I had no problem with military discipline because I lived with my father. Growing up I called him “the warden of the farm.” He was unbelievably successful in the tobacco world. He really knew his stuff. We had a DA-KEE farm—that’s my word for being split between dairy and tobacco. I had one older sister. She was the valedictorian of her high school class. The Capital Times once called her, “the female dynamo of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.” I have this one vivid memory of her on the farm. I was probably 12, maybe 13, and I said a word that my mother didn’t appreciate. She was doing laundry at the time so she pulled my head back and shoved a bar of soap down my throat. Joanie was there screaming at her, “Stop, Mom! Stop!” I joined the military in September of 1951. I was 17 and my mother didn’t want to sign my papers. My dad said, “You might as well sign ‘em cause he’ll just lie about his age and do it anyway,” which I would have done. Basic training was at Sampson Air Force Base in New York. It took about five minutes for me to realize that we had the meanest drill instructor on the whole base. When I was done with basic they gave me a test with about 50 questions. I knew I wanted to be in radio so I analyzed every question with that in mind. When the WAF (Women’s Air Force) looked at my test results she asked, “Well, what would you like to do for the Air Force?” I said, “I’d like to be a radio operator,” and she said, “Well, isn’t that strange? That’s what your test shows.” [laughing] I left Sampson on Thanksgiving Day on 1951 and went to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. On the way, my Thanksgiving dinner on a C-47 was a dried-up turkey sandwich and half a rotten apple. Radio school was nine months. After that I went to Greenville, South Carolina, for a short time in preparation for overseas duty. I was in Germany for close to three years. Most of that time I was stationed in the small town of Deggendorf. The locals loved having us there. We spent more money than all the rest of their customers put together. There were only seven Americans. You spoke German or you didn’t speak anything. I discovered that I really had a talent for the language. Once I was on temporary duty at our main base in Freising, Germany, which is about 60 miles from Munich. This new guy had just shipped in and I invited him to come with me to Munich. At that time there were still a lot of bombed-out buildings from the war. I took him to what they called a GI bar. We sat down for a minute and two flowers came down and sat at our table. They were discussing, in their language, where they could take us and how much they thought we would pay. I told them, in their language, “You know you might just want to be careful because every once in a while you might just run into an American that speaks your language.” They stormed off. I remember one time I walked into a little country bar. Two elderly Germans were sitting over there and one of them hit the table with his fist, “Gott verdammt recht, wir haben das Krieg verloren!” Translated? “God damn right we lost the war!” I decided I wouldn’t interrupt that. There were two of them and I was probably the only American for miles. I’ve got to show you something [opening wallet]. This was my friend in Germany. Her name was Kristine. She worked as a waitress in the Dom Café in Freising. One day I was there with a new guy and he said, “I’ve heard about this German beer being strong. I don’t believe that crap.” When we got to the Dom Café I told Kris, “We’ve a got a neue – a new one. I’d like a double cognac and a bottle of Helles Bock beer.” He drank the cognac, got about half way through his beer and didn’t even know his name. [laughing]. When I got out of the service I took engineering classes at the UW in Madison. For about a year I was on the GI bill with two part-time jobs. I decided I needed a real job. I moved down to Beloit and started working for Beloit Corporation. I also married my first wife. We moved to Minneapolis and I attended design drafting school at Dunwoody Institute. After Dunwoody I went to work for General Mills doing high altitude research. We left Minneapolis when my wife got pregnant. She wanted to move back to Beloit to be close to her mom. I ended up getting a job with General Motors in Janesville and worked there for 16 years. I started out on the seal line, putting pink sealer on the cracks in the car bodies, and ended up as a maintenance supervisor. After that I was a plant superintendent for a company in Rockford. My final employment was in a sheet metal shop. I retired at 65. My youngest son was about 12 when my wife ran away to Denver with a travelling salesman. A priest there annulled our marriage. I was divorced on the 23rd day of the month after 23 years of marriage. Both she and my son have passed away now, but I’m still hanging around. My sister passed away about 15 years ago, too. She hit a semi-load of cattle head on. I looked at the car and you couldn’t even tell it was a car. In 2004 I parked in downtown Beloit. I had just got out of my car when the lady across the street put her car in reverse, floor-boarded it, came across the street, and totaled my car. I ended up under her car with six broken bones. That was a long rehab. But as I told our local newspaper, “I had two choices. I could be a bitter man. Or I could be a better man. I chose the second one.” I have two boys and a daughter. My daughter lives in Illinois. One of my sons lives in a suburb outside of Madison. I think he’s 54 now. I know I must be getting old when I have three kids over 50. I have one grandson who’s a master sergeant in the Air Force. I did get married a second time, to B_____. I married her twice actually. We got divorced and then I convinced her to marry me again. When we got divorced the second time it was a mutual thing, no hatred at all. I live on the second floor of a building that’s about 118 years old. I live in apartment 2B. B_____ lives down the hall in apartment 2F. She’s my ex-wife and best friend. I tell people, “We never argue. One of us just says, ‘I’m going home.’” Home is fifteen feet down the hall.

“I’ve come out a happier person, and it reflects in the way my daughter is now. She has a happy life because her mom is happy.” For Kelly, mental health treatment meant a stronger relationship with her daughter. Hear how other Veterans like Kelly have found support during Mental Health Month. https://maketheconnection.net/mhm

Madison VA Receives Awards for Green Initiatives In recognition for leading the health care industry in sustainability and environmental stewardship, the Madison VA Hospital (VAH) received the 2018 Greenhealth Emerald Award, recognition for greening the operating room, and a spot in the Circle of Excellence for efforts to reduce water consumption. Practice Greenhealth, a nationwide organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in health care, evaluates hospitals each year on their sustainability efforts. The awards were presented to the Madison VAH at the Environmental Excellence Awards Gala on May 9th in San Diego at the conclusion of the CleanMed Conference & Exhibition. These awards recognize that Madison VAH is setting the standard for eliminating mercury, improving energy and water efficiencies, reducing and recycling waste, sustainable purchasing, and other activities. The Madison VAH previously received the Greenhealth Emerald Award in 2014, 2016, and 2017 and was recognized for greening the OR and water reductions in 2016. Hospital Leadership recognized the Green Environmental Management System Program Manager (GEMS) Roxanne Wienkes and staff leads from Environmental Services, Engineering, and the Operating Room for their efforts at an Employee Town Hall meeting at the hospital on Thursday, May 17th. “I am thrilled that our efforts to improve recycling and environmental stability at the Madison VA Hospital were once again recognized at the national level.” said John Rohrer, Madison VAH Director. “These awards are the result of a dedicated team that understands the impact of environmental initiatives and has the ingenuity to enact positive changes year after year.” Some of the key accomplishments by the Madison VAH in 2017 include a reduction in the quantity of solid waste generated of 3.4%, a reduction in the quantity of water used per square foot of over 3.8%, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from anesthesia medications of approximately 160 metric tons (or the equivalent of taking nearly 35 cars of the road for a year), and a reduction in paper purchasing of over 15%. These efforts not only reduce environmental impact, they save money. Reduced paper purchasing alone saved the Madison VAH nearly $20,000 dollars in fiscal year 2017. Other sustainability programs and projects include a weekly farmers market that will begin on June 5, community gardens, a green roof that was installed over a portion of the hospital, environmental programming and educational workshops, and a papermaking workshop where donated military uniforms were transformed into handmade paper.

“When you get hurt, the mission is no longer counterterrorism. The mission is your rehab.” Visit @Make the Connection to hear how mental health treatment helped thousands of Veterans like Julian. https://maketheconnection.net/mhm

I grew up on a farm in west central Wisconsin that my father inherited from his dad. They cleared timber to make the farmland. They pulled out the stumps with horses and a windlass. I was one of six kids and we all helped with chores. We raised wheat and grain with all horse-drawn equipment. We did a lot of canning and butchered our own animals. We would take eggs into town and barter them for food at the store. My dad started a blueberry patch on the hill behind the farm and we used to pick blueberries up there, too. My dad lost the farm during the Depression and we moved to Blair, Wisconsin. I was pretty poor. I didn’t even have a date to the prom. My biggest interest was baseball. I pitched for the high school baseball team. We did well but we didn’t have very good support. There were a lot of errors out there. There were times when I would pitch a no-hitter and we still got beat. After high school me and my cousin Henry wanted to make some money so we travelled to North Dakota with his dad to look for work during the wheat harvest. We didn’t have to wait long—people from Wisconsin were good workers. We worked for a farmer who was a strict old Norwegian. We shocked the grain by hand, and those fields were big! When we got out in the middle we couldn’t see the end of them. The draft for World War II was coming on then and rather than be drafted I enlisted in the Air Force. I knew I didn’t want to be a pilot, but that’s what they were looking for so I somehow ended up in the Army. I had my infantry training at Camp Wolters, Texas, and from there they shipped us to Camp Kilgore, New Jersey. We were in the dark about where we were going—but we had desert uniforms. We set sail and ended up in Casablanca in North Africa. I don’t remember much about Africa except that it was very hot. The Americans had heavy woolens on. The British were stationed nearby and were in shorts. I remember one time I took my pants off in Tunisia and they stood by themselves in the corner, they were so filled with salt. We left Africa in a convoy and landed on the beaches of Sicily. We secured the beachhead and the next morning we started hiking north through the mountains. There were no roads there, no nothing, but we marched 54 miles in 33 hours, from Gela to Palermo. After we took Palermo there was heavy fighting from there to Messina. The Germans had years to set up fortifications so they were always ready when we came, almost like an ambush. After Sicily, we invaded Italy and landed on the beaches near Salerno. We were fighting here, there, and all over the place. Very seldom did we have a chow line, but I remember shells hitting the chow lines, and I got very cautious after that. I got to be afraid of groups. I became more or less a loner. The biggest complaint I had is that we didn’t have the tank and armor support that we needed. We were walking into traps all the time. We did a lot of walking in Italy. One day we were moving across an open area full of small trees. The Germans had us zeroed in long before we even got there. They were shooting shells and mortars at us, and there were a lot of casualties, I’m sure. A buddy and I ran and lay down behind a small haystack. It was about eight feet tall and twelve feet long. We knew it wasn’t good cover, but we lay down side by side. We lay there for quite a while. After a while I said, “Maybe we should move on,” and I looked over at him. He was dead. He was laying right next to me with a hole through his head. How sad that was. At Anzio we were pinned down for three or four months. The Germans had the advantage from the beginning in that they were well trained and had heavy equipment compared to ours. Towards the end there were only six men left in my squad. We were up at the first line of defense and I went back to headquarters to get changed or something. I finished what I had to do and went back. Their equipment was still sitting there, guns and all, but they were gone. They had been captured by the Germans and I was only gone for five minutes. After we broke through at Anzio we started fighting our way to Rome. My unit was spread out for a while, which was common, so I joined another outfit. There was a hard fight going on and I saw these Italians come running down the hill with their white flags. They were surrendering right in the middle of a battle and the Germans shot them down. During the war we were taking cities and towns all the time. It wasn’t easy. The funny thing is I never got to go back into a town that we took. As soon as we finished up, the MPs would come in and put it off limits. We just kept on going through battle after battle. The truth is we seldom dug a foxhole. We never stayed long enough. My unit went on to Rome with the rest of the division but I was sent back to Naples and then sailed home to New York. I can’t remember that time very well but I wound up in Battle Creek, Michigan, in a hospital for some time. I had “battle fatigue,” an invisible wound. It was not uncommon. Nowadays they call it PTSD. They had a machine shop there and we made small stuff out of wood and metal. I still have the cigarette lighter I made. I was discharged out of Fort Sheridan on February 22, 1945. I wasn’t in the Army very long, but in battle it was a long time. I wanted to go to work to help forget about all the stuff that had happened. I got a job with the government and ended up working in Madison with the US Soil Conservation Service. My rating was not high but the job was beautiful. I loved working outside. I met my wife B____ in Alma, Wisconsin. She was a quick learner. She knew shorthand and worked for a lot of companies. We had two boys. We didn’t have any money back then. One of the highlights of the week was to go to a root beer stand and have a root beer. We bought a house for $11,000 and I finished the upper flooring myself. I don’t think it met code but the boys sure liked it. I built a treehouse in the willow tree in the back yard. It had a roof and a trap door and all the sides were screened in. The boys and neighbors spent a lot of time in that treehouse. My wife passed away 14 years ago. We were married 47 years. Once we visited Italy with two other couples. My wife set it up, she did all the finances and stuff like that. We flew into Rome and rented a nine-passenger van. We stayed there for a week, then drove south through Naples to the beaches at Anzio. They’ve got a memorial on the beach there, but it doesn’t look anything like what it was back then. Except for the woods. There was a pine woods in Anzio that we bivouacked in. We were there for three months while we fought the Germans all over the place. That was the only time I ever really had a good foxhole. It was deluxe.

Please enjoy this video we created to recognize our employees here at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital for Public Service Recognition Week. To all Public Servants, thank you for everything that you do.

For Tom, @U.S. Army Veteran, mental health means reconnecting with friends and rekindling comradery. May is Mental Health Month, a great time to learn more from people like Tom who overcame obstacles and now enjoy happier, more connected lives. https://maketheconnection.net/mhm

To save money without skimping on nutrition, first review newspapers and store websites to see what fresh produce is on sale or in season, then create a list before you go. Ask your Madison VA dietitian for more ways to eat healthy on a budget! #VANutrition https://www.choosemyplate.gov/budget-weekly-meals

Mental health means reaching new heights and breaking old records. Visit @Make the Connection during Mental Health Month to see what Kionte, a @U.S. Marine Corps Veteran and Paralympic athlete, has been able to accomplish, despite a life-changing injury. https://maketheconnection.net/mhm

I grew up in West Frankfort in the southernmost part of Illinois. My father began work as a coal miner at age fourteen alongside his own father. He married my mother when she was sixteen and together they raised ten children – seven boys and three girls. We lived on a very small farm where we had our own livestock and large gardens that kept us fed. A little story: my mother had to wash clothes in a galvanized tub because we couldn’t afford a washing machine. One day Dad took a cow to town and traded it for a washing machine. That was our first electric washer – a Maytag I think. I was educated in a two-room country school: four classes in the big room and four classes in the small room. But then the schoolhouse burned down so we had to go to school in a vacant house in the country for two years until our school was built back. When I was in the eighth grade, one night there was a loud explosion. The coal mine had blown up, killing 119 men, including my nineteen-year-old brother. We actually felt the earth shake because of the methane gas exploding. This was in 1951 and it was one of the largest mining disasters in U.S. history. The tragedy affected families from every community in a thirty-mile radius. John L. Lewis, the head of United Mine Workers, came down to personally oversee rescue attempts. They had to seal the mine up to put out the fires before even looking for the men. After 22 years in the coal mines my dad said, “None of my sons will go work in the coal mines again.” When I went into the service, Dad picked up the family and moved to Rock Island, Illinois. He was quite a handy man. He worked for a refrigeration storage company there, and after two years, he took it over. I went into the Army in 1955 and was stationed in France for three years. I was with the 188th Transportation Corps in St. Nazaire, a seaport in western France. Our job was to have French civilian laborers unload the ships coming in and warehouse the ordnance and equipment. It was my job to make sure those military supplies got where they were supposed to go all over Europe. Nike missiles would come in there, too, and we would ship them to Germany via the Autobahn. This was a wonderful experience for an eighteen-year-old kid with a high school education. I learned how to package a ship and run a warehouse business on a large scale. I was taught by a master sergeant and a major. They were wonderful teachers and long-term career men. I also had the opportunity to travel to Italy, Paris, London . . . I never would have been able to afford that in my life otherwise. I came home to Rock Island in 1958 and took a job with a heating and air conditioning supply company. I started out as a truck driver, then became a counter sales person, then the manager, then Vice President of the company, and then Vice President of stockholders. It was a wonderful job. I worked there for 37 years until I retired in 1999. I married and had three daughters. Now I have fourteen grandchildren. My girls were busy! I’m a fisherman and taught all my girls and my wife to fish. We would rent a cabin in Minnesota and stay for a week or two. I was with my first wife for 26 years before we got divorced, and then she died of cancer. I was with my second wife twenty years and she had an aneurism and passed away in 2008. After I retired in 1999, I went down to Marion, Illinois. I thought I was going to fish every day. Well, that soon wears out. I took a part-time job at a home for disabled people from teenagers on up. Some have mental or physical problems, some are mobile, and some are in wheelchairs. They live in small homes for six or eight people. I would cook, give them baths, feed them. In fact they were my kids. I did that for twelve or thirteen years. I also worked in hospice for about five years. That started when my brother-in-law got cancer and was in hospice. I’d go take care of him before work every day. When he died they asked me to continue because they liked what I did. They’re a good organization. I have a girlfriend who was a neighbor of mine in Marion. She got me involved in all kinds of volunteer work– soup kitchens, churches, shelter homes. Both our spouses are deceased and now we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. She’s 68 and I’m 81. She’s a great lady. We have a long distance relationship now because I live in Janesville with my youngest daughter who has Crohn’s disease. She needs help so it was Grandpa to the rescue. I’ll probably move back to be where my sweetheart is. I don’t want to be a coach potato. I love spending time with my kids and grandkids. I have three grandchildren in the military. I recently visited a grandson in Denver. They took Grandpa up into the mountains, where we got to see elk right by the side of the road. Just magnificent. They took me to see the Broncos at Mile High Stadium. It’s nice in the Smokies too, where another daughter lives. Last Saturday I got up and practically fell down I was so dizzy. I staggered to the bathroom and then said, “Get me to the hospital.” I’ve got vertigo problems and they haven’t got it all ironed out yet. Here at the VA they’ve always been wonderful. It’s fantastic at the VA in Marion, too. You don’t get that kind of care in a civilian hospital. I went to the VA in Iowa City too – same deal there. I don’t know why people complain about VA hospitals. People have no patience.

What’s the deal with probiotics? These microorganisms in our gut aid in digestion and are found in foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi. Your Madison PACT team dietitian can provide recipes such as the one in this HTK video! #VANutrition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUuEsQxJ3NM&index=9&list=PL3AQ_JVoBEywA0DxUr5WalEVr6iGcnjYf

Together, we can learn more to help prevent opioid, narcotic, and prescription painkiller abuse and addiction. www.doseofrealitywi.gov