SEARCHES FOR MIA VET OVER SIX DECADES • GEOFFERY STEINER RECALLS VIETNAM

A Memorial To Honor All A publication of the Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal

PLUS!

Veteran Stats

Mysterious Graves Local Service Heroes

RAY LINDBERG | PAPA RAY “I can’t wait to have warm feet!”

That’s a pretty simple request from a pretty amazing man. Ray Lindberg, or “Papa Ray” as he’s known by his 12 grandchildren, is so eager to move out of his cold, drafty trailer home and into a new Habitat for Humanity home with a heated floor. It’s really surprising just how simple things are the big things to look forward to.

Ray’s project is a special one this year – it’s our Veteran Build home.

Yes, a project designed to serve the housing needs of one who first served our country. Instead of waiting to be drafted, Ray enlisted in the Army in 1970. When he shipped out, his sister

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“cried and cried” and Ray figured he’d never be coming back alive.

As things turned out, Ray spent his time in Alaska processing soldiers returning from Vietnam. After an honorable discharge, Ray made his way back to Minnesota. Spending time in Kentucky for boot camp made him realize how much he missed Minnesota’s lakes and fishing…and how much he disliked snakes!

Ray’s family is eager to work with other Veterans to help build his new home. And Ray is eager to have warm feet!

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Building houses, building hope in Cass, Crow Wing & Hubbard Counties and the city of Staples

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CONTENTS ‘17

Staff

Features

PUBLISHER Pete Mohs

A Marine’s Memories

6 14 Mysterious Vet Graves

Geoffery Steiner commemorates the dead and missing from the Vietnam war.

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Susie Alters ART DIRECTOR Lisa Henry

Extensive search reveals proper names for three graves in Pine River.

COPY EDITOR DeLynn Howard

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Alvin Potz— MIA for Six Decades

MARKETING COORDINATOR Leo Miller

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To Honor All

ADVERTISING Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Publishing Media Consultants

Potz’s family still hope for answers.

Veterans plan to update the current memorial on Laurel Street in Brainerd.

Flag Day at the All Veterans Memorial on Laurel Street in Brainerd.

Photo by Steve Kohls

Also in this issue

Veterans Day................................. 4

ADVERTISING DESIGNERS Andy Goble, Angela Hoefs, and Sue Stark CUSTOMER SERVICE Kori Flowers

Local Stats at a Glance ........ 4

S LUTE CONTACT US: Advertising@BrainerdDispatch.com (218) 855-5895 ATTN: Salute Brainerd Dispatch, P.O. Box 974, Brainerd, MN 56401

PHOTO BY KELLY HUMPHREY: Alferd Simons salutes as taps is played during a dedication program held in September for the recently installed veterans memorial at Pillager city park at the corner of highways 1 and 210.

To our readers, It is publications like this that really highlight our lakes area community support and citizenship. Thank you to all who submitted photos of your dearly loved veterans.

We are proud to tell you this publication has grown immensely from year to year because of the amazing support from our community as well as businesses in the Brainerd lakes area.

We are very honored to be able to put together such a special publication.

A special thank you to our businesses who make this project possible and with their support allow for FREE photo submissions to the community.

Warmest Thanks!

From all of us at Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal

Veterans Day Salute is an annual publication of the Brainerd Dispatch and Echo Journal.

Copyright© 2013 VOLUME 5, FALL 2017

VETERANS DAY

Branches of U.S. Military

Veterans Day vs. Memorial Day Veterans Day- Tribute to all veterans, living or deceased.

Memorial Day- Tribute to those who lost their lives in combat.

Army

Significance of November 11: The armistice agreement between Germany and Allied troops was signed in 1918 on the 11th day of the 11th month in the 11th hour. The agreement ended World War I after four years of continuous warfare.

SOURCE: https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-veterans

LOCAL STATS AT A GLANCE

Navy

Crow Wing County (CWC)

67

%

6%

Air Force

CWC vets participate in the labor force

Income below poverty level (of CWC 5,660 total surveyed)

94%

95% Male

Total Gulf War Vietnam Era

(of CWC 5,660 total surveyed)

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

2,319 750

World War II

376

Female 305 Male 5,430 Estimates by the United States Census Bureau

1,811

5%

Female

Marine Corps

986

Korean conflict

Income at or above poverty level

Coast Guard

5,735

21.7 million United States veterans

CWC vets have a disability

According to the Veteran Data Pocket Card, the projected U.S. veteran population is 21,681,000; 2,035,000 females and 19,646,000 males.

Richard Cameron Army Air Corps WWII Deceased 3/12/2003

Richard A. Potts Army 1981-1984

Rachel Potts Army 2001-2008

Clyde Potts Air Force 1957-1961

Zachary Ostenso Army 2009-2013

LaVern “Skip” Lowe Army Vietnam

Daniel Lowe Army 1970-2005

Bryan L. Martinsen Army Reserves 2008-2015

Timothy Johnson Air Force 1982-1986 Deceased 6/16/2012

Cailee R. Jensen Air Force

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE & SACRIFICE

For all that you are and all that you’ve given to our country, we salute you, veterans.

Thank you for protecting our freedom at home and overseas. Your service and your sacrifice will always be remembered.

With gratitude, we honor America’s veterans and military personnel.

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Commercial and Residential Construction Architects and General Contractors

S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

5

A MARINE’S MEMORIES

G

By ZACH KAYSER

eoffery Steiner’s farmstead has several “An Appeal to Heaven” flags of various sizes.

The Revolutionary War era design of a pine tree on a white background is connected to several aspects of Steiner’s life: military service, trees, and devotion to God.

Steiner is famed for planting tens of thousands of trees on his land to mark each soldier who died in Vietnam, where he survived his time as an in-country Marine.

A lot of what he learned about the war as a whole, he gleaned out of books he stole. Until he began researching and traveling back to Vietnam, he knew little outside of the battlefield of Quang Tri Province on the DMZ, or the border between North and South Vietnam.

He was born to a poor family in northeast Minneapolis. After he couldn’t get a job, he applied to the U.S. Marines.

“I wanted to get in and get out,” he said.

Now he can never get out of what he experienced as a Marine. He has

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

post-traumatic stress disorder, and once contemplated suicide.

He was sworn into the Marines as part of the famous ‘Twins Platoon,” who were inducted in a ceremony performed at a Minnesota Twins game in 1967. As a teenager, Steiner raised his right hand along with more than a hundred other recruits and swore to defend the U.S. in front of the crowd.

He’s never been back to a Twins game since, except in the early 2000s when the Twins had the Vietnam veterans come back.

From boot camp to the DMZ

Drill instructors made basic training hell for Steiner and the other recruits.

“I remember, 3 a.m., if you just turned your eye, you’d get punched in the stomach,” he said.

Geoffery Steiner and his dog rest at the entrance to the Veterans National Living Memorial Forest on his property near Cushing. Steiner, a Vietnam veteran, has been active in planting the forest to commemorate the dead and missing from the war.

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Steiner advocates for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

- Dave Meyer

However, Steiner excelled in the obstacle course portion of his training due to his earlier stint at Outward Bound schools in Minnesota, which he credits with helping get him through Vietnam.

When he arrived in-country, an officer rattled off assignments of which units the new blood would go to. When the commander assigned Steiner to the 3rd Marine Division, nearby soldiers sighed in shock and pity, Steiner remembered — he had been assigned to a particularly rough area of combat.

Later on, the welcoming committee handed him an M16 assault rifle, which he had never seen before (he had trained on the less-advanced M14 rifle). After he fired off a few practice rounds, he moved into the combat zone near Camp Carroll, 8 kilometers or 4.97 miles, southwest of Cam Lo

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

and in the middle of the crucial Route 9 highway.

The tunnel rats and booby traps that characterized the guerilla war with Viet Cong insurgent fighters in South Vietnam were largely absent from Steiner’s time up north. The teenager from Minneapolis was facing off against North Vietnamese Army regulars.

He arrived in late 1967, just in time for the communist Tet Offensive the next year. He ate World War II C-rations and went out on ambush patrols. The mosquitos were incessant, but Steiner didn’t use the repellent the Marines were issued because it smelled harsh, like turpentine. The smell would give Steiner’s position away if the NVA snuck up on him, he feared.

“I got to the point where I didn’t care anymore — I didn’t care if I died,”

“I got to the point where I didn’t care anymore — I didn’t care if I died.”

- Geoffery Steiner Steiner said. “That’s why I volunteered to go up on the frontlines.”

He was trained as an 0351 bazooka operator, or a crude anti-tank rocket from World War II. But he was given a drastically updated M72 LAW, or Light Anti-tank Weapon, which he had to figure out how to use on the job. He also carried a flamethrower for a while.

‘Get on the tank’

His first pitched battle occurred about a week before the start of the Tet Offensive on Jan. 31.

It involved American tanks and M42 “Duster” self-propelled anti-aircraft guns doing battle against NVA infantry wielding rocket-propelled grenades, Steiner remembered.

The column Steiner was traveling with was ambushed, and Steiner’s lieutenant ordered him to dismount the tank he had been riding on, and help screen the column from being flanked by the NVA. Steiner remembers the cycle of an hourslong firefight with the NVA..

Two of Steiner’s comrades were accidentally run over by a friendly tank during the battle,

he said. At the end, only one tank was still running and night was beginning to fall over the battlefield. It was clear Steiner and his buddies would need to either retreat or be overrun.

“One guy said, ‘No, we can’t leave,’” Steiner recalled.

So Steiner took drastic measures.

“I took my M16, I (pointed it at him) and I said, ‘Get on the tank,’” he remembered.

But an artillery round landed near the tank and blew Steiner off of it, knocking him unconscious. He came to in time to get back on the tank and head back up the hill to safety. At 1 a.m. that night he almost returned to the battlefield, thinking he had abandoned his fellow Marines.

Steiner said he was assigned to a rough part of the area of combat when he first arrived as an in-country Marine.

“So Long As There Are Veterans, The Benovolent And Protective Order Of Elks Will Never Forget Them”

Every other month a visit to St. Cloud Veteran’s Hospital to play BINGO

Disabled Veterans Turkey Hunt and the Disabled Veterans Deer Hunt at Camp Ripley Donate to Wreaths for the Fallen

Offer a free week of camp to 9-13 year old children of deployed soldiers at the MN Elks Youth Camp during Troops Week Free dinners every Tuesday night for Central Lakes College enrolled Veterans, Active Military, Reserves, Veterans and their families September thru May

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Community Interests:

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THANK YOU! For serving our country & protecting our freedoms.

Front L-R: Ken Romig, Greg Maciej, Rodger Pratt, Mary Roubal, Steve Ringstrom, Greg Hill.

Back L-R: Damian Broderson, BJ Schaumburg, Chad Shogren, Justin Vredenburg, Andy Rowland, Dave Himle, Justin Jansen, George Dziedzic, Tony Collins, Tony Lewis & Nick Welle.

Not pictured: Bill Agens & Gaylin Smith.

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

Almost fragged that lieutenant

Steiner did recall running into a situation which would later become a staple of Vietnam War movies: his fellow soldiers contemplated murdering their commanding officer, or “fragging” him.

He came upon a group of his comrades working on a huge artillery shell, which they had partially buried in the ground, pointing at the officer’s tent, he said. It was a 175 mm cannon shell.

“I’m like… ‘What? You’re going to kill all of us,’” he remembered.

The lieutenant was trying to find out who had stolen C-rations from a nearby tank crew (it was Steiner). But nobody would talk, so to break the men, the lieutenant took away their rations for three days.

Steiner himself didn’t like this guy very much, Steiner said. Steiner also would salute him when he wasn’t looking, which made the lieutenant a prime target for enemy snipers.

However, he was still shocked the other soldiers would do something that drastic to kill him. He doesn’t remember what stopped the soldiers from setting off the artillery shell.

But the lieutenant’s superiors got wind of the rations incident, and the officer himself was disciplined, Steiner said.

Steiner was discharged early after being wounded three times, as per military policy.

He’s spent a large portion of his life since advocating for post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers, and planting trees, despite a debilitating bout with Lyme disease.

Justin Smude Army 1991-2014

Gerald Hoefs Army WWII Deceased 11/12/2011

Duane Hoefs Army 1970-1972

Jeffrey A. Groves Marines & National Guards

Richard Rezanka Army WWI Deceased 8/2/1990

Richard B. Rezanka Air Force WWII Deceased 3/23/1992

Elroy Raddatz Army 1956-1962 Deceased 8/26/2017

David L. Barker Navy

Duane Smart Navy 1968-1971

Gilbert Bittner Marines Korea Deceased 12/28/2014

With Respect, Honor and Gratitude

THANK YOU 001639415r1

Freedom is not free.

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Dale Monson Navy WWII, 1944-1945

James Sipper Marines Iraq, 2011-2014

Gerald L. Bisted Army Reserves 1963-1969

Richard Paul Klein Navy 1948-1952

Peter A. Smude Army Deceased 3/20/2017

Gerald J. Bell Army WWII, 1941 Deceased 12/26/1941

Lloyd L. Knapp Army Vietnam, 1963-1966 Deceased 6/11/2013

Roy Edward Boyes Army Deceased 2/14/1980

Walter Erikson Army 1974-1979 Deceased 8/01/2009

Robert Harry Erikson Army 1930-1950 Deceased 4/4/1996

James Gardner Navy and Army 1941-1981 Deceased 11/23/1987

William Weik Army Vietnam, 1969-1970

William Skeesick Army WWII Deceased 11/29/2002

Bruce G. Lapka Navy Vietnam

Roy Cheney Army 1955-1958

Residential & Commercial New Construction & Remodels

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

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William Wiener Army 1956 Deceased 7/1/2007

Art Van Horn Navy Deceased 8/10/1970

Dale Van Horn Sr. Navy

Dale Van Horn Jr. Navy and Army

Earl Van Horn Army

Roger Roy Marines 1959-1964

Charles Geotz Navy Vietnam Deceased 8/22/1992

Eugene Torvinen Navy Deceased 7/20/1993

Edward Torvinen Navy Deceased 10/8/1992

Steve Suer Army Vietnam, 1970-1972

Jeff Volkl Marines 1989-1993

Lloyd Handeland Army WWII

Paul H. Nieman Sr. Army WWI Deceased 10/28/1984

Howie Aspholm Army Vietnam, 1964-1966

Art Nystrom Air Force 1944-1945

Thank You Veterans, We Salute You!

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

13

Mysterious Vet Graves

W

By TRAVIS GRIMLER

hat began with funding to clean and maintain veterans’ graves at Pine Ridge Cemetery in Pine

River turned into a search to get three veterans buried there properly remembered. stones for these graves and the condition of Jacque Ide, head ofsearch the Pine Ridge CemeExtensive turns up veterans’ missing formation tery Board, was marking veterans’ graves in the two metal markers suggested these milthe cemetery for maintenance when she lo- itary veterans had not been visited for many cated three graves in the veterans memorial years and had possibly been forgotten. section without headstones.

“It is just a good place to be,” Ide said. “If “I put 50 hours in walking the cemeteries you don’t have a good place to go, you won’t and identifying the veterans,” Ide said. strike up a conversation. If you have a good While most graves were marked with place to go, then the memories flow and headstones bearing full names, initials, mil- you talk about them.” itary branch and rankings, three had little With enough information, these veterans or no identification. One grave was marked could have stones, at least. with a temporary metal marker reading: “The (Veterans Services) will give them a “Arnol D Olle” with the years 1879-1963. A marker and place it, but we don’t just want similar marker on the other side of the me- a marker with a name on it,” Ide said. “We morial section read: “Kenneth Degroot” but want which branch of the service they are had no dates. Somewhere in between these associated with. If they were in a war two was a burial plot with no marker at all, which one and years.” only a shallow depression in the ground.

To find information, Ide reached out to “They weren’t buried with vaults,” Ide Cass County Veterans Services, knowlsaid. “They were pine boxes so everything edgeable locals, families with the same last disintegrates and goes back to the earth. names, the city of Pine River and the Echo When everything collapses, the earth has Journal. Only three weeks later, all but one to too.” veteran was identified.

To Ide, a proper headstone is an import“Olle” should have been easiest to locate. ant part of remembering and passing on the “Olle” died at the age of 84, according to knowledge of people like this, so the lack of his grave marker. He did not die in battle.

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

PHOTO BY TRAVIS GRIMLER Pine Ridge Cemetery Board President Jacque Ide adjusts a metal marker belonging to Arnold D. Oller, one of three mystery graves in the cemetery’s veterans section.

NMLS#410361

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We join all of America in celebrating the endearing principles on which our nation was founded. We proudly salute the men and women of our Armed Forces, along with their families, who defend those principles with courage and honor.

S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

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Arnold Oller Ernest Hopper’s unmarked grave

AERIAL PHOTO BY ANDREW JOHNSON: The veteran section of Pine Ridge Cemetery in Pine River, including Arnold Oller’s grave in the top left corner, Ernest Hopper’s unmarked grave in the ninth column, second row, and Kenneth Degroot’s grave on the right end of the third row.

Therefore, he likely died in or near the county of his interment. The year he died the Pine River Journal did not have an obituary for him. Jeff Woodford, of Cass County Veterans Services, recommended searching for a county death certificate.

Cass County Deputy Auditor/Treasurer Corinna Wynn searched death certificates held by the county. She found no records for “Arnol D Olle.”

She searched for similar names and found an Arnold Oller. Oller’s death year, 1963, matched with that of the grave marker.

Cross referencing another document, Wynn found record that Oller was born in August 1879 and died Nov. 2, 1963. He was discharged from the U.S. Army and interred in Pine River. Analysis of the grave 16

S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

marker revealed that the marker had letters that were capable of sliding side to side. The “D,” assumed to be an initial, was simply misplaced and instead completed the first name Arnold. Hidden in some corrosion next to the last name, “Olle,” was the letter “R,” leaving no doubt that Arnold Oller was the correct veteran.

Kenneth Degroot had the next most detailed marker in the same style as Oller’s. Calls to Degroots in the lakes area went unreturned, so no relationship could be confirmed or eliminated.

Closer examination revealed the track where the birth and death year would have been mounted was missing from the plaque, possibly knocked off by weather or maintenance and subsequently lost.

Kenneth Degroot

A search of one of the maintenance buildings in the cemetery uncovered other temporary metal markers and name plates similar to the missing date plate, but no plates with dates for Degroot were present.

Cass County death certificates show no record of Kenneth Degroot, meaning his death likely occurred outside the county. He may have been buried in the Pine Ridge Cemetery due to a family connection or because of Pine Ridge’s dedicated veterans section.

However, more information was found because of an unmarked auxiliary member grave next to Degroot, assumed to be a family member. A search of auxiliary members found that a Josie Degroot paid dues to the local Legion auxiliary until 1995,

Howard Doucette

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while living in Jacksonville Beach, Fla. It stood to reason that if Degroot’s wife was an auxiliary member, he might have been a member of the local Legion. A search of national American Legion records revealed Kenneth Degroot is on record for paying dues to the local Legion until 1999 from Florala, Ala. Pine River American Legion Post Commander Jim Perry did a search of local records and found Degroot recorded as deceased in 2000. A 2000 phone book records a Kenneth D. Degroot in Florala.

Using this information, amateur genealogist Sue Erickson found more information.

Erickson located a birth date of Aug. 7, 1924, for Degroot in Grand Rapids, as well as divorce papers for Kenneth and Josie from 1978. She also located record of four daughters by the pair.

More research revealed an obituary for one daughter, Penelope Crookshank. The obituary lists her surviving sisters, including “Katherine Frasier of Pine River, Minn.”

Because Josie and Kenneth were members of local organizations, it seemed likely that Frasier was a member. Perry confirmed that Frasier is a current member. During a Legion function, Perry spoke to Frasier and confirmed that she is a daughter of Kenneth Degroot. She also said she has Degroot’s discharge papers, meaning she has a record of his military service records that likely will provide enough information to request a stone for Degroot’s grave.

Frasier may also be able to provide enough information to mark the auxiliary grave next to Degroot.

The third unmarked grave posed what initially appeared to be an impossible challenge. Ide went to the city for a map of the burial plots early on.

Though the map had very few names to

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

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Happy Veterans Day!

start, and at least one grave was misidentified, the name “Hopper” was marked in the unmarked grave location.

Searches of the Minnesota State Historical Society death certificate database and the familysearch.org website revealed that an Ernest Hopper was born in 1892 and died in Pequot Lakes on Jan. 22, 1948. Because Hopper died in Pequot Lakes, his death certificate should have been recorded with Crow Wing County.

Records at the Crow Wing County office pertaining to Hopper’s death were unavailable to anyone without a “tangible interest,” that is to say a family member or lawyer. Another search of the Minnesota Historical Society revealed a military burial record.

The Veterans’ Grave Registration Report confirmed the unmarked grave was Ernest Layfette Hopper, who was born May 19, 1891, in Berlin, Wis. A search of Ancestry.com at the Pine River Library uncovered draft cards, death records and other documents about Hopper. The burial record also included the name of his next of kin and military serial number, which ultimately could provide Hopper’s entire military history.

Hopper and Oller may receive their long overdue grave markers. With the help of Degroot’s daughter, the end of the search for these missing veterans is in view.

The Veterans Services Office in Cass County has submitted requests to the National Archives for Hopper, Degroot and Oller in hopes of finding enough information to guarantee installation of proper markers at these grave sites. A records request could take more than a month to fulfill. Once enough information is available, an application may be submitted for headstones.

Rev. Paul Fruth Army 1960-1966

Eugene R. Worms Navy 1965-1969

Dennis G. Havel Army Vietnam, 1967-1968

Jackson Knapp Marines 2016

Jeff Knapp Marines 2008-2012

Richard D. Tappe Air Force Korea, 1948-1953 Deceased 7/7/2008

Paul Davis Army 1997-2002

Ron Volgerson Marines 1968-1969

Charles “Chuck” Watson Navy WWII

Wilbert R. Gildart Army 1972-1973

Celebrating

“Serving our Members since 1940”

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Those Who Served

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Alvin Potz—

MIA for Six Decades

D

By TRAVIS GRIMLER

ale Potz visited the Dispatch

offices

in September to

recall a farm boy from Crow Wing who disappeared six decades ago. The boy’s name was Alvin, Dale’s brother, who went missing in action while a 24-year-old U.S. Army infantryman in the Korean War. Dale and Alvin formed part of a dairy farm family that tried to scratch a living out of 60 acres about mile south of the Fifty Lakes crossroads.

Alvin was two years older than Dale, so the brothers had a tight bond. The German family spoke so much of the language that one of Alvin’s teachers asked them to speak more English at home, so he would pick it up more easily in school.

To feed them and their three other siblings, Alvin and Dale’s parents would butcher the dairy cows for meat and give the kids vegetables from the garden.

“It was tough living, but we ate good,” Dale said. “We had our own food in the winter.”

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Alvin E. Potz, Dale’s brother, went missing April 23, 1951­during the Korean War. Alvin was officially presumed dead two years later.

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After he graduated from the high school in Pine River, Dale enlisted in the U.S. Navy for a three-year stint.

Following the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, his term of service was extended to four years. His brother Alvin had previously been up for the draft immediately after World War II, but a problem with his chest made him medically unfit for service. The Army’s health standards apparently slackened by the time of the Korean War, though, and Alvin’s draft number came up again. Alvin was shipped to Korea immediately after basic training, Dale remembered.

Dale Potz was a machinist’s mate on two destroyers: U.S.S. John R. Craig 885 and U.S.S. Carpenter 825.

Alvin’s troopship was supposed to dock at Sasebo, Japan, where Dale was stationed.

“Never happened,” he said. “I never really seen him while we was in the service.”

Alvin’s unit was swept up in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s attack through North Korea in support of the

001639296r1

Alvin Potz with a monster pike.

The Potz brothers liked to fish together, according to their sister, Inez.

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“I guess I shouldn’t give up, but it’s a long time without hearing anything.”

- Dale Potz

Alvin was two years older than Dale, and the two brothers were close. Here Alvin poses with a calf, presumably one of the cows from the Potz family’s dairy farm.

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

North Korean army. He went missing and his parents took it hard, Dale remembered. His sister Inez recalled in 2013 that the family didn’t have a memorial service for him. There was no body to bury.

A list provided to Dale by Kim Jensen of the Crow Wing County Veterans Service Office lists Pfc. Alvin Elmer Potz as being in L Company, Third Battalion, 19th Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He went missing April 23, 1951 — only two days before his division withdrew from a major Chinese counteroffensive. Alvin was officially presumed dead two years later.

According to the American Battle Monuments Commission, Alvin’s name is inscribed with more than 28,000 others listed as MIA from the Pacific Theater of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War at the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu.

Nearly 8,000 soldiers from the Korean War remain MIA. Alvin Potz is also the namesake for the Crosslake-Fifty Lakes American Legion Potz-Heartland Post 500.

Pfc. Eugene L. “Gene” Erickson of Brainerd was also fighting in Korea, and went missing just a month after Alvin Potz did — but his family had the closure of knowing he died as a prisoner of war, based on reports from a fellow prisoner. His remains were identified through DNA and forensics 60 years later in 2015, the

DNA tests are being done to match missing soldiers with found remains from the Korean War.

Dear Veterans, We salute you and honor all who have served our country.

We pause to remember and give thanks.

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Thank you.

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128th soldier identified by scientists at the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency from a set of more than 400 commingled remains submitted by North Korea. The shipment in the 1990s held 208 containers of remains, so the military calls it “K208.” The agency’s lab is on Oahu, the same island in Hawaii as the Courts of the Missing.

It’s unclear whether Alvin Potz might be one of the 400 soldiers in K208, or one of the 112 containers of other remains recovered by the U.S. from mass graves in North Korea.

Although he knows the remains of MIA soldiers from Korea are being identified even today through DNA matching, Dale Potz is still skeptical Alvin will turn up.

“I guess I shouldn’t give up, but it’s a long time without hearing anything,” he said.

Now, Dale wonders how his life would have been different had Alvin survived.

“But he never was there,” he said.

Dale is sure Alvin would have bought the family farm, since he was the oldest brother. He broke down trying to think more of what would have have been if Alvin hadn’t gone away 60 years ago.

He remembered Alvin as a hard worker who everyone liked. Dale stared off for a long time, and then he was asked what he was thinking about.

“I was wishing he was still alive too, so he could enjoy life too, together,” he said.

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Loren Edward Smart Marines Vietnam, 1969 Deceased 7/15/2012

Ken Solom Navy 1960-1966

Jeff McCarthy Army 1974-1977

Gary F. Olson Army 1954-1955 Deceased 12/30/2016

Mick Justin Army Vietnam

Alfred E. Kuhn Army Vietnam Deceased 6/7/2017

Steven Bikkie Navy Deceased 3/26/2015

Donald Bikkie Air Force

Richard L. Pickar Army Korea, 1951-1952

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Thank you for serving our nation. We are honored to serve you in return.

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

Gabriel Jon Lee Powers Navy

Robert Perry Cook Army Air Corps WWII Deceased 10/3/1987

Steven Kuhn Army Deceased 4/24/1999

Syverin Flategraff Army WWI, 1916-1919

Elmer A. Flategraff Army WWII, 1941-1945

Duane Flategraff Navy 1976-1983

John Franzen Marines

Robert M. Hanson Army Deceased 8/23/2013

Norman A. Moser Army Korea, 1951-1953 Deceased 9/16/2007

Derald Watson Navy 1952-1956

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Danny Price Marines 1973-1977

Jason Price Marines & Army Guards 1997-2003; 2003-2005

Duane A. Roberts Marines WWII Deceased 2/18/2015

Donald G. Eschenbacher Army Deceased 2/19/2016

Jack E. Meyer Air Force Deceased July 2013

Don Rasmussen Army 1966-1969

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Donald Rosecrans Navy 1942-1945 Deceased 2006

Mitchell Johnson Air Force Iraq & Afghanistan

Meryl Alters Army Korea, 1950-1953 Deceased 6/15/1997

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Kenneth C. Micko Army Air Corps 1943-1945

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Daniel Barto Air Force 1952-1956

Rod Wilcox Air Force 1964

Russell Schlemmer Army Air Corps 1942-1945 Deceased 2005

Robert McNerney Navy 1962-1966

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TO HONOR ALL Veterans plan update to Brainerd memorial

It’s

By CHELSEY PERKINS

been nearly 30 years since the All Veterans Memorial on Laurel Street in Brainerd was erected. The smooth, black granite slabs honor Ameri-

cans who served and perished in wars up through Vietnam. Thanks to a group of determined cross-generational veterans, however, the memorial will soon pay respects to the sacrifices of more recent conflicts.

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

PHOTO: Michael Williams, (left), Dave Meyer, (center), and Dick Ashmun are interviewed in front of the All Veterans Memorial next to the Crow Wing County Historical Courthouse. The three are veterans of the U.S. Navy, Army and Army, respectively.

“The main thing is to get our new veterans involved.” - Dave Meyer Dave Meyer is an Army veteran who serves on the ad hoc committee planning the update. “This only goes up to the Vietnam War. There’s a lot of conflicts since then.”

Meyer said when the memorial was first built, representatives of the various service groups maintained a fund with intentions of eventually engraving the other sides of the slabs and building a park. At some point, those plans fell by the wayside and Crow Wing County began maintaining the memorial, which sits on the east lawn of the historic courthouse.

While the future plans dissolved, the funds didn’t — Meyer said when they began exploring up-

dates to the memorial, it was learned the leftover dollars were intact. That was a catalyst for a committee to form and find a way to make the monument meaningful to more community members.

Included in the plans are adding granite slabs honoring the Cold War, Persian Gulf War and the war on terrorism. The other side of the addition would recognize the ideals of freedom, peace, sacrifice and patriotism.

The second monument would mirror the one standing, creating a circular place visitors can walk into and sit on benches.

“Hopefully it will be a place of reflection for other veterans and family members who will come

To our veterans...

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“It’s important that we as a community honor these people, because of the sacrifices they made.” - Nancy Cross and see what it’s all about,” said Michael Williams, a Navy veteran on the committee.

Although an expected completion date is not yet set, the group is seeking bids from contractors to execute the plans meticulously crafted to determine the most representative remembrances and ideals.

“The back of the stones are more principle, and the front part of the stones will be idealistic -- the ideal of patriotism, the ideal of peace,” said Dick Ashmun, an Army veteran who was involved in settling on the terminology.

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

The committee sought to partner with Brainerd Community Action, a nonprofit supporting various community efforts, to administer the funds and assist with planning. Nancy Cross, who recently retired from the helm of the organization, is seeing the memorial project through. Cross said she’s not a veteran herself, but several of her family members served, including her father in World War II. “It’s important that we as a community honor these people, because of the sacrifices they made,” Cross said.

The updates are expected to cost $100,000 and will be 100 percent

funded through donations, Cross said, 85 percent of which are already collected. One way the group plans to solicit funds for the ongoing maintenance of the memorial is to sell personalized engraved bricks. Funders will have the opportunity to engrave a brick in honor of a family member, for example, and those bricks will form the walkway into the memorial’s center.

Cross said the bricks would model those at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, offering three lines of text to pay tribute to loved ones.

Cross said she purchased a brick honoring her father in New Orleans, and saw the program as a great way to involve many in the community to take pride in the monument.

“That way, we have funds available to continue the maintenance of that area,” Cross said. “Maybe shrubs need to be replaced, maybe it needs to be

How to support the memorial project: Donations: Brainerd Community Action 218-829-5278 Engraved Brick Forms: Stop into any Brainerd area service clubs — such as Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion or the Crow Wing County Veterans Service Office

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washed, or the sidewalk needs to be replaced or repaired.”

Cross said she expected the bricks to cost $75 and order forms would be available by June 15. She said the forms would be located at any service club in Brainerd as well as the Crow Wing County veterans service office, with plans to reach out to service clubs throughout the county.

“We know that the entire community will be very proud of all veterans,” Cross said.

Thank you to all our Veteran’s for their Service to our Country and our people

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31

Chris Walters Marine Corps 2014-present

Myron Sandberg Army 1943-1946 Deceased 5/29/2010

Jeff Garber Navy 1984-2009 Deceased 6/20/2009

Donald Gates Navy 1948-1952 Deceased Sept. 2000

Josh Garber Marine Corps 2014-present

Gilbert Lowe Air Force WWII Deceased 12/25/1983

Michael Lowe Air Force Vietnam, 1970-1974

Don Walker Army 1959-1961

Charles R. Johnson Army Deceased 6/24/2010

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Craig Walters Marine Corps 2015-present

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S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

Barry Mudford Army Vietnam, 1967-1968

Gilbert Rider Army Deceased April 2015

Larry Helsene National Guard 1965-2004

Leo Furnstahl Marines 1954-1957 Deceased 6/8/2013

Rick Fargo Army 1970-1973

Vern Fargo Army 1943-1946

Daniel M. Bubalo Air Force 1942-1946

Wright Olson Air Force Deceased Sept. 1998

Gordon H. Sneva National Guard Korea 1949-1973

Sid Tousley Navy 1957-1962

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Charles Brunes Navy WWI Deceased 10/4/1978

John P. Morgan Army WWII Deceased 9/11/2004

Robert W. Parker Army WWII Deceased 1987

John R. Morgan Army Korea Deceased 12/21/2006

Travis Nelson Army Reserves

Warren D. Morgan National Guard

James D. Morgan Army

Earl Deane Johnson Air Force Korea 1954-1958

Don Cate Navy 1963-1967

Lloyd (Pete) Romin Army 1944-1946

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Harley L. Ellis Army 1973-1975

Gunnard Freden Navy WWII

Oscar Marsch Army WWI

Delno W. Carlton Marines WWII

S LUTE Veterans Day • November, 2017

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