Monday, Nov. 11

 

Veterans honored with
tributes and ceremonies

[NOV. 11, 2002]  Veterans from Logan County have been honored at a musical tribute Sunday evening and the traditional courthouse lawn ceremony Monday, Nov. 11.

Nearly 150 veterans from all branches of service filled the Lincoln Park District ballroom Sunday evening. They came for a dance and musical tribute honoring them. The evening was filled with laughter, fast feet and jazzy tunes. All Logan County veterans were sent invitations to the first-time special event hosted by the St. John United Church of Christ Youth Group.

 


[Photo by Jan Youngquist]

Two high school girls, Heather Goetsch of Williamsville and Michelle Johnson of Latham, co-chaired the event. The youth group has been working on it since last February, when it was decided to do it. They worked all year raising funds through car washes, bake sales and by other means.

 

Invitations were sent out; the hall was decorated with white lights. Tablecloths and tableware sported patriotic colors. Flowers and candies adorned the tables. Young men in their ancestors’ uniforms and young ladies in long dresses welcomed guests and served sandwiches, a wide assortment of cakes and drinks for refreshment.

 

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The fabulous Williamsville High School Jazz Band provided a variety of music but was exceptional in their lively big band tunes. Goetsch also plays the trumpet in the band.

The atmosphere was sophisticated, yet relaxed and fun. Veterans and their guests waltzed and jitterbugged the night away. Lots of smiles and laughter proved the night to be worth all the youths’ efforts to honor this group of local heroes.

The Lincoln High School Band opened the traditional ceremony on the Logan County Courthouse lawn Monday morning. Participants and a crowd gathered in spite of the deep chill of the 40 degree, overcast morning.

 


[Photo by Bob Frank]

The Rev. Robert Henderson of the First Baptist Church provided the invocation and benediction. Along with a presentation of the colors by the color guard, the firing squad gave a 21-gun salute, and taps was played Randy and Noah Schrader. A wreath was laid at the soldiers’ monument.

 


[Photo by Bob Frank]

[Jan Youngquist]


A veteran’s personal
recollection of WWII

[NOV. 11, 2002]  It is New Year’s Day 1943, and a young man stands sorting U.S. mail in the Lincoln post office. Hitler is taking over Germany. The world is at war in Europe. Wilbur Wilmert stops abruptly and stares at the official document he holds in his hands. It is his "Draft Notice." The U.S. Army is calling him to action.

The young husband, wed for a year and a half, had 13 days to think about leaving. He and his wife broke household, taking their possessions to various family homes for storage until their hoped-for return.

 


[Photo by Jan Youngquist]
[Mildred and Wilbur Wilmert enjoy the sounds
of the Williamsville jazz band.]

Wilmert left Lincoln on Jan. 13, and on Jan. 20, when it was 13 degrees below zero, he left Peoria. He was to serve in the 103 Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.

His initial training at Camp Stewart, Ga., the U.S. Army’s Anti-Aircraft Artillery Training Center, set the structure for his military service. He would be in a unit that ran tank guns behind weapons.

Wilmert experienced his first life-threatening event while still on home ground. One evening the Wilmerts were returning from an evening out on the town in Glaxton, Miss., home of fruitcakes. There had been a terrible storm. As Wilbur exited the car, a snapped power line about 20 feet away met him with 20,000 volts of electricity. "It wouldn’t let me go," he says. Some nearby servicemen were able to knock him free from its grip. His legs hurt after that.

 

While at Camp Stewart he requested pilot training and was transferred from Georgia to Miami, Fla., and then to Greenwood, Miss. That training was disrupted for some last-moment additional artillery training at Camphouse, Gainesville, Texas, before he was shipped overseas.

His wife became roommates with another young woman from Wisconsin who shared the same name as she, Mildred Marie. The Mildreds shared the same birth date, only one year different in age. And then, coincidentally, on the same day in September ’43, both girls had husbands go off to fight the war in Europe. Their husbands left the United States from the same New York harbor but went in different directions on different ships.

The ship carrying Wilmert zigzagged across the ocean for 15 days. After landing in Europe, the 103rd traveled from Marseille, France, northward. The anti-tank platoon unit had three squads. Each squad was composed of 10 men, a platoon leader and a sergeant. Foot soldiers preceded them as they moved forward. Then the 103rd would bring in the tanks.

Their weapons driver was an Indian from western Wisconsin named Thunder Cloud. The unit really liked him. Wilmert remembers that he and Thunder Cloud spent one night sharing the same foxhole.

 

One day in October they were caught within range of German artillery. Wilmert paused, staring somewhere far off. You could see him thinking back in time, "Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow; ka boom, ka boom," he said. "I could hear the shots and explosions," all close by.

An explosion took the lives of several men in back of him. The man next to him was seriously wounded by shrapnel and taken to the hospital. He never knew for certain what became of him. Shrapnel was flying everywhere, he says. Then, he motions to a place just below his ribs that still confuses medical professionals when they first see his X-rays. Another day his life was spared, though not unscathed.

Christmas ’44 came while he was in Germany.

One of the great moments for the 103rd was the battle at the Belgian town of Bastogne. The 101st Airborne Division paratroopers had landed in the German-held territory, bringing medical supplies and ammunition. They had gotten trapped there. The 103rd entered and took up position, relieving the 101st, which had gotten pinned in.

 

 

 

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It was during the push to hook up with the Russians that Wilmert had his next near-death experience. They were at a roadblock and engineers were supposed to meet them to get them through. The engineers didn’t show. The commander sent Wilmert to the other side first. He crawled over it to stand guard. The next guy who followed him was blown up by the booby-trapped gate. The tough part was getting back to his unit. The whole thing, he estimates, took about 30 minutes. When he got back, the unit went and hid nearby. The engineers finally arrived the next day.

Spring opened up, and they made a push.

At Easter he received increased motivation to stay alive. He received a telegram saying he had a son. His first child, Jim, was born Good Friday.

Shortly after that, Wilmert’s service was interrupted by poor health. He came down with hepatitis or yellow jaundice at Heidelburg, Germany, and was sent to a hospital in France to recover. While he was there he lost track of his unit. Many of the high-point men were sent home.

So, when he returned to duty he was not reassigned to his unit. He became a floater, going from unit to unit where needed, including time in Nuremberg. The battle in Europe was coming to a close.

April 16, 1945 — Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.

May 7, 1945 — Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.

May 8, 1945 — V-E (Victory in Europe) Day

He remembers being in Englestad, Germany, when the H-bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

He finished his service doing guard duty at a seaport in Belgium. He left South Hampton, England, on the aircraft carrier the USS Enterprise.

 

A large storm at sea caused other sea vessels to turn back, but the Enterprise pushed on. Wilmert was on the top of bunks stacked three high. He could hear water pouring in and nonstop sloshing. "It was 10 days of misery," he said. The ship reverberated with long shudders every time a wave struck. He had seasickness the whole way. When they arrived at New York they found no light poles left on the deck. It had been swept clean. A hole the size of a jeep was torn in the hull.

On Christmas Eve 1945 he and his comrades enjoyed a steak dinner with all the trimmings at Camp Kilmore, N.J. New Year’s Day, 1946, two years from the day he stood in the post office holding his own draft notice, Wilmert arrived safely back home.

Today, Wilbur and Mildred have raised two children and still reside in Lincoln. Son, Dr. Jim Wilmert, is a local orthodontist, and daughter, Kaye Wilmert, is a nurse anesthetist.

Their son served five years in the military, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. A granddaughter is awaiting possible military orders to go to Iraq.

Not a trite man and able to see all the gifts he’s been given in life, Wilmert wonders what it is that he is still here to say or do for others. He couldn’t be reached for an interview several days this last week, as he was over helping his son with some broken plumbing.

 

In telling it, Wilmert says he doesn’t have much of a story. But on this day he has a story that represents all those that we want to honor for their time and willingness to serve our country. Whether they were involved in heroic acts or not, their selflessness shown in willingness to protect our nation is what gives this country our strength. We would not be the greatest country on earth without them. We thank all those that have served in the armed forces of the United States.

[Jan Youngquist]

A timeline of World War II can be found at http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/
timeline/ww2time.htm#bulge
.

The battle of Bastogne is documented with pictures at http://www.historyplace.com/
worldwar2/timeline/bastogne.htm
.

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