Medal of Honor Recipient Ken Stumpf Will Always Be Remembered

Kenneth E. Stumpf was working the late shift at a Wisconsin printing factory in 1965, the year he turned 21, and the year he hoped that maybe — just maybe — he might be drafted to play professional baseball. When he wasn’t at the factory, Mr. Stumpf played for a team in Menasha that a scout had been eyeing for some time.

Mr. Stumpf was heading to bed after work, he recalled years later to the Hawaii Reporter, when he half-jokingly told his mother to wake him if any draft letters came in the mail. Not long after he had fallen asleep, his mother roused him. He had received a draft letter — not from a Major League Baseball team, but rather from the Selective Service. He had been drafted into the Army.

Mr. Stumpf volunteered to go to Vietnam, where his service would coincide with a massive buildup of U.S. troops and the height of fighting in the war. He received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, for his actions seven months into his first tour, when he rescued three wounded American soldiers and, under unremitting fire, led a successful assault on enemy bunkers in Quang Ngai province.

Mr. Stumpf returned for a second tour of duty in Vietnam, was wounded and then went back for a third, serving in the Army until his retirement in 1994 at the rank of sergeant major.

Mr. Stumpf died April 23 at his home in Tomah, Wis. He was 77 and had pancreatic cancer, according to his family.

(this is an excerpt from a Washington Post article)

Gold Star Spouse Day recognizes spouses of active duty Soldiers who are killed in action

April 5 is Gold Star Spouse Day. Nearly all active military, veterans, and military Civilians know what a Gold Star Spouse is. They are the wives and husbands of active duty men and women who have been killed in action.

We’ve all seen movies where a knock at the door by two uniformed service members brings with it the heart-rending news that no one wants to hear – the loss of a loved one in combat. But sadly, in the world in which we live, those traumatic encounters have happened and will continue to happen.

Annie Cox, from Davenport, Iowa, is one of those who has been through the enormous emotional upheaval that comes with the loss of someone, who she called “the love of her life.” Army Staff Sgt. Nathan “Nate” Cox was killed in action by a roadside bomb Sept. 20, 2008 in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was ten days shy of his 33rd birthday.

Annie keeps alive fond memories of her husband. “Nathan was a very easygoing man,” she said. “He loved to read, he loved to sit and talk to people, just sit and visit and see what the other person’s like. Nathan never met a stranger.”

When they married, Annie was already raising two teens, Jake and Nichole, from a previous marriage. Nathan and Annie had a child together, Sophie, who was not quite six years old when Nathan was killed.

“He was a real good dad. He was a good father to my older kids, and Sophie of course,” she said. “He was just a joy to be around.”

In 2008, Nathan, Annie and Sophie were living in military family housing at Fort Hood, Texas, as Jake and Nichole had moved on and were living their own lives. Nathan was deployed to Afghanistan in July, 2008. It was his second deployment, having already served in Iraq.

Annie, like many spouses of deployed Soldiers, had friends among the other Soldiers on the installation and their families. She had a job with an Army unit, the 303rd Intelligence Battalion, and was involved in numerous Army family support activities on base. While Soldiers, of course, were always a part of the neighborhood, they usually wore their day to day “utility” uniform, and rarely wore their dress green uniform.

On the day Nathan died, Annie said she was surprised to see two “green suiters” outside her home. A friend, whose husband was also deployed, was with Annie in her house when the two men knocked on the door and asked to come in. One of them was the Chaplain with the 303rd IB. Annie said she and her friend instantly knew something was terribly wrong, and her friend whisked Sophie away and took her to another friend’s house so she wouldn’t hear what Annie was about to hear.

“So, I let them say everything to me,” she said, “and then I immediately went into the mode of ‘I need to call Nate’s parents and let them know right now!’ I didn’t know they had a team already sent to them.”

After offering their condolences and answering questions, one of the officers said, “we probably need to tell Sophie.”

Annie and Nathan had to put down their dog Chloe just two weeks before he deployed, and when Sophie was told what had happened to her dad, Annie said, “she looked at me, confused, and she just said ‘is he in heaven with Chloe?’ I said ‘yes, he is in heaven with Chloe.’ She was two months from turning six, so it was a crazy time for her and her little girl mind to process all that.”

Annie said she herself was “numb” for the first few months, but fortunately was surrounded by family and friends who helped her get through it.

“It really didn’t sink all the way in. Even at Christmas that year, I wasn’t really sad because he wasn’t supposed to be home. In my mind, I had prepared. He wasn’t supposed to be here anyway because he was deployed.”

She said the next Christmas was tough “because he should’ve been there. Very tough. Thanksgiving’s not bad, but Christmas is really hard.”

There are other times of the year when the pain is especially acute.

“I know August 20th, what’s going to happen in a month, and we get to it, and I break down and cry, work through it, get through his birthday, and then in October I can breathe again.”

The pain also returns when she sees other Gold Star spouses, because she knows what they’re going through, and it brings back the searing emotions she experienced when she first heard of Nathan’s death.

“When your loved one is killed, as Nathan was, you have to pick up and go on. You have no choice. I think Gold Star spouses should be honored, because they’re the ones carrying the torches now.”

Annie said it’s hard if you haven’t been through it, because you don’t know what that family is feeling.

“It’s almost like we have PTSD from that day. And I know every time a Soldier doesn’t make it home how bad it hurts the family. I know the heartache and pain they’re going to live through.”

She said the Army and her “Army family” were very supportive and helpful, in particular her Casualty Assistance Officer, who gave advice and helped with navigating the bureaucracy, which can seem insurmountable to someone going through the hardship of losing a loved one.

Annie said we honor our service members and veterans for their sacrifice in defending America, and it’s only appropriate that those who pay the ultimate sacrifice receive special honors. She says it’s also important to recognize those who are left with the empty place inside because of that sacrifice.

“It’s forever sad, that side of my heart.”

Many don’t realize there are two different lapel pins given to family members in recognition of the death of a service member. One for family members of an active duty service member who died in combat, like Staff Sgt. Cox, and one for the family of an active duty service member who died, but not in combat. Both have a gold star in them, but the design is different, and, of course, so is the significance.

Annie said she’s had people who received the “other” Gold Star tell her that they would prefer the kind of Gold Star she was presented. Her reply? “You give me my husband back, and you can have my Gold Star.”

WISCONSIN NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIER DONATES KIDNEY TO SAVE A LIFE

https://ng.wi.gov/news/22026

Wisconsin Army National Guard Maj. Bill Barthen when he was a Captain in the organization. Barthen recently donated one of his kidneys to a stranger in need.  If intro/FB image not designated, this will be the default image

A few years ago Bill Barthen, a major in the Wisconsin Army National Guard, got involved in the Mankind Project, an organization that supports men to make a difference in the lives of others. Barthen met John Nemick, a spiritual leader with the organization. Nemick was going into kidney failure and was waiting for a transplant. He’d been on the list for years.

Barthen was inspired to offer Nemick his kidney after watching a friend go through the process of donating a kidney to someone else. Barthen committed his kidney to Nemick in October of 2020 and began the process with the UW Health Transplant Clinic in Madison.

Unfortunately, Nemick passed away in July of 2021.

“With John passing in July, that sent me into a process of trying to find out should I still do this?” Barthen said.

“John would want me to keep doing this and let somebody else live or not be on dialysis, whatever their luck might be with receiving a kidney, so I just said yeah, I’ll do it,” he continued.

Barthen continued the process as a non-directed donor, meaning he would not choose who received his kidney. After various interviews, lab tests, and medical exams, he was cleared to be a donor. He received the call that they found a match for his kidney while attending a course at the National Guard Professional Education Center in Arkansas.

On December 28, a nephrologist removed one of Barthen’s kidneys and sent it to California to be transplanted into the matched recipient.

“[There were] immediate tears when my doctor came in the next day and said your kidney made it to California,” Barthen said. “It’s been received well by the transplant, and you’ve just rescued someone from dialysis for the rest of their life.”

Bill Barthen, a competitor for Wisconsin National Guard, begins aggressivly during the 2020 Eastern/Central regional biathlon sprint race at Camp Ripley, Jan. 17 2020.

As Barthen began his journey to be a living donor, he had multiple in-depth conversations with his family, his girlfriend, and his employers. He worked closely with his supervisors within the Wisconsin National Guard for both his traditional part-time role as a member of the Command Maintenance Evaluation Team, and his full-time job working as a federal technician in the office of the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s deputy chief of staff for logistics. He received full support and the timing was right in both his personal life and in his military career.

“Each individual needs to look at that timing and be very open about it with a supervisor,” Barthen said. “Even though it’s a personal decision, it definitely has to be communicated because if there is a time that a service member is out of the office, definitely coordinate what that best time is.”

Barthen’s recovery in the hospital lasted longer than typical due to a complication. Still, he was able to continue on with his unit without missing a drill weekend with the support of his unit.

“I wasn’t able to drive for a while, so my supervisor, Lt. Col. Bart Droessler, actually came to my house to pick me up for drill weekend,” Barthen said. “We set that support system up before we even had that first drill so I was able to do my M-Day responsibilities without having to pass that off to somebody else while I was recovering.”

Barthen hopes that others will and consider being a donor. Within the military, there are policies and regulations that encourage and support service members who would like to be organ donors.

“I strongly urge people to look into it and consider it, and before dismissing it, ask questions,” Barthen said. “Ask somebody who’s in need and ask somebody who’s gone through the process to help make the decision. Don’t just jump out there and do it because there’s a lot to be sure of.”

He added that he thinks it’s an easy choice to make if you know and are connected to the person in need, such as a family member, a neighbor, or even someone you know through school or church.

“There’s only 100,000 people that need a kidney right now. To me, what that means is if every group of 10,000 in the United States could find one person willing to donate, we could eliminate that wait list,” Barthen said. “To think of that, our organization is just under 10,000. I don’t necessarily want to be the one. Maybe I’m the catalyst.”

WAICU Transfer Credit Update

The Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU) is pleased to share the WAICU Joint Commitment to Accept Student Military Transfer Credit, now available on WisconsinsPrivateColleges.org. The Joint Commitment details how seventeen participating WAICU member institutions award transfer credit to veterans for Basic Training, Advanced Training, and/or for Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) Subject Standardized Tests (DSSTs).

To answer questions you may have about the transfer credit opportunities, please contact either Rebecca Larson, WAICU senior vice president for advocacy (rebecca.larson@waicu.org or 608.204.5234) or Kathy Paul, WAICU project administrator (kathy.paul@waicu.org or 608.334.7965).

WisconsinsPrivateColleges.org/student-resources/veterans-wisconsins-private-colleges.