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Wisconsin Veterans Museum

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The Wisconsin Veterans Museum invites you to learn the stories of our veterans. Feel free to post comments, links, pictures, video, etc.
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10/28/2026

This silver ladder badge belonged to Civil War veteran Herman Bohn. Bohn was born in Germany and moved to Wisconsin with his family in 1851, settling on a farm in Dane County.

He enlisted in Company F, 9th Wisconsin Infantry for service during the Civil War. The 9th Wisconsin Infantry, also known as the German Regiment, was comprised primarily of German immigrants and was mustered into service at Camp Sigel in Milwaukee on October 26, 1861. The 9th Wisconsin served most of the war in Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. Following service, veterans often wore personalized badges like this one to big events and reunions as they helped to easily identify one another and the company and regiment in which they served.

10/27/2026

Have you ever wondered why we celebrate both the US Navy’s birthday and Navy Day?

Navy Day was established on October 27, 1922, by the Navy League of the United States. This unique expression of appreciation for our naval forces originated with a shift in military strategy that would forever change the United States’ approach to warfare on the water.

Following the First World War, the navy’s fleet was set to undergo major modernization efforts. At the same time, it faced defense budget cuts and increased competition for funds between expanded air and ground forces. Perspectives continued to shift away from the navy’s direct funding interests with the 1921-22 Washington Naval Conference, where leaders from around the globe gathered to discuss naval disarmament.

The Atlantic Bombing Tests carried out in the summer of 1921 were the first definitive evaluation of live aerial bombs on battleship, cruiser, and submarine targets. General Billy Mitchell of Wisconsin was instrumental in organizing and overseeing this effort, which proved a massive success for proponents of airpower. Navy admirals wept at the sight of the target battleship Ostfriesland, smoking and broken from air bombardment as it slipped beneath the waves.

As aviation continued to advance, battleships would no longer reign supreme. However, naval power did remain an integral part of the United States’ military might. Celebration of Navy Day began a year after the tests and conference to emphasize the Navy’s enduring value and vast capabilities.

10/26/2026

Today we commemorate National Day of the Deployed: a day that honors all service members deployed overseas and their families back here at home, and hopes to bring awareness to the reality of what being deployed and away from home really means.

In his oral history about his deployments to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, Jeff Carnes of Jefferson, Wisconsin, shared his feelings of what it was like for him and his family and how meaningful it was to just have a chance to let them know he was safe.

“They knew it was just a matter of time before we were going to leave. My family was a bit upset but—especially since my grandfather passed away right before I left. So fortunately I was home on leave and got to go to the funeral. I didn't talk to them for almost a month, they had no idea where I was. We didn't have internet, we didn't have satellite phones, anything. So when I was finally able to get through to my family it was a very emotional experience for myself as well. That was the only time anyone ever - in the military - saw me cry. And it was—and, so at least everyone knew I was safe.”

You can watch more of Jeff Carnes’ oral history interview here: https://wisvetsmuseum.com/jeff-carnes-veteran-in-the-spotlight/

10/24/2026

Today is United Nations Day!

This day commemorates the U.N. and its mission to maintain international peace and security across the world.

At the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, we carry the stories of U.N. operations from all across the globe. The featured badges, beret, helmet, and miniature flag below are just the tip of the iceberg.

Come into our museum to see the complete depth of our collections.

10/23/2026

If you’re a Milwaukee Brewers fan, and who wouldn’t want to be these days, you know who Bob Uecker is. “Mr. Baseball” called games for his hometown team for 54 years. His hall-of-fame broadcasting career followed a less-than-stellar career as a catcher, first with minor league teams of the Milwaukee Braves, and later in the majors with Milwaukee, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Atlanta before retiring in 1967.
More relevant to this page, did you know Bob Uecker was also a veteran of the U.S. Army? After high school, Uecker enlisted in 1954 and played baseball at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and Fort Belvoir in Virginia. He attained the rank of corporal before separating after two years. Not much else is publicly known about his service.
What many of us around the museum do know is that Ueck likely will be cheering on his hometown team from that press box in the sky. Here’s to our future World Series Champion Milwaukee Brewers! Good luck, fellas! ⚾

📷 Public Domain - Milwaukee Braves catcher Bob Uecker in a 1962 issue of Baseball Digest. Unknown author - Baseball Digest, page 69, March 1962.

10/21/2026

Dennis Wagner, of Middleton Wisconsin, carried this knife while serving as a platoon leader in Company C, 2nd Infantry Battalion, 1st Infantry. Wagner completed basic training in 1967, jungle school in Panama shortly thereafter, and then deployed to Vietnam in Spring 1969. His platoon was active in patrols in the countryside between Chu Lai and Danang throughout his two-year deployment and took place in a large-scale firefight to relieve a company that had been surrounded and overrun in an ambush. In his oral history, Wagner recalls:

“We went in to relieve them, and we got in because we took the right route, and then we got essentially in the center of this thing, and we were trapped with them. Then they evacuated them and left us, and then we were hit the next night…”

Wagner was hit and wounded by small arms fire during the engagement. For his actions, he was awarded the Silver Star, as well as the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross, a South-Vietnamese award.

This knife is an early production model of the Ge**er MkII. It was designed to resemble the Roman gladius in appearance and function. The blade is characteristically canted 5° off-center from the handle to aid in carrying comfort and combat efficacy. This design choice was abandoned as users often mistook their knives for being bent and returned them as defective.

10/20/2026

On October 20, 2011, Muammar Gaddafi was killed, ending his 42-year rule of Libya. But the story of his downfall at the hand of the U.S. military began decades earlier.

In August 1981, sailors aboard the USS Biddle sailed into the Gulf of Sidra, waters Gaddafi had unilaterally claimed as his own "Line of Death." One of these sailors was David Homan Jr., a Racine, WI native.

Working below deck in the engine room, Homan later described the tension: "Everybody’s serious. There ain’t no more clowning around"

When Libyan jets fired on U.S. F-14 Tomcats launched from the USS Nimitz, the Tomcats shot both down. In Homan's oral history, he described how the altercation "embarrassed the daylights out of Gaddafi."

Thirty years later, on this day, Gaddafi finally fell.

Photos include Mummar Gaddafi and David Homan's sew-on patch from his time in Libya.

10/18/2026

For German-American Heritage Month, we’re highlighting the story of Albert Herman Gundlach, a Madison, Wisconsin, veteran and the son of German immigrants.

Born in Madison in 1894, Gundlach enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard on his 21st birthday. He served with Company G, 1st Wisconsin Infantry during the Mexican Expedition in 1916 before returning to Wisconsin and, soon after, being called to active duty for World War I. As part of the 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Division, Gundlach deployed to France in 1918. During his service he participated in the Alsace, Oise-Aisne, and Meuse-Argonne campaigns. He was slightly wounded during the fighting, later received a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, and continued serving through the end of the war and occupation duty.

But the collection he left behind reminds us that a veteran’s story is about more than military service. It is also about family, community, identity, and the places we call home. Preserved in the Wisconsin Veterans Museum collection are letters, photographs, postcards, and a pictorial history of the 32nd Division. Among them are photographs of Gundlach at camp, a hand-colored portrait, an image of him with his company, and a panorama of Company G, 1st Wisconsin Infantry.

Gundlach returned to Wisconsin in May 1919, was discharged on May 29, and eventually settled in the Madison area, where he worked for the State of Wisconsin.

More than a century later, these photographs and papers remain.

They invite us to consider the many ways people can carry more than one history with them and how the stories of immigrants, their children, and their service become part of the larger story of Wisconsin.

Every Veteran is a Story.

10/18/2026

Some anniversaries are very personal to the veteran. Twenty years ago, Geraldine Laskey of Holmen, a medical officer, earned a Combat Action Badge outside of Mosul, Iraq. It was very early in her deployment, when her hospital unit was in the process of taking over for another hospital on its way home.

Laskey recently completed an oral history about her time in Mosul. She described that happened that day: “My assistant and I, we were standing outside the DFAC dining facility, and then all of a sudden a mortar hits right behind the facility, big plume of dust. And then another one, and it didn't take, the first one, we're all scrambling, the commander's right in front of us with his command sergeant major, right in front of us, and we all push to get inside the facility and you know, I'm not trying to be funny but my thinking is if it's going to hit us, it's gonna hit us. So . . . we go inside and everybody's hiding under tables and everything and I'm standing with my assistant and nobody's serving anything, of course, they're all ducking under and so I just said to my assistant, well, you want to go to the salad bar? And we did. I mean, if you're going to get hit, you're gonna get hit. So we go over there get a salad and then we sit down on the floor and just as we sit down my pager goes off and it says wounded are coming in . . . I just jumped up and was running. The commander and sergeant major were running in front of me, but there was gunfire. We were hearing gunfire all around us. And we got back, and one of the people were still there. We hadn't done the crossover yet, but we were taken over, so they were still and one of their members did get injured. But none of our in our unit did. . . . I feel guilty for getting the combat action badge because not everybody in our unit got it, and I found that extremely unfair because we got mortared more times. There were many times where there was gunshots being fired, and I don't think that only certain people should get it, especially we weren't injured. I mean, we didn't even shoot back.”

(Image from WVM. Laskey is 2d from right in the front row.)

Address

30 W Mifflin Street
Madison, WI
53703

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm
Saturday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+16082249653

Website

https://wisvetsmuseum.com/

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