BROWNTOWN — A majority of the week, a group of about 15 local men can be found at the Trailside Inn.
They vary in age and life experience, but each relate to one another in a specific way; they all know what it’s like to serve in the armed forces.
This is a fact that area resident and former business owner Richard Fox, a non-veteran member of the group, slowly realized in talking to his confidantes over beverages.
“See, I didn’t know all of this,” Fox said. “Probably a lot of people know people and didn’t really know that they served. A lot of these people; I didn’t know that they served. Then this started. I’m like, ‘holy cow, everybody served.’ A lot of the guys, they don’t talk about it.”
The group gathered for a specific reason Aug. 10. Fox, with the help of donations from a number of community members, purchased 10 sweatshirts for the men who served. The veterans have among them those who spent time fighting in the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Iraq War and even World War II. They all gathered with friends and family, roughly 30 people squeezed into the modest dining area of the bar, and celebrated those men.
Vicki Haffele read the names aloud as Fox distributed the hoodies to each man in line while thanking them for their service.
“It’s people like them who are the reason we’re here,” Vicki Haffele said.
The recipients included Jerry Theiler, John Baker, Ron Johnson, Marty Gobeli, Jim Redies, Delbert Butts, Mark Jesse, Ron Norris, John Stoeher, Lowell Dalsoren, Bill Haffele and Mark VanDeWoestyne. Fox said Wayne Mau and Junior Robertson were unable to attend.
Some threw jokes and others were all smiles as they were recognized. Baker said though he talks a lot of nonsense, “just the little conversations we have over beers mean the world to me.”
But it didn’t begin as a large reception with food and warm words. It started with a birthday present.
Fox first purchased a black zip-up which reads, “Land of the free because of the brave,” he found in a magazine for Vietnam veteran Bill Haffele, who spends time bartending at Trailside. Haffele, who served in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1971, was surprised with the birthday gift at the bar in July.
“I tell you what, I had tears in my eyes,” Haffele said. “We’ve all been friends for a long time and I didn’t think anybody really recognized us from being in Vietnam. Finally, after a while they’re starting to recognize us, but a lot of us are all gone.”
They have now managed to disburse 15 shirts total with the help of donations, Fox said. There’s no formal plan to hold another celebration of this kind. However, Fox and Haffele both said they hope this act of support “goes viral” to make others throughout the country aware of what they can do to thank former service members.
“Just cheer somebody up,” Haffele said.
When fellow veteran Mark VanDeWoestyne had an upcoming 50th birthday, Fox enlisted the help of his daughter to order a similar garment from the internet and presented the gift just two weeks ago.
A Browntown resident of four years, VanDeWoestyne served in Afghanistan from December 2009 to December 2010. While serving, he took a direct hit from a roadside IED, which left him with physical restrictions. He said the community surrounding him, and the group of guys he sees at the bar every week, has been pivotal in their support.
“I have found out there’s a large veteran community around here and they are tight,” VanDeWoestyne said. “For veterans like myself, I don’t know how many there are in the area, but I’m 100 percent disabled and I can’t do very much. They give me and my wife a lot of support on any strenuous activities that I need help with around the house that I can’t do.”
Haffele said despite the range in age and varied experiences, members of the group who served in the armed forces understand one another.
“Once you’re a brother, you’re always a brother; that’s the truth,” he said.
That’s how VanDeWoestyne said he feels because of the support he receives from the group of regulars at Trailside.
“Even though we served in different wars at different times, there’s a common bond,” he said. “It’s hard to explain that once you’ve been under fire before, it’s just something that you experience that there’s no way anyone else can explain or compare it to and have someone say they’ve walked in your shoes. There’s just no way.”
That’s how VanDeWoestyne said he feels because of the support he receives from the group of regulars at Trailside.
“Even though we served in different wars at different times, there’s a common bond,” he said. “It’s hard to explain that once you’ve been under fire before, it’s just something that you experience that there’s no way anyone else can explain or compare it to and have someone say they’ve walked in your shoes. There’s just no way.”
