Missing but not forgotten

They’re not the unknown soldiers — their families definitely haven’t forgotten them — but their names have been missing for about 18 years from Ozaukee County’s War Memorial, an oversight that will soon be corrected thanks to some detective work by a local historian and the effort of many local veterans and county officials.

The county War Memorial at the Justice Center on South Spring Street in Port Washington was dedicated in September 1991 and includes the names of 90 Ozaukee County veterans who died in the nation’s wars.

But three veterans’ names are missing, Al Buchholz discovered, and county supervisors have recommended spending another $40,000, bringing the total to $90,000, to correct the errors on the granite monument as well as make other repairs and improvements to the memorial.

“I spent many hours poring through many local newspapers and did the research about three years ago and discovered these guys,” Buchholz said.

He found two veterans missing from the list of World War I casualties, one from World War II and one World War II veteran whose name is misspelled:

• Pvt. Jacob Risch of Belgium entered the service at Port Washington on Nov. 19, 1917. He was wounded in the Argonne in France on Oct. 1, 1918, and died of those wounds on Oct. 25, 1918. He fought with the 59th Infantry, 4th Division. He’s buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Lake Church.

• Pvt. Joseph B. Notting of Port Washington served in the 127th Infantry, 32nd Division along with many other men from Port Washington. He was killed at Chateau Thierry, France, on July 31, 1918. 

“This was just a week apart from Wagoner Andrew Van Ells from Port who served in the same unit,” and for whom the Van Ells-Schanen American Legion Post 82 in Port Washington is named, Bucholz said. “Their bodies came back to Port on the same day after the war.”

Notting is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Port Washington.

• Sgt. Francis “Frank” Roeckl of Saukville was killed on Dec. 6, 1943, near Mount Kammerer, Italy. He was awarded the Bronze Star and is buried in Newburg near the family farm in the Town of Saukville. 

Buchholz said the family was unaware of the call for veterans names when it went out in the early 1990s.

“Some nieces came out during a WWII event (at Pioneer Village) and told us Frank’s name isnt up there,” Buchholz said. “They explained to me their farm was out in the (Cedarburg) bog area and they went to church at Trinity in Newburg and didn’t get the (Ozaukee) Press and probably never saw the call.”

• The name of First Lt. Paul G. Wiening of Port Washington was misspelled “Weining” on the memorial. He was the co-pilot of a C-47 which had dropped members of the 82nd Airborne during Operation Market Garden in Holland on Sept. 17, 1944. His plane was shot down near the Dutch-German border. 

He is memorialized in the American Cemetery at Margraten, Netherlands.

“It was a simple typo,” Buchholz said.

Buchholz, who is active with the Ozaukee County Historical Society, said it’s no one’s fault that the names were not included on the granite stones when the memorial was first dedicated.

Like the Roeckl family, some were unaware that the call had gone out.

“They didn’t have the luxury of the internet and other resources we have today,” he said. “Communication to gather the names was limited to articles in the local newspapers, asking local citizens to help build the list of names to be included.”

Besides recording the names of those who died in World War I and World II, the monument also lists those who died in Korea, Vietnam, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Iraqi Enduring Freedom and the Global War on Terror.

Adding the names requires that the granite monuments be removed and taken off site to have their faces ground down, polished and the names re-etched into the stone.

Other improvements to the site include restoring some of the brickwork damaged by water infiltration, removing light fixtures sunk into the concrete and positioning spotlights on existing poles in the Justice Center parking lot and removing a planter and replacing it with a six-foot-tall granite monument topped with a 21-inch eagle sculpture. 

The county designated $50,000 for the renovation of the monument last year and last week the county Public Works Committee voted to recommend committing another $40,000 to the work, after it was recommended by a committee appointed to oversee the restoration. 

Members of that committee include Ozauke County Sheriff Jim Johnson, himself a veteran, representatives of local veterans groups and Buchholz, representing the Ozaukee County Historical Society.

“We’d like to do it right and the funds are available,” county Administrator Jason Dzwinel told the committee.

“This is a no-brainer,” Supervisor Dan Becker agreed.

Veterans groups have conducted some fundraising toward the project, as well, officials said.

“It’s just such an important part of our history,” said Buchholz, who served in the Wisconsin Army National Guard in the late 1970s. “We can’t forget these guys. We do a great job honoring our living veterans. We need to honor our veterans who never came back.”

A Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony and program will be held at 5 p.m. on Friday, May 24, at the War Memorial at the Ozaukee County Justice Center.