International Operating Engineer - Summer 2016

Feature
THE ECHO OF 9/11 still is heard here, resonating against
the hilly pine forests and rippling across the serene lakes of
north-central Oneida County.
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, increasing
numbers of physically and emotionally scarred Wisconsin
veterans have signed up for a week of healing at the 300-acre
Camp American Legion. Many of these survivors fought in
the Wisconsin National Guard or in Army Reserve units. They
served multiple tours of duty. They witnessed friend, foe and
noncombatants maimed and killed.
As it has served since 1925, the facility is a place offered
free for weary servicemen and servicewomen to rest and
decompress. It’s a place to swim, fish, play yard games and
card games, to work at crafts, to try to rebuild the soul and
to begin to reconnect with spouses and children who are
welcome to stay with them in 21 lakeshore cabins.
Peace Mission
Apprentice Operators, most veterans themselves,
are tasked with clearing handicapped-accessible
forest trail at American Legion rehabilitation camp
Turning off Highway D, southwest of the main camp, the
Operating Engineers have built a handicapped-accessible
trail through 228 acres, owned by the Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources and leased by the American Legion.
The path follows an old logging trail, roughly 12 feet wide. It
winds for about a mile through the American Legion State
Forest adjacent to McGrath Lake. The paving surface is milled
asphalt, reclaimed this spring from the rebuilding of nearby
Highway 51.
Mathy Construction Co., Onalaska, supplied the milled
asphalt. James Peterson Sons Inc., Medford, donated trucking
services to haul the material from Highway 51 east to the
trail site. Case Construction Equipment, through its Miller-
Bradford & Risberg Inc. dealership in Sussex, furnished
two dozers, two excavators, a compact track loader, a wheel
loader, a compaction roller, an asphalt paver, and a motor
grader.
David Kurtz, American Legion state adjutant, describes
the trail as a symbolic path for veterans to follow in a manner
similar to that walked by the man for whom it is named – Local
139 member and Medal of Honor recipient Gary Wetzel.
“This is the trail ahead for younger veterans, following
Gary,” Kurtz said.
[right] Local 139 Apprentice Chase Freimark, a Marine Corps
veteran, runs a wheel loader to pile sand while creating a parking
lot on one end of the forest trail.
[article & photos] Dave Backmann, IUOE Local 139
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INTERNATIONAL OPERATING ENGINEER
SUMMER 2016 13