Salute to Rock County Vietnam War Soldiers

This past Veterans Day ceremony at Traxler Park in Janesville included a special exhibit.

Pat Riley, of VietNam Veterans of America, Rock County Chapter 236, compiled a list of names of Rock County VietNam veterans killed during the war. Pat's goal was to locate an obituary for each soldier. Pat contacted reference librarians at Hedberg Public Libraryfor help. The AccessNewspaperArchive database, available at Badgerlink.net, was used to find many obituaries from area newspapers. Pat also searched microfilm for The Janesville Gazette, here at the library. Obituaries for most of the 40 men were found, copied, and displayed at Traxler Park. A photograph of this display from November 11, 2011, can be found online at The Gazette's web site.


Here is Pat's list of Rock County servicemen killed in VietNam during the war:

Timothy Agard, Vincent Agius, Thomas Becker, Leslie Bellrichard, Glen Bjerke, Nolan Black, Edwin Brown, Jerald Bulin, John DeBock, James Donstad, Donald Downing, David Drought, John Fiedler, Harry Geary, Willard Godfrey, William Grudzinski, Alvin Halverson, David Hellenbrand, John Kessinger, Earl Knutson, William Martin, Robert McCartney, James McConnell, Jeffrey Mead, Michael Nielson, Timothy Norman, Carl Oldfield, Melvin Rimel, Elwood Roehl, Harry Warren Schneider, William Schneider, Gerald Schultz, Mike Schumacher, Richard Stindl, Leonard Tauschek, Earnest Tews, Thomas Vail, Ralph Wixson, and Dennis Wood.


Copies of the obituaries found are being added to the library's local history collection.


posted 11/21/2011 by sb