NEW GLARUS - The New Glarus Vietnam Veterans Chapter 3 will host the traveling exhibit, "Wisconsin Remembers: A Face For Every Name," commemorating the 1,161 young Wisconsin men killed in the Vietnam War.
The exhibition will be open to the public from 7 p.m. to closing Friday and from noon until 3 p.m. Saturday at the New Glarus Fire Department meeting room.
The display includes photos of each veteran who died in the Vietnam war. The Wisconsin Remembers project was a long-term endeavor trying to find a photo for each Wisconsin man who died. When Gold Star father Andrew Johnson, publisher of the Dodge County Pionier in Mayville, whose son David was killed in Afghanistan in 2012, heard that the project still was unable to find the last 230 photos, he enlisted the help of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Johnson himself located 75 of the needed photos.
When the project got down to the last 64 needed photos, Jessica McBride, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism lecturer, saw a chance to give her students a real hands-on research project as a part of their journalism training. Each of her students was assigned two names.
It took McBride's students just over three months to narrow their search down to just one man, Willie Bedford, of Milwaukee. Journalism student Rachel Maidl, was the budding journalist who found Bedford's photo in a long forgotten dusty old school yearbook.
But it didn't end there: Maidl was able to connect Bedford's only child with Bedford's sister. The two lived just blocks from each other in Milwaukee but knew nothing of the other.
There are seven soldiers from Green County included in the exhibit:
• Ronald Schmid, Juda, killed in action Nov. 28, 1966
• David W. Timm, Brodhead, killed in action April 5, 1968
• Marvin C. Pederson, Monroe, killed in action Jan. 6, 1969
• Kris Blumer, Albany, killed in action June 25, 1969
• Kenneth Keller, Albany, killed in action May 25, 1970
• John Krebs Jr., Browntown, killed in action June 8, 1970
• Roger L. Ritschard, Monticello, killed in action Nov. 22, 1970
Glen H. Young was also killed in action, on Oct. 28, 1966. Young was from Brodhead but isn't listed on the Green County Vietnam Veteran's Memorial; He lived in Rock County but was served by the Brodhead Post Office.
The exhibit, a project of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs-Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Wisconsin Public Television and funded in part by the Wisconsin Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The exhibition will be open to the public from 7 p.m. to closing Friday and from noon until 3 p.m. Saturday at the New Glarus Fire Department meeting room.
The display includes photos of each veteran who died in the Vietnam war. The Wisconsin Remembers project was a long-term endeavor trying to find a photo for each Wisconsin man who died. When Gold Star father Andrew Johnson, publisher of the Dodge County Pionier in Mayville, whose son David was killed in Afghanistan in 2012, heard that the project still was unable to find the last 230 photos, he enlisted the help of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Johnson himself located 75 of the needed photos.
When the project got down to the last 64 needed photos, Jessica McBride, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism lecturer, saw a chance to give her students a real hands-on research project as a part of their journalism training. Each of her students was assigned two names.
It took McBride's students just over three months to narrow their search down to just one man, Willie Bedford, of Milwaukee. Journalism student Rachel Maidl, was the budding journalist who found Bedford's photo in a long forgotten dusty old school yearbook.
But it didn't end there: Maidl was able to connect Bedford's only child with Bedford's sister. The two lived just blocks from each other in Milwaukee but knew nothing of the other.
There are seven soldiers from Green County included in the exhibit:
• Ronald Schmid, Juda, killed in action Nov. 28, 1966
• David W. Timm, Brodhead, killed in action April 5, 1968
• Marvin C. Pederson, Monroe, killed in action Jan. 6, 1969
• Kris Blumer, Albany, killed in action June 25, 1969
• Kenneth Keller, Albany, killed in action May 25, 1970
• John Krebs Jr., Browntown, killed in action June 8, 1970
• Roger L. Ritschard, Monticello, killed in action Nov. 22, 1970
Glen H. Young was also killed in action, on Oct. 28, 1966. Young was from Brodhead but isn't listed on the Green County Vietnam Veteran's Memorial; He lived in Rock County but was served by the Brodhead Post Office.
The exhibit, a project of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs-Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Wisconsin Public Television and funded in part by the Wisconsin Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.