Local veterans plan pilgrimages to World War II memorial

By Nathan Phelps

WWII memorial dedication
Veterans who plan on attending the local World War II memorial dedication ceremony on May 29 and would like a certificate commemorating the dedication should contact American Legion Post 11 at (920) 465-6841. They can also send their request by mail to American Legion Post 11, P.O. Box 1262, Green Bay, WI 54305 or sign up in person April 17 at Bay Park Square.

Certificates will be handed out at the event, which is open to all World War II veterans. Organizers are asking for the veteran’s full name, rank and branch of service, said John Wolfe, first vice commander of Post 11.

The dedication ceremony will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 29, at the Brown County Veterans Memorial in Ashwaubenon.

Clyde “Boots” Baker is one of the millions of U.S. servicemen and civilians who did their duty in World War II.

Baker found himself assigned to a squadron of anti-submarine aircraft — first in Norfolk, Va., and later in Bermuda — in the late stages of the war.

Now Baker and other World War II veterans are just weeks away from the dedication of the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., for people who served overseas, for those who never came back and for those who carried out the war on the home front.

“It gives you a lot of pride,” said Baker, 77, who owned King’s X restaurant in Green Bay. “You wanted to be in the service, you really wanted to.”

The May 29 memorial dedication will be celebrated both in Washington and in communities around the nation, including the Green Bay area.

American Legion Post 11 in Green Bay is planning a ceremony at the Veterans Memorial in Ashwaubenon coinciding with the event in Washington. Baker is the post’s commander.

Post 11 will give World War II veterans certificates commemorating the dedication of the memorial, said John Wolfe, first vice commander of Post 11.

The memorial is “long overdue,” said Wolfe, a Vietnam veteran. “We’re talking almost 60 years after the end of World War II. … It should have been done 40, 50, years ago.”

Not all veterans are staying here for the dedication.

When Lamers Tour and Travel first decided to run a trip to Washington for the dedication, the company had hoped to fill one or two buses.

But a caravan of six Lamers buses will take more than 300 veterans to Washington.

“Without being melodramatic … for these guys I see it almost as a closure in their life, to get back to a little of their war roots, and I think in some cases to end some issues,” said Jim Derse, group sales manager with Lamers Tour and Travel in Milwaukee. “I hear them talking about going back for the ones that didn’t come back from the war, their buddies.

“They never forgot the soldiers that did not come back.”

The tour will leave Milwaukee on May 26 and return to Wisconsin on May 31.

It’s not just the dedication that will draw World War II veterans to the monument.

Members of Bellevue’s Veterans of Foreign Wars Winiecki Post 9677 are planning a trip to Washington in October to see the monument.

The 117,000 tickets for the dedication have been sold out, and going at a later date avoids the crush of people expected at the dedication.

Post commander John De Prey said the Lamers trip was filled, and another tour group considered by the post couldn’t get tickets to the dedication.

“We decided to go at a later date when there wouldn’t be the big crowd,” the Korean War veteran said. “We’ll miss the ceremony, but we’ll get to see the (memorial) at a later date.”

So far, 14 members of the post have signed up for the tour this fall, said Gladys Nickodem, a member of the post’s women’s auxiliary who is arranging trip.

From: http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/news/archive/local_15528781.shtml