MONROE - Mike "Gunner" Furgal probably never dreamed he would end up in Monroe. He traveled the world for more than two decades, serving in the Marine Corps, but Monroe felt like home to his children, and so eventually they settled here. Today, he serves his community, region and Wisconsin for the betterment of the county and veterans' programs.
He was born in Chicago, but his mother was originally from Monroe, where his parents met. His father worked for a Civilian Conservation Corps, a camp set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a blaster in Argyle and met his mother at a dance at the old Armory.
He grew up in a Polish neighborhood in downtown Chicago near the Loop where he lived with his grandparents. Because of them, Furgal learned to speak Polish early on. He remembers running around town and playing sports with children in the neighborhood.
He attended Holy Trinity High School for a year before deciding to follow a long-time dream to become a Catholic priest and attended St. Jude's Seminary. There, he learned languages including Spanish, Greek and Hebrew. He also wrote for the school newspaper.
"It was something I wanted to do most of my life," he said. "I just always wanted to become a priest."
After graduating from St. Jude Seminary in 1956, he attended Immaculate Heart in Indiana. He was an excellent student, and had been very involved for two years before he had a change of heart.
"After studying, I decided it just wasn't the life for me," he said. He then went back to Chicago and attended Wright Junior College. After failing a philosophy course, he realized he would soon be drafted, and decided to enlist in the Marine Corps.
It's where he would stay for the next 21 years, 10 months and 18 days.
He was sent to boot camp in San Diego and completed basic training at Camp Pendleton. Furgal was assigned to the job of Unit Historian, but the position was removed, and instead he worked in the kitchen for six weeks before being assigned as a machine gunner.
He was chosen because he was the smallest person - making a small target. He honed the skill so well that he eventually became an instructor and got his popular nickname.
"There was nothing going on at that time," Furgal said of his training. "There was nothing to be scared of. It was beautiful. Peaceful. I became quite good at firing a machine gun."
It wasn't long before Furgal's infantry moved to Japan, and from there they traveled the world. In the first four years he served in the Marine Corps, he sailed 21 ships and saw Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Guam and Iwo Jima. He wrote home periodically but said he was far too busy to be homesick.
"My home was wherever I was," he said. He traveled extensively for about five years before he returned to California, staying in infantry units most of the time. "It was a good life."
Furgal was then chosen for a clerk position and was sent to typing school.
He was transferred to Task Force 79 in the Seventh Fleet Marine Force as part of the Planning Organization. There, he served in an office with six lieutenants, colonels and himself. He was a corporal at that time.
"They were some of the finest individuals I had ever met in my life," he said, noting that they treated him well and were knowledgeable about life and the Marine Corps. The 25-year-old was encouraged to go back to school, and he would spend nights and weekends for most of the rest of his military career attending college.
His day job, however, was helping plan for the invasion of Vietnam.
"Life was very interesting," he said. He worked hard and in 1960, Furgal went to Vietnam for a short while as part of Task Force 77 but had recruit duty orders in Louisville, Kentucky, and they made him return.
His next assignment was a public affairs officer, providing publicity in Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. He spent most of his time on the road, and each weekend he would be part of the color guard somewhere, helping with funeral details for Vietnam casualties.
Furgal continued night school at the University of Indiana, while living at the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant near Louisville. While there, he learned they were looking for Vietnamese linguists. He took a language aptitude test and scored highly enough that he was sent to Arlington, Virginia, to study Vietnamese.
In the intense one-year course, he spent about seven hours a day in the classroom and five hours studying at home all year, every day, other than a one-week break for Christmas. He picked it up relatively easily since he had a strong language background. He was then sent to an interrogation course in Maryland for eight weeks where he learned to talk to prisoners.
In 1969, he was sent to California to prepare for Vietnam.
He stayed a full tour, interrogating prisoners of war and translating enemy documents for the first six months at various Marine bases. It wasn't long before he took over an administrative job where he was in charge of Vietnam interpreters. He hired them and served as the Interrogation Team Coordinator for the First Marine Division in most of the northern part of Vietnam.
He liked the work, he said, and the location, because it had better food and he got to shower.
Soon, he was promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. He would still interrogate people at times, working at the hospital and other locations when needed for another six months until he was sent back to Okinawa, where he would be for the next two years, traveling back and forth to Vietnam to interrogate prisoners and translate documents.
He was then sent to Virginia and was still attending college at night. He served as the Chief of Intelligence and Surveillance of the Development Center.
While looking for a change, he put in for a warrant officer and the college degree program and was selected for both.
Furgal was attending college full time at Palomar College in San Marcos and earned a degree in political science. He also served his warrant officer duty and had basic school in Virginia, a boot camp for officers.
The next 10 to 12 years were spent bouncing around between the first and second division as an interrogation officer, serving various units.
After a decade of working in that field, Furgal was chosen to go to the Defense Language Institute in California to serve on the faculty there. He helped put together language courses in 40 different languages in about two years. It's where the popular language program Rosetta Stone originated.
When Furgal decided it was time to retire, it was 1981. He had spent a year-and-a-half as a Targeting Officer, spending days in a vault figuring out how to blow up specific bridges in different countries.
He decided it was time for him to move on.
"It was a tough decision," he said of his retirement. "It had been my life for over 20 years."
Once retired, he took a step back and realized he and his children had moved 18 times in 22 years, all because of his career. He decided where they ended up should be his family's choice.
The family was living in Monterey at the time with beautiful sunshine, an ocean view and a tennis court in the backyard, Furgal recalls. However, since the children had spent much time over the years with their grandmother, who had moved back to Monroe after his father died in the late 1970s, it felt like home to them. And that's where they chose to live.
By then Furgal had several degrees including a master's degree. But once back in Monroe, he struggled to find work. Eventually, he landed a job selling insurance - working for a few different companies, but said it wasn't a good fit.
He took state and civil service exams and finally was hired by the state to run the food service program in Beloit. When he learned there was an opening to work as the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialist he applied and landed that position, working throughout southwestern Wisconsin. He was a case manager for veterans, helping with job development and employment plans.
"It was perfect," he said. "I loved it."
In the meantime, Furgal had been the state commander of the Veteran of Foreign Wars and was heavily involved and held top positions including quartermaster and CFO for the Wisconsin VFW. He served as the CEO and the CFO of all the VFW posts in the state. He spent time at the Capitol advocating for veterans and handling all of the administrative and financial work, including budgeting for more than 40,000 members in the state and 250 VFW posts. He did the job for five years, and although he said he enjoyed it, it was intense and he traveled regularly.
Furgal has also served on the Green County Board of Supervisors for 27 years. He is proud of the time he has served as the chair of the Veterans Service committee and as the chair of the Law Enforcement committee. He also served on the Human Services board for several years.
His extensive involvement includes numerous organizations and agencies. Furgal serves as a board member at the South Central Library System Foundation; is a member of the County Ambassador Program (CAP) Team at Wisconsin Counties Association; serves on the South Central Library System Board; is a member of the Wisconsin Nutrition Revitalization Task Force at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services; serves as a board member for the ContinuUs (formerly Southwest Family Care Alliance); is the quartermaster for the VFW Post 2312; is a member of the board of directors for the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program Inc.; is a board member at Access to Independence; is a member at Green County Council on Housing and Homelessness Prevention; is a member and VFW representative at the Council on Veterans Programs for the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; is a member of the District 12 Committee at the Office of Lawyer Regulation; serves as a member of the Governors Council at Marine Corps Heritage Foundation; is the Wisconsin State Legislative Chairman at Veterans of Foreign Wars; is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee at Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation; and is a member of the Taxation & Finance Steering Committee at the Wisconsin Counties Association.
"I'd be lost without a meeting to go to," he concluded. "It's my way of life."
His involvement keeps him extremely busy, but it all seems to come by him honestly.
"It's in my genes," he said, recalling both parents as service-oriented people. "Service is in my genes. It's what I was born to do. It keeps me busy."
Furgal suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and said that doing positive things is a great way to make sure his ways don't get destructive.
He and his wife Marian, who married in 1987, met in Monroe at a VFW event. They enjoy traveling; many of their trips are for her VFW involvement. Each day, Furgal said, he tries to exercise. He also enjoys spending time with his three children and five grandchildren.
"The busier I am, the happier I am," he said.
He was born in Chicago, but his mother was originally from Monroe, where his parents met. His father worked for a Civilian Conservation Corps, a camp set up by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a blaster in Argyle and met his mother at a dance at the old Armory.
He grew up in a Polish neighborhood in downtown Chicago near the Loop where he lived with his grandparents. Because of them, Furgal learned to speak Polish early on. He remembers running around town and playing sports with children in the neighborhood.
He attended Holy Trinity High School for a year before deciding to follow a long-time dream to become a Catholic priest and attended St. Jude's Seminary. There, he learned languages including Spanish, Greek and Hebrew. He also wrote for the school newspaper.
"It was something I wanted to do most of my life," he said. "I just always wanted to become a priest."
After graduating from St. Jude Seminary in 1956, he attended Immaculate Heart in Indiana. He was an excellent student, and had been very involved for two years before he had a change of heart.
"After studying, I decided it just wasn't the life for me," he said. He then went back to Chicago and attended Wright Junior College. After failing a philosophy course, he realized he would soon be drafted, and decided to enlist in the Marine Corps.
It's where he would stay for the next 21 years, 10 months and 18 days.
He was sent to boot camp in San Diego and completed basic training at Camp Pendleton. Furgal was assigned to the job of Unit Historian, but the position was removed, and instead he worked in the kitchen for six weeks before being assigned as a machine gunner.
He was chosen because he was the smallest person - making a small target. He honed the skill so well that he eventually became an instructor and got his popular nickname.
"There was nothing going on at that time," Furgal said of his training. "There was nothing to be scared of. It was beautiful. Peaceful. I became quite good at firing a machine gun."
It wasn't long before Furgal's infantry moved to Japan, and from there they traveled the world. In the first four years he served in the Marine Corps, he sailed 21 ships and saw Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Guam and Iwo Jima. He wrote home periodically but said he was far too busy to be homesick.
"My home was wherever I was," he said. He traveled extensively for about five years before he returned to California, staying in infantry units most of the time. "It was a good life."
Furgal was then chosen for a clerk position and was sent to typing school.
He was transferred to Task Force 79 in the Seventh Fleet Marine Force as part of the Planning Organization. There, he served in an office with six lieutenants, colonels and himself. He was a corporal at that time.
"They were some of the finest individuals I had ever met in my life," he said, noting that they treated him well and were knowledgeable about life and the Marine Corps. The 25-year-old was encouraged to go back to school, and he would spend nights and weekends for most of the rest of his military career attending college.
His day job, however, was helping plan for the invasion of Vietnam.
"Life was very interesting," he said. He worked hard and in 1960, Furgal went to Vietnam for a short while as part of Task Force 77 but had recruit duty orders in Louisville, Kentucky, and they made him return.
His next assignment was a public affairs officer, providing publicity in Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia. He spent most of his time on the road, and each weekend he would be part of the color guard somewhere, helping with funeral details for Vietnam casualties.
Furgal continued night school at the University of Indiana, while living at the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant near Louisville. While there, he learned they were looking for Vietnamese linguists. He took a language aptitude test and scored highly enough that he was sent to Arlington, Virginia, to study Vietnamese.
In the intense one-year course, he spent about seven hours a day in the classroom and five hours studying at home all year, every day, other than a one-week break for Christmas. He picked it up relatively easily since he had a strong language background. He was then sent to an interrogation course in Maryland for eight weeks where he learned to talk to prisoners.
In 1969, he was sent to California to prepare for Vietnam.
He stayed a full tour, interrogating prisoners of war and translating enemy documents for the first six months at various Marine bases. It wasn't long before he took over an administrative job where he was in charge of Vietnam interpreters. He hired them and served as the Interrogation Team Coordinator for the First Marine Division in most of the northern part of Vietnam.
He liked the work, he said, and the location, because it had better food and he got to shower.
Soon, he was promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. He would still interrogate people at times, working at the hospital and other locations when needed for another six months until he was sent back to Okinawa, where he would be for the next two years, traveling back and forth to Vietnam to interrogate prisoners and translate documents.
He was then sent to Virginia and was still attending college at night. He served as the Chief of Intelligence and Surveillance of the Development Center.
While looking for a change, he put in for a warrant officer and the college degree program and was selected for both.
Furgal was attending college full time at Palomar College in San Marcos and earned a degree in political science. He also served his warrant officer duty and had basic school in Virginia, a boot camp for officers.
The next 10 to 12 years were spent bouncing around between the first and second division as an interrogation officer, serving various units.
After a decade of working in that field, Furgal was chosen to go to the Defense Language Institute in California to serve on the faculty there. He helped put together language courses in 40 different languages in about two years. It's where the popular language program Rosetta Stone originated.
When Furgal decided it was time to retire, it was 1981. He had spent a year-and-a-half as a Targeting Officer, spending days in a vault figuring out how to blow up specific bridges in different countries.
He decided it was time for him to move on.
"It was a tough decision," he said of his retirement. "It had been my life for over 20 years."
Once retired, he took a step back and realized he and his children had moved 18 times in 22 years, all because of his career. He decided where they ended up should be his family's choice.
The family was living in Monterey at the time with beautiful sunshine, an ocean view and a tennis court in the backyard, Furgal recalls. However, since the children had spent much time over the years with their grandmother, who had moved back to Monroe after his father died in the late 1970s, it felt like home to them. And that's where they chose to live.
By then Furgal had several degrees including a master's degree. But once back in Monroe, he struggled to find work. Eventually, he landed a job selling insurance - working for a few different companies, but said it wasn't a good fit.
He took state and civil service exams and finally was hired by the state to run the food service program in Beloit. When he learned there was an opening to work as the Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialist he applied and landed that position, working throughout southwestern Wisconsin. He was a case manager for veterans, helping with job development and employment plans.
"It was perfect," he said. "I loved it."
In the meantime, Furgal had been the state commander of the Veteran of Foreign Wars and was heavily involved and held top positions including quartermaster and CFO for the Wisconsin VFW. He served as the CEO and the CFO of all the VFW posts in the state. He spent time at the Capitol advocating for veterans and handling all of the administrative and financial work, including budgeting for more than 40,000 members in the state and 250 VFW posts. He did the job for five years, and although he said he enjoyed it, it was intense and he traveled regularly.
Furgal has also served on the Green County Board of Supervisors for 27 years. He is proud of the time he has served as the chair of the Veterans Service committee and as the chair of the Law Enforcement committee. He also served on the Human Services board for several years.
His extensive involvement includes numerous organizations and agencies. Furgal serves as a board member at the South Central Library System Foundation; is a member of the County Ambassador Program (CAP) Team at Wisconsin Counties Association; serves on the South Central Library System Board; is a member of the Wisconsin Nutrition Revitalization Task Force at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services; serves as a board member for the ContinuUs (formerly Southwest Family Care Alliance); is the quartermaster for the VFW Post 2312; is a member of the board of directors for the Southwestern Wisconsin Community Action Program Inc.; is a board member at Access to Independence; is a member at Green County Council on Housing and Homelessness Prevention; is a member and VFW representative at the Council on Veterans Programs for the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; is a member of the District 12 Committee at the Office of Lawyer Regulation; serves as a member of the Governors Council at Marine Corps Heritage Foundation; is the Wisconsin State Legislative Chairman at Veterans of Foreign Wars; is a member of the Investment Advisory Committee at Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation; and is a member of the Taxation & Finance Steering Committee at the Wisconsin Counties Association.
"I'd be lost without a meeting to go to," he concluded. "It's my way of life."
His involvement keeps him extremely busy, but it all seems to come by him honestly.
"It's in my genes," he said, recalling both parents as service-oriented people. "Service is in my genes. It's what I was born to do. It keeps me busy."
Furgal suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and said that doing positive things is a great way to make sure his ways don't get destructive.
He and his wife Marian, who married in 1987, met in Monroe at a VFW event. They enjoy traveling; many of their trips are for her VFW involvement. Each day, Furgal said, he tries to exercise. He also enjoys spending time with his three children and five grandchildren.
"The busier I am, the happier I am," he said.