BY EMILY HEDGESCONTRIBUTING WRITER

New Brighton resident Sharon Olson is proud of her uncle, William Vsetecka, and his service during World War II.

He participated in the battle for Oki-nawa and the invasion of Iwo Jima, two of the most dramatic episodes of the war in the Pacifi c. Vsetecka served on the USS Bladen, a 426-foot-long attack transport. However, it was only after reading two poems written by an 18-year-old Vsetec-ka that described the events fi rsthand that Olson and her entire family truly realized the profound depth of his experience.

“When our grandfather died, another uncle came across these and sent them to me,” recalls Olson. “I’m in constant contact with my uncle who wrote these, and I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you pursue a writing career?’ He said he thought they weren’t good enough.”

Olson said that she and their entire fam-ily were impressed by the way he captured what he saw at such a young age.

“I thought, ‘Wow, my uncle is such a fantastic writer,” she said.

Vsetecka, a Minnesota native who now resides in Great Bend, Kansas, was serv-ing as a seaman in 1945 when he wrote the following, published with his permission.

Invasion of Iwo Jima

A murky morning, weary menBattle-scarred and grimRaising Old Glory on a barren rockSinging our national hymnThe battle for Iwo JimaIs over with and won.And the bulletin reads next morningThank you, Men, well done.But I’d like to tell folks back homeIf it isn’t against the lawSome of the things that happenedSome of the things I saw.I saw faces taut with anxious strainAnd some with an empty stare.I remember that horrible morning

Because, Brother, I was there.There were bodies strewn on that barren

rockAnd on the beaches, too.Yes! I remember it, BrotherAnd you’d better remember it too.If I live to be a thousandI’ll never forget that day.For we carried these kids overAnd we carried the wounded away.Yes, we carried those kids overKids as healthy as any you’d fi nd.And we brought a lot of them back againBroken in body and mind.I saw a lid with an arm shot offIt was lying by his side.And he placed that arm between his

kneesThere was a tear he tried to hide.And he plucked a ring from his lifeless

handAnd he looked up with a pleaAnd he asked, “Would you place this

wedding bandOn my other hand for me?”There was another lad and his mind was

gone.They said it was gone from shock.That was his meager donationFor the price of barren rock.I saw offi cers and men on the Bladen(That was the ship I was on)Doing everything in their powerFor the wounded we carried on.They offered their clothes, their smokes

and their bunks,They even offered blood.They did everything humanly possibleEverything that they could.And I saw the doctors and the corpsmenWorking with all their might.Trying to save the human lifeThat we brought aboard that night.Yes, we out here will rememberCome fi re, brimstone or fl ood,That every inch of the barren rockWas bought in American Blood.

William H. VseteckaFebruary 25, 1945

BY EMILY HEDGES B B th I th

A poem from Iwo Jima

Minnesota native William H. Vsetecka (inset) is now 87 years old. At 18, he served as a seaman on the USS Bladen in the Pacifi c theater of war, witnessing fi rsthand the battle for Okinawa and inva-sion of Iwo Jima. His niece Sharon Olson lives in New Brighton.

Page 2 Mature Lifestyles • Thursday May 16, 2013 mnsun.com

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mnsun.com Mature Lifestyles • Thursday, May 16, 2013 Page 3

BY EMILY HEDGESCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The sight of a UH-1 “Huey” transport helicopter picking up wounded soldiers and carrying them to safety is the quintes-sential image of the American experience in Vietnam.

For Mike Guilday, a semi-retired sales manager for Fridley’s Kapstone corruga-tor plant, this was a daily reality during his tour of duty. Out of high school, Guil-day had no plans for college. The Vietnam War was in full swing, and he knew ser-vice was inevitable. After a year working construction, he decided to pursue fl ight school for helicopters.

“I thought if I’m go-ing to go in, I might as well do something I’d like,” he said. “Flying helicopters sounded like something fun to do.”

He graduated from fl ight school in 1968 as a warrant offi cer and was sent to Viet-nam at the age of 20. He began fl ying ob-servation helicopters, but soon moved to the Huey. As the pilot, he was the aircraft commander in charge of the copilot and all the onboard troops.

“Anything you see in Vietnam, you al-ways see the Huey transport helicopter,” he said. “As pilot, you were the guy to keep them safe. It’s up to you to get them there in one piece.”

There were 17 pilots in Guilday’s unit. Five died during his tour.

“One is not much aware of your own mortality. I don’t ever recall thinking,

‘Geez, this is dangerous,’” said Guilday. “Sitting around drinking beer, you’d think, ‘Well, this guy might die, or that guy might die, but I’m not going to die.’”

Guilday says that you don’t know how long a year is until you’ve been in a war.

“We had a short-timer’s calendar. You’d look at it and know exactly how many days you had left. A year counted down day by day,” he said.

His year fi nally ended and he returned to the states to fi nish out his active duty training other pilots at Fort Walters in Texas. Once discharged, he used the GI Bill to earn a degree in animal science from the University of Minnesota.

He spent 21 years fl ying with the Min-nesota Army Reserves where he taught young pilots. However, he points out that you can only get so good

fl ying one weekend a month.“In Vietnam, we were damn good pilots

because we fl ew every day, no weekends or holidays off. Those controls became extensions of our arms, hands, and feet. We could make it do anything we want-ed,” he said.

For Guilday, his year in Vietnam wasn’t all bad. He refl ects on the camaraderie he experienced and the feeling of being good at what you do with fondness.

“I saw a lot of death and destruction, but overall, Vietnam was a positive expe-rience,” he said.

Contact Emily Hedges at Emily.hedg-es@ecm-inc.com.

Vietnam helicopter pilot fl ew iconic ‘Huey’ chopper

fl nwppc

This August 1969 photo ran with an article in Guilday’s hometown newspaper in Delavan, Wis. Mike Guilday, left, and his brother Jon meet in Vietnam.

A helicopter similar to the one Guilday fl ew in Vietnam is on display in front of the Bloomington VFW Post 1296.

Page 4 Mature Lifestyles • Thursday May 16, 2013 mnsun.com

BY EMILY HEDGESCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Family and friends of William “Doc” Wenmark refer to him as, “the myth, the man, the legend.”

When you hear his harrowing account of serving as a corpsman in Vietnam, you think that’s why, but that’s only part of what makes the Minnetonka resident un-forgettable. Petty Offi cer Wenmark served for six years (1966-1972) with the U.S. Navy, four in active duty and two in the reserves.

“I had a rich experience as a 20-year-old man during the troubling 1960s in Ameri-ca,” he said.

Shortly after joining in 1966, the young corpsman stationed in Washington D.C. had a unique assign-ment. Vice President Hubert Humphrey asked if there was a corpsman from Min-nesota available to attend him. Wenmark fi t the bill. During his time serving Hum-phrey, Wenmark spent many an evening watching “Bonanza” and “The Untouch-ables” with the VP. He also fl ew on Air Force Two to Minnesota, where he was able to introduce his family. Wenmark re-calls that his mother saw Humphrey at a campaign event two years later and he still remembered her name.

“When she told him I had just volun-teered to go to Vietnam, he told her to let him know if he could help me in any way,” said Wenmark.

His last year of active duty was spent in Vietnam serving with the First Marine Di-vision. A combat corpsman faced an aver-age life expectancy of three months. Wen-mark later earned the Navy Achievement Medal for exemplary service.

“I was able to use all my medical edu-cation to save many lives, but I also lost many others,” he said. “I live with their dying conversations as they pleaded with me to save them. I held them while they died, while doing everything I could.”

The fact that he survived Vietnam and 58,000 others didn’t is something Wen-mark doesn’t take lightly. He uses this knowledge to fuel his desire to make a difference in the world.

“That means God choose not to take me and therefore I am here to do some-thing every day with my life. My service set me up for who and what I have done with the 40-plus years since Vietnam,” he said.

Wenmark returned home to Minne-sota and immediately began to distin-

guish himself within the medical industry. He spent many years as a successful hospital administrator, policy writer and government advisor.

In 1983, he started the state’s fi rst ur-gent care facility, which grew into 28 medical practices. He says the minute he sold the business to Wells Fargo, he took off his watch and hasn’t worn one since.

He has participated in more than 100 marathons and trained an estimated 4,000 students to conquer the 26.2 mile challenge.

One of his students was his own moth-er, who ran the fi rst of many marathons at 73 years of age.

“I want to inspire people to keep living life and doing good things; to push and challenge themselves; to see the glass as half-full,” he said.

Contact Emily Hedges at Emily.hedg-es@ecm-inc.com.

Doc Wenmark completes 26.2 miles this past March in the Bataan Memorial Death March held each year in White Sands, N.M. The event commemorates the Bataan Death March during World War II. Inset: Wenmark in Vietnam.

Vietnam corpsman seeks to inspire, teach others

tHaaw

mnsun.com Mature Lifestyles • Thursday, May 16, 2013 Page 5

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Page 6 Mature Lifestyles • Thursday May 16, 2013 mnsun.com

BY EMILY HEDGESCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Myrna Kragness Kauth never thinks this is a man’s world.

Ever since she opted to pursue a mili-tary career instead of marriage after high school, the Brooklyn Center resident has tried to redefi ne the role of women and worked to leave the world better than she found it.

“All my friends were getting married. I wasn’t ready to do that,” she said. “When I got laid off from Honeywell, I decided to go into the military. I picked the Navy because it had the cutest uniform.”

Although both of her brothers were in the service, Kauth said her parents weren’t thrilled at her decision. However, she went through with her plans and was assigned as a teletype operator.

“In my class there were three women and 30 men,” she said. “The ratio is a lot higher now, but back then there weren’t a lot of us.”

Kauth was stationed at Naval Air Sta-tion North Island near San Diego in 1954. When she returned home in 1957, she be-gan a different life in service. She raised two sons and a daughter, all of whom have served in the m i l i t a r y . She joined the Ameri-can Legion, where she has volun-teered for the past 35 years, the last two as C o m m a n d e r. She fostered more than 50 children, mostly teenage girls, and served as Brooklyn Center’s fi rst female mayor.

Kauth said she never dreamed she’d be involved in politics. After she lost

her fi rst husband, the doc-tor suggested she get

involved in the com-munity. She volun-

teered with a lo-cal festival, and came to know a number of former city d i g n i t a r -ies through that.

“ T h e y suggested I run for the

city council. I kept putting

it off think-ing, ‘What do I

know?’” she said. “Finally they con-

vinced me and said, ‘Why don’t you run for mayor?’”

To her surprise, she won the election. During her time as mayor (1995 to 2006), Brooklyn Center saw its fi rst all-female city council.

“Since my experience as mayor, I want to encourage women to step up,” she said.

Kauth continues to stay involved in her community in a number of ways.

One is an initiative to fund construction of the Civic and Veterans Memorial Am-phitheater in honor of Brooklyn Center’s centennial.

The Buy A Brick Paver program allows residents to purchase a personalized, en-graved brick paver laid as part of the Plaza of Honor, located in an area around the amphitheater. For more information, go to the city website at www.ci.brooklyn-center.mn.us.

“It’s a permanent record left behind for generations to see the names of people im-portant to this community,” she said.

Contact Emily Hedges at Emily.hedges@ecm-inc.com.

Former mayor served as one of few women in 1950s U.S. Navy

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