Hometown Heroes: POW MIA Recognition Day in Green Bay
GREEN BAY, WI (WFRV) – Community members are invited to join the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 224 at a ceremony outside the courthouse in Green Bay. They will start reading the names of Wisconsin's POWs and MIAs at 7 pm.
National POW-MIA Recognition Day is always the third Friday of September and is the direct result of the work of Vietnam Veterans and their advocates.
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The second recognition day is what's known as the Former POW Recognition Day, which came out of America's largest surrender in the Philippines in 1942.
Local 5's Hometown Heroe series opened the day by looking at several POW MIA stories specifically from Northeast Wisconsin.
"Any time we can give my uncle or past members of our armed services recognition I think it's well deserved," Kevin Conradt of Navarino told Local 5 News. His uncle was a Purple Heart recipient, Avery Wilber, who never spoke about his time as a POW during WWII. A bridge in Navarino is named after him and his awards and uniform are now on display at the town hall.
Army Veteran James Gilles of Waupaca recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Dozens of family members flew into Wisconsin for a huge picnic and celebration.
"How many battles did you fight, or what you did do? Not important," Gilles told Local 5 News. "Not as much as friends and family."
His humility belies the courage it took to survive the legendary Battle of the Bulge during WWII. He was wounded by shrapnel in the back and leg and fought until he ran out of ammunition and was a prisoner in Germany for several months.
"I spent time in boxcars, spent time walking with a brace on my right foot. I spent time seeing my friends being killed."
For 80 years, the family of Air Force Veteran Jack Hohlfeld waited for his return. He died just months after surviving the infamous Bataan Death March during WWII. His funeral in August of 2024 in Onalaska followed years of his family's persistence in testing remains in a shared grave in the Phillipines. "It was just an incredible feeling of relief," said family member Ron Graw. "The whole family just celebrated and cried."
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Authorities from the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency or DPAA had a major role in finally bringing closure to the case. They did the same for the family of Army Private Robert Skaar,18, from Lacrosse. His remains were only recently identified in Belgium. He paid the ultimate sacrifice in WWII. He will finally make it home to Wisconsin for a memorial in October.
That gives hope that the same can happen for Sgt Richard J. Hentza. The U.S. Army MIA from the Vietnam War is still unaccounted for. The only remaining MIA from Winnebago County. A bench at Mensahs'a Isle of Valor sits in his honor.
